{"id":497,"date":"2011-06-19T22:25:43","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T03:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/?p=497"},"modified":"2011-06-21T02:19:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-21T07:19:40","slug":"%e2%80%9cgive-me-your-tired-your-poor-your-huddled-masses-yearning-to-breathe-free%e2%80%a6%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/?p=497","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGive me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free\u2026\u201d \u2013 NOT!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have acquaintances who ask why the United States is accepting refugees from the Burma struggle, particularly when we are in a recession \u00a0 Why do we give them our jobs? I explain\u00a0that\u00a0this is an act of mercy \u2013 many of them will likely die if we don\u2019t do something now.\u00a0 There is an age gap among these refugees \u2013 males in the 35 and up range are often missing. Many are dead (including our friend Meh Sha Lin\u2019s father), and not by natural causes. Roosevelt said that he couldn\u2019t accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in the 30\u2019s because the people wouldn\u2019t stand for it during the depression. Americans preferred that they stay in Germany and suffer\/die from Nazi racism and persecution. Let\u2019s hope \u201cthe people\u201d (or at least some of them) have learned something from this.<\/p>\n

Refugees usually arrive with no resources, no marketable \u00a0skills, and no contacts in this country. They receive basic financial support and services for six months. A fine gift? \u00a0Hardly. In fact many, including Fran, believe they many of these refugees would be better off staying in Thailand and exposing themselves to possible death there, in preference to exposing themselves to death, hunger and abuse in the United States.<\/p>\n

They try to support themselves with jobs, and many find jobs. As Reagan once said while traveling with a group of news people \u201cLook, who says there are no jobs\u201d while pointing out a \u201cHelp Wanted\u201d sign at a MacDonald\u2019s. There are jobs, but Americans won\u2019t take those<\/em> jobs to support themselves, and so they go to refugees who have no other options.<\/p>\n

Here are some typical jobs for refugees in the Philadelphia area:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Seed packaging. A seed company employs workers who arrive by van to pack seeds. The amount of work is varies with the season.This work doubtless could be mechanized, but old-Philadelphia Burpee has kept traditional. In any case, machinery would require a large cash investment and Burpee would need to acquire a capacity adequate to meet peak demand. Instead, they have a large work force available, and if you don\u2019t show up for work two days without a medical document verifying your incapacity, you don\u2019t return at all. With a medical excuse, you might be able to return after a week, maybe not.<\/li>\n
  2. Salad packaging. This work is done in a cold room kept at 33 degrees. Everyone wears coats and gloves while mixing and packing fresh salad ingredients.\u00a0 You are on your feet, and you get cold. But that\u2019s the job \u2013 take it or leave it.<\/li>\n
  3. Chicken factory. You receive freshly-killed chickens on a moving conveyer belt. \u00a0You\u2019ve got to cut things up efficiently and quickly. At times there is a dangerous mix of fecal material, antibiotics, and sharp instruments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Do any Americans think their jobs are being taken by refugees? If so, you\u2019d be first to be hired for any of the jobs mentioned above, but there don\u2019t seem to be any Americans applying for these jobs or willing to expend the effort required to keep these jobs.<\/p>\n

    Some plum jobs are cleaning up and handling medical waste in hospitals. Those go to folks with some education and English-speaking abilities. Any Americans willing to do the work are invited to apply, and I\u2019m sure they would be first hired.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have acquaintances who ask why the United States is accepting refugees from the Burma struggle, particularly when we are in a recession \u00a0 Why do we give them our jobs? I explain\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-peace","category-politics","category-religion","category-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}