A5 Blog 2

I did my Assignment 5 paper on the issue of immigration. What I discussed in my paper was a use of LACK of critical reasoning and lack of research on the topic of immigration. Americans often jump to conclusions and accuse illegal immigrants of taking millions of jobs away from American citizens. The lack of critical thinking on this issue is illustrated by this summer’s “Take Our Jobs” program, sponsored by the United Farm Workers union. In Union President Arturo Rodriguez’s announcement of the campaign, he claimed that farm workers do the work that most Americans are not willing to do. One may argue that that thought is a stereotype, and the millions of desperate Americans would jump at the opportunity to have a job, but interestingly enough this was certainly not the case. At least 500,000 applicants would be necessary to replace the current immigrant workforce in America, so the organization posted an application online for citizens who wanted to work on the farms. Through the website (www.takeourjobs.org), they promised to connect applicants with farm jobs near their area. Between June 24 and July 10, 2010, only 4,000 people responded, and the majority was “hate mail.” According to Rodriguez, only a few dozen have really followed through with the process. This was at a time when the unemployment rate in the United States was high (9.5%). It is quite disturbing that only a few dozen people truly were interested in following through with these job opportunities when there were over 500,000 jobs available. This organization really proved that in certain cases, undocumented immigrants are necessary for our economy to survive. It “is” true that the citizens of our country certainly are not willing to do these jobs, so we need to look elsewhere.