U.S. needs immigrant labor

Opinion: June 8, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Winifred Chin

McClatchy-Tribune

Arizona’s new immigration law is reminiscent of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred people of Chinese ancestry from coming to the United States. Those already here — many of them having built the Pacific Railroad — also had to carry papers around at all times.

It was not until 1943 that the Exclusion Laws were repealed; China and the United States were allies in Word War II then, and it seemed inconsistent for the United States not to permit Chinese people into the country. An annual quota allowing Chinese people to emigrate here was an obvious concession for our government.

Throughout history, America has relied on immigrant groups to fill a myriad of cheap, manual labor jobs. The Chinese contribution to the Pacific Railroad cannot be denied, nor can the contribution of our Mexican neighbors, from agriculture to construction to garment work.

Billions in losses

In agriculture alone, without the help of Latino workers, American farmers stand to lose billions of dollars in rotted fruits and crops — and possibly their farms as well. The rest of American society would share the burden by paying higher prices for produce that reaches the market.

Mexicans and other immigrant groups also send home hard-earned cash to feed their families, just as the Chinese have continued to do since their arrival in this country. This is “foreign aid” in its most basic, personal form, where the dollars sent go directly to the assistance of families that need it.

No immigrant comes to this country to work for peanuts. And legal or not, no immigrant is happy to leave loved ones behind. Immigrants come because they have no other way to support their families.

Except for American Indians and slaves, we were all once immigrants, too. Have we become so comfortable now that we no longer hear the cries of others who are seeking the same ideals and opportunities that once attracted us?

Winifred Chin, a research affiliate in Asian/Pacific/American Studies at New York University, co-authored “Paper Son: One Man’s Story,” about Chinese immigration during the Exclusion Era. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine.Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.