Two interesting ideas stuck out at me from this reading. The first is how Foner does not make undocumented immigrants a larger issue in the job market and the unemployment rates of native-born blacks and Hispanics.  The fact that immigrants depend on employers who do not check documents carefully, which therefore eliminates jobs in government and big firms and leaves only low paying jobs, is not what’s important.  What should be emphasized is that while undocumented immigrants fear deportation, their employers can actually capitalize on that fear and exploit the workers, because they do not have legal protection.

The outcome of exploiting benefits both the employer and the employees. The employer is able to maintain the cheapest price for labor, which is usually the biggest expensive, while the employees are still making more money than they made in their native country. Regardless of whether it comes with the “territory (pg. 102),” exploitation is still better than deportation.  There is no way that the native-born blacks and Hispanics could compete with such low wages.  Foner does mention how immigrants bring wages down, but she does not specifically mention undocumented immigrants. They are the biggest problem, because they reduce wages the most. In fact, while most native-born blacks and Hispanics were not willing to work for such low wages, even if they were willing, it would never happen because employers would have to pay minimum wage, for fear of legal consequences.  A possible solution to this problem would be to document the immigrants, but even then, for all the reasons Foner pointed out, even documented immigrants lower wages beyond what native-born blacks and Hispanics are willing to accept.

The bigger problem and the other thing that I noticed while reading this chapter was: “Low-skilled, poorly educated native-born blacks and Hispanics have borne the brunt of the negative impact of immigration…(pg. 106).” Why are both these groups still struggling in America? Foner presents very interesting reasons for why the native-born blacks and Hispanics were pushed out, but why do they still have those low paying jobs?  Both groups have been in America for a long time. Shouldn’t they have moved up the job ladder by now to higher paying jobs? It seems, that before the undocumented immigrants become documented, the needs of American citizens should be taken care of.   One of their needs is education.  According to Foner’s statistics, even among both foreign born and natives without high school diplomas, the foreign born are still earning more money.  However, also according to Foner’s statistics, native-borns with college degrees earn more than those foreign born with college degrees.  Therefore, to avoid being outbid by immigrants for the lowest paid jobs in society, education for all American citizens is crucial. If this means opening up new schools, hiring new teachers, or buying new books, this should be a priority.  If educated, the hope is that one can obtain a more prestigious, and therefore better paying job and not have to worry about losing a job to new immigrant arrivals.