Low-Skilled Immigrants Summary

Immigrant Struggles impair the Ability to Achieve the American Dream
For centuries, citizens from around the world have arrived on American shores with little more than a suitcase and a dream of a better life. For the most part immigrants have great resilience and dedication for their work but it is becoming worth nothing because everyday our economy requires more high skilled jobs that they cannot participate in. Language barriers and immigrant struggles make it difficult for immigrants to achieve the American Dream. Many factors play a role in achieving the American Dream. Amy tan speaks about her mother’s language barriers in “Mother Tongue”. She explains how communication in a new country can be difficult and sometimes there is no respect

The author of the article “Low-Skilled Immigrants and the Changing American Labor Market” writes, “The occupations that are growing involve contact with the public. Immigrants lack of English fluency very low levels of education, and at times lack of legal documentation hinder their ability to occupy these positions” (Low-Skilled Immigrants and the Changing American Labor Market). With this statement, the author is foreseeing that most of future jobs will require the knowledge of fluent English because communication will be necessary to be in contact with the public. This relates to my thesis because this is one of the many struggles that immigrants are facing today. Their language barriers affect their ability to get a job. The article also states that “Interviews with employers indicate that they rank immigrant workers above African Americans. While employers tend to give productivity-related reasons for this ranking, many of the attributes described by employers are consistent with stereotypical views that favor immigrants and handicap African Americans” (Low-Skilled Immigrants and the Changing American Labor Market). This proves that some employers discriminate against races when they are considering an employee. Interviews with employers have shown that most of them prefer immigrant workers rather than African American workers; they say it is for productivity-related reasons. No

The author of the article “Low-Skilled Immigrants and the Changing American Labor Market” writes, “…many of the occupations in which immigrants are concentrated are not expanding. Agricultural jobs of the type immigrants perform are expected to decline by 10 percent because of mechanization” (Low-Skilled Immigrants and the Changing American Labor Market). This is an example of another struggle that immigrants are facing because technology and modern day advances are taking away the need for employees. Computers now have the potential to do the same tasks as the employee therefore causing the increase in unemployment. The author also writes that “Operator, laborer, and fabricator jobs in which immigrants are most concentrated are expected to decline by anywhere from 10 percent in machine setter jobs to 20 percent in textile operator jobs. A decrease of one-third in private household employment is expected” (Low-Skilled Immigrants and the Changing American Labor Market). Technology is affecting areas of work such as operators, laborers, fabricators, and household employment. Robots or Machines are doing these jobs and producing twice as fast as any person they could possibly hire. It is a profit for the employer but not for the employees that are left without a