The Right to Crab

"We're kind of dead in the water without those workers. We can't even reopen," said Harry Phillips, owner of Russell Hall Seafood on Hooper's Island.

That's from a Baltimore Sun story detailing the only real effect of arbitrary limits on visas for immigrants who do seasonal work such as processing seafood in Maryland is to shut down American businesses. Which is just great.

Whole story here. Full disclosure: The story is co-written by Rona Kobell, wife of Reason Managing Editor Jesse Walker.

The story illustrates something Glenn Garvin wrote about in Reason some years back: That many of the jobs performed by immigrants just won't get done by native-born Americans. That story here.

Comments

[Jason Ligon]

"That many of the jobs performed by immigrants just won't get done by native-born Americans."

Clarification: They won't get done in large part because it is illegal to do them. No job could possibly be worth less than minimum wage, right?

[Rhywun]

The workers remain loyal, he said, because they earn good money - up to $200 a day for the fastest crab pickers

Gee, that sounds like good pay to me. No Americans want these jobs? Really??

[R C Dean]

No Americans want these jobs? Really??

That's what the man trying to hire people to keep his business open says.

[thoreau]

Paging the White Angle Saxon Protestant Bachelor!
Paging the White Angle Saxon Protestant Bachelor!

Please explain to us how this is in our national interest.

[Gary Gunnels]

Rhywun,

Most Americans aren't willing to get involved in such work. Crabbing is difficult, physically-draining, nasty, etc. work. I've worked in crab shops before. It ain't easy.

[Gary Gunnels]

Rhywun,

For example, when are picking the meat out of the crabs they generally right out of the pot; it burns the hell out of your hands.

[whaa]

somethin tells me Harry missed labor markets 101.

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

Nick/Someone:

How about an entry on this:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7372941

[Ayn_Randian]

Does Lonewacko like seafood? I sure hope not, I'm sure he'll go on and on how American-raised fried chicken is superior to that immigrant-processed lobster we all love to indulge in.

[Gary Gunnels]

Ayn Randian,

The chicken industry relies heavily on immigrant labor - from sexing to processing them after death.

[Stevo Darkly]

This is a chance to post an idea I've been mulling over.

Hispanic comedian John Leguizamo once said something like this (in character as an illegal immigrant):

"What if we stopped working for you and didn't clean your offices and hotels no more? Then we wouldn't have jobs and we'd be poor. But we're used to that. But you -- you'd all be dirty!"

Do we need our illegals more than they need us?

Suppose all the illegal immigrants from south of the border suddenly and without warning failed to show up for work one day? And none could be found to replacements them. What would be the impact on our country? Would the economy grind to a halt?

That is the premise for my 2-million-word novel-in-progress,which I call: Aztlan Shrugged.

I've got as far as trying to decide what the first sentence should be. Either:

"Who is John Leguizamo?"

or

"No one expected the Hispanic indisposition!"

[Jobs for South Asia Coalition]

Crabbing sounds like a perfect fit for guest workers from maritime countries such as Indonesia or Thailand. Many of those affected by the tsunami are in fact fishermen, and by bringing hundreds of thousands to the U.S. we could help them and help our economy at the same time.

See the Jobs for South Asia Coalition for more information on our proposals regarding South Asian guestworkers.

Our founding statement is here.

Contact us if you'd like to volunteer to help us implement our proposals.

[thoreau]

The chicken industry relies heavily on immigrant labor - from sexing to...

Gary, do me a favor and don't elaborate on this point! 😉

Aztlan Shrugged?

Who is Juan Galtioso?

I will stop the lawnmower of the world!

[The Lonewacko Blog]

Suppose all the illegal immigrants from south of the border suddenly and without warning failed to show up for work one day? And none could be found to replacements them. What would be the impact on our country? Would the economy grind to a halt?

Because of the lack of illegal aliens, Mainers (for instance) just sit around all day collecting welfare checks. Their lawns are all unmowed and babes unwiped. Some of them have even been reduced to eating tree bark because of the lack of illegal aliens.

But seriously, they're Just Here To Do The Jobs Americans Won't Do.*

* At the given wage and safety conditions.

"Libertarianism: because it sounds vaguely like 'liberty'"

[Ken Shultz]

"Because of the lack of illegal aliens, Mainers (for instance) just sit around all day collecting welfare checks."

They're actually called "Watermen" on the Chesapeke Bay, and I've never heard of any of them collecting welfare checks--can you produce some evidence to show that this is what they do?

"Their lawns are all unmowed and babes unwiped. Some of them have even been reduced to eating tree bark because of the lack of illegal aliens."

...and here I thought that was just the lowly anti-immigrant lobby.

"But seriously, they're Just Here To Do The Jobs Americans Won't Do."

If there were fewer immigrants, out of curiosity, do you think there would be more Americans picking Avocados for a living? Do you think it would be a good thing if more Americans went back to careers in farm labor?

