Friday, January 29, 2010

Another inconvenient truth / Immigrants, the work ethic and nativist myth

A good piece talking about the immigrant work ethic and how important they are to our country. - - Donna Poisl

Union-Tribune Editorial

Nativist lore has it that immigrants only come to the United States for the handouts. Supposedly, whether they arrive legally or illegally, their chief ambition is to simply collect welfare, milk social services and otherwise sponge off America’s generosity. For more than 200 years, the narrative has been that newcomers are constantly taking, using and consuming without giving back to the country that received them.

That is just not so. In fact, it is a malicious lie that is often used to justify all sorts of mistreatment of immigrants. For one thing, who has time to take advantage of the system? According to most studies, and lots of anecdotal evidence all around us, many immigrants are too busy working, starting their own businesses and employing others to stand in line and collect benefits. Talk about an inconvenient truth.
Click on the headline to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

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