In the U.S., undocumented immigrants have very little power to do anything about their situation when they arrive. They come from Mexico, Guatemala and other Central American countries as well as Canada, Europe and Asian countries.
The focus on people of Mexico and Central America has been a topic of much political debate due to the vast quantity of these people called “illegals” by Fox News, the “workers” by many and "illegal aliens" by our government.
Besides the discrimination they face because of their ethnic background, many factors in our society bring undocumented immigrants into an exploited workforce, a place that is very difficult to get out of without receiving documentation first.
The majority of undocumented immigrants are pushed away from their home countries due to violence, war and many other factors. They seek a better life in the U.S., but can they ever receive it?
Without documentation, the immigrants tend to struggle to get out of low paying jobs, receive healthcare and take care of their family.
Undocumented immigrants need to have official citizenship in order to become an equal citizen of the U.S., even though there are steps being taken to improve their situation.
Throughout all the activism and fighting for rights, there are still many factors that leave this group in their lower class. One factor that they have faced throughout their life in the U.S. is the reliance on undocumented workers to do laborious work.
Undocumented immigrants are people who work service jobs, such as the cooks at restaurants, harvesting crops, factory work and doing landscaping. They basically do the jobs no one else wants because that is what they can get without documentation.
This is work many people would never do in any situation. The service industry is full of undocumented immigrants who are stuck in a perpetual hole in which they do not have enough money or time to go to school or find a better opportunity to move up in life.
Many businesses will rely on this exploited workforce and would not want to lose the cheap labor force. People in power will try to continue to keep employees in the same hole in order to improve their own business. If an employer can pay someone less than another person to do the same exact job just as efficiently or even better, why would they not hire them?
Also, because of having no citizenship, undocumented workers do not qualify for labor unions. An employer could work immigrants for as long as he needs, so undocumented workers could work very long hours if needed. Because they are paid less than the average employee, it can be very hard for undocumented immigrants to move out and away from being a part of the exploited labor force.
This is further justified because the employer can pay them less than minimum wage. America has become so dependent on this labor; it would be very difficult to replace the labor force that is created by undocumented immigrants.
If all of the undocumented immigrants disappeared, who would take their spots in the service industry? Certainly, many people would deny the notion that all the unemployed people of the U.S. would immediately take the low paying, laborious jobs of undocumented immigrants.
It is a strange concept to hear about; there are people among us who look like us but are not like us in the eyes of the government because they do not have a documentation to say they are a citizen of the U.S.
Undocumented immigrants are our cooks, they are mowing our lawns, they are harvesting our food and they are working hard to give their families a better life.