[The Lonewacko Blog]

A movie with that plot was already made, 'a day without a mexican,' and it was fooking terrible, it came off as propaganda, the idea seemed funny but the way the movie worked it sucked

From this:

...Therein lies the movie's first flaw ? but there are many others. Mexican's very premise ? suddenly, a mysterious fog clears the state of all Hispanics, and anything remotely Latino ? is alarmist, and based on stereotypes that equate reasoned support for stricter immigration control with irrational bigotry. In fact, the film itself is one long parade of stereotypes ? ill informed and offensive, tired and trite...

[John]

Don't give me that "work that Americans won't do" crap. Americans will do that work, they just won't do it at the wages that desperate immigrants are willing to take. Continued unchecked immigration just has the effect of lowering everyone's wage down to that of a painter in Pakastan. More supply equals lower wages for the people who already live here. In addition, there are social externalities to immigration. It costs to assimilate people into society. The clown in the story hires immigrants at below market wages and forces those externalities on the rest of society. Its great for him. He gets rich. The rest of us are then stuck with the social cost of his unwillingness to pay a decent wage. One more thing to think about, if immigration is so damned good for the US buy taking in enterprising people, doesn't that mean that it is just as bad for the countries who give up the immigrants as it is good for the U.S.? You want to know why Mexico continues to be a corrupt oligarchy? Because assholes like Vicente Fox can send his discontented to the U.S. and never have to change anything for the better. The Mexican white elite stay in power because of the safety value of U.S. immigration. Shut down immigration and countries like Mexico might have a change to improve.

[Gary Gunnels]

thoreau,

Chicken sexing is simple. Chicks are sort by sex by folks on a line. They turn them over and feel out their sexual organs to discern their sex. You can read Cynthia Kadohata's The Floating World for a more accurate description. As you might imagine, lots of chicken sexing goes on in Arkansas.

Lonewolf,

But you're an irrational bigot (let's note that any accusations of bigotry against you could have been cleared up long ago by you by answering a few simple questions that you refused to answer).

You know I come from a fishing community in Alabama (and my family has been "fishing" for a living since the 18th century). I'm well aware of the jobs that the "natives" won't do in towns like Bayou la Batre, Coden, Dauphin Island, etc., or simply can't do as well as immigrants (in most instances its the latter). If the "natives" could/would do the jobs then they'd be working in the crab and shrimp shops, on the mullet and shrimp boats, tonging for oysters, etc., with the same profitability and drive as the immigrants from SE Asia have. But that isn't the case. SE Asian immigrants have simply out competed them.

[Gary Gunnels]

John,

Americans will do that work, they just won't do it at the wages that desperate immigrants are willing to take.

I can tong for oysters and make the sort of money that professional engineers can make. Shrimping is the same way. Seafood can be a very profitable industry. Shit, mullet roes can bring a fisherman within a few weeks tens of thousands of dollars in profit. You are quite frankly clueless.

[Gary Gunnels]

John,

Of course to get those mullet one has to stay out on the water for days, set lines over and over, and work your ass off for weeks, get winks of sleep for days and days on end. Its difficult, hard, often dangerous, smelly, etc. work.

[Ken Shultz]

"Don't give me that "work that Americans won't do" crap. Americans will do that work, they just won't do it at the wages that desperate immigrants are willing to take."

Even if Americans were willing to take jobs like farm labor, who's to say that American consumers would be willing to pay higher prices for things like groceries? And even if you don't care about farmers, aren't you concerned at all about American working people and how they'll feed their families?

[Gary Gunnels]

There is nothing more humorous than clueless nitwits like John, Lonewolf, etc., talk about the "fishing industry."

John & Lonewolf,

The last time you out in the Gulf, did you run a double or a single rig? What you do the last time that the beds were closed? Do you cross state lines to follow the mullet runs?

[John]

You can tong for oysters for all this money but refuse to do it why? Because you are a dumb lazy bastard? Yeah, I am sure all these people working in fish canaries are making so much money and people in cush jobs like McDonalds just won't work there. Yeah right.

[Gary Gunnels]

Ken Shultz,

Working at a crab shop you can make $4-5k a month (if you are fast and save your money). If those are desperation wages, well so be it. My experience is that SE Asians are much less likely to piss away their wages on alcohol, cigarettes, women, etc. than the "natives," and that in their thrift SE Asians (the immigrant group in the Bayou) more quickly save up for decent homes, cars, their own boat, and that they are far more likely to save money for their children's education. Its the old immigrant story we've always witnessed.

[Gary Gunnels]

John,

The average price of a sack of oysters has doubled from $25 a few years ago to $50. A good oysterman (with his wife) can get 7-8 sacks of oysters a day. They work on average (according to AMRD-ADNR regulations) five days a week. You do the math.

[norman normal]

Can you explain to me why the laws of supply and demand don't apply in this situation?

[Ironchef]

John and Wacko,

You can make no argument against the fact that it takes a lot of effort for these aliens (illegal or legal) to enter this country of their own free will and seek out those jobs in the first place. None. You cannot resist human motivation.