Immigration on NPR: Why Do We Have Jobs That Citizens Don't Want to Do?

NPR had a segment this morning in which it interviewed an immigrant woman who faced deportation after being arrested for working without proper documentation. She explained that she had a dangerous job that U.S. citizens don't want to do. It would have been interesting to raise the obvious question in this context, "why do we have jobs that U.S. citizens don't want to do?" Most dangerous jobs can be made safe with a bit more investment. Some simply don't have to be done -- we can get by without them. Many of the jobs that U.S. citizens don't want to do are simply jobs U.S. citizens don't want to do at the wages that employers want to pay. Rather than accomodating the employers with a workforce willing to work for lower wages, we can accomodate the employees with higher pay. In a country where most people get the vast majority of their income from their wages, there is a real contradiction between wanting to see everyone with a decent standard of living while at the same time constantly finding new immigrant workers to fill jobs that U.S. citizens don't want to do. As countries get richer, some jobs disappear because people don't want to do them at the wage employers are willing to pay. That is a natural process of economic growth.

--Dean Baker