Immigrant Labor and the Myth of Lost American Jobs
A tall tale
Image by Gemini AI
I’ve been hearing the arguments about immigrant labor robbing American workers of millions of jobs for some years now and I’m still trying to figure out which jobs they’re referring to.
The subject has heated up a great deal over the last election cycle but as politicians are loath to get into specifics about such things, I often have to rely on my own observations and research to get to the truth.
The good news is that I spent the last 18 years of my work life in the plumbing trade and about two years in my early days as a house painter, so I have a pretty good idea of which people show up at the job sites.
Immigrants.
But let’s start with the plumbing trade and unpack this a little further
Since I’ve lived and worked in California for the last 40+ years, most of my experience is based in that state. But I spent a considerable amount of time working with offices in Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and Nevada, so my experience extends at least that far.
From the above I can tell you that about 75% of all licensed plumbers that I met were Americans. And by that, I mean, they passed the “look and sound” test of what an American looks like.
I know that’s a pretty broad and general slice of Americana but it’s difficult to break this down any further, without getting a glimpse of anyone’s birth certificate.
But throughout the years, over a cup of coffee or standing in the yard talking with them, I had a lot of conversations, and I’m convinced the majority of these people had grandparents that weren’t born in the U.S.
So, technically, I guess they were immigrants twice removed. Not unlike me, since all four of my grandparents were born in Italy.
My point here being that these licensed plumbers were generally white, generally men, generally spoke English (some with accents) and all were American citizens to my knowledge.
And based on what I observed, about 95% of those employed by these plumbers, that is, those that ran pipe in hot attics in Vegas, dug trenches for drain lines under houses. Tore down drywall to get at interior piping and then installed new drywall over the repaired areas, were immigrants.
The majority of them from Latin America. More specifically, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and so on.
All of them spoke Spanish and maybe 30-40% spoke English as well.
Most had been in the United States for 5 to 25 years, doing that kind of work. Getting referred by a brother or cousin, or showing up as a day laborer and working their way onto a crew. Some had been here all their lives, born to immigrant parents.
They were hard working, fast, disciplined and motivated.
And if I look back at the past 18 years, peel away any of the fog caused by long hours in strange cities as best I can, I can state with a fair degree of accuracy that maybe 2-5% of all the workers I saw were white Americans.
Now, some of the plumbing contractors I worked with had crews that were with them for years, others had a change of personnel on a regular basis. What percentage of the new crew members coming on year after year were also immigrants? The same 95%.
So, where were the other Americans who were clamoring for these positions but were being denied them because of the immigrants? Honestly, I didn’t see this.
I was not privy to what went on inside their offices or how they handled their personnel matters though – not my job.
The percentages I’m using are based on visual observations over months and years. Seeing them in January, May, and December, and seeing that consistent make-up of every crew.
The general understanding I got from listening to the contractors was that these were the guys who kept showing up.
Now after plumbing, I worked alongside general construction crews, roofers, HVAC companies, landscapers and others.
What was the makeup of their crews? That depended on the license. Roofers, about the same as plumbers, 95% immigrants. HVAC, much lower, maybe 30%. Landscapers 99%. Gardeners 99%. General contractors varied, depending on the specialty of work performed, but a safe bet is 50-60%, probably more.
The politicians use large numbers like millions to impress and scare their listeners. Losing 10,000 jobs to immigrants doesn’t move the needle. Two-three-four million does.
But for these immigrants to be taking jobs away from Americans, there would have to be two-three-four million Americans lining up and being denied those jobs because they were already taken.
I didn’t see that.
I’m not saying it never happened. But when year after year, the tough, dirty jobs in plumbing, roofing, landscaping, road paving, farm working, restaurants work, and others kept being held by immigrants, did this mean they held a monopoly on these tough, dirty, back-breaking jobs, keeping everyone else away?
Or did it mean no one else was showing up for them?
Since my recollection of the trades goes back to 1985, I haven’t seen what some politicians and the current administration are claiming. I rarely saw white Americans standing outside Dunn Edwards paint stores at 6 am or outside Home Depot looking for work. But I saw plenty of white contractors buying material and filling their trucks with day labor.
I’d just like to know where those Americans are, that’s all.
Note: Some of those that I worked with over the years, who were licensed contractors or skilled plumbers, roofers, electricians, had the same familial roots as those who were classified as immigrants. Meaning their parents or grandparents came from the same places. But then that same thing applies to lots and lots of other Americans too, doesn’t it?