If two Americans are competing for a job, and one is wiling to work 15 more hours a week, for $1 less pay per hour... We know who is going to get hired. The fact that they're illegal immigrants puts a different spin on it, but it isn't all harm and costs to the nation.
Illegal immigrants, yes, they provide a marginal cost saving individually, and yeah they give large corporations like WalMart a huge edge because of the large numbers involved. However, what incentive do they have to hire Americans? I mean, nationalism aside, if your stockholders (Americans) and stakeholders (also Americans) only care about the bottom line at the end of the month - that is to say, profit - then your job as a corporation is to make the most money you can to keep the investors and the people who buy your products happy. Saving money means you can do two things; put that money purely into the profit column - or you can invest it by offering loss-leader pricing sales, you can afford marginal discounts on top of the fact your costs of goods sold is low because of the quantity of inventory purchased in the first place, ultimately resulting in cheaper products for your consumers. Cheaper products encourage spending. Spending equates to stronger economy. You need to spend money to make money.
Yes, they're illegal immigrants. Yes, they're taking jobs from Americans - Americans who aren't willing to work 55 hours a week for $5. Working like that might violate workers rights laws, I'm not sure what those laws amount to in the US, but I recall there was some move by the president to force companies to pay illegal immigrants the same wages as Amiercans (which would eliminate the incentive to hire the immigrants) and there was a lot of hubbub about how the borders should be shut down and how nobody wanted illegal immigrants in the first place. Well, that's all well and good, but if you're going to run a contemporary capitalist system you can't shy away from competition, ethical or not. I mean, exploiting workers is nothing new. And after all, it is a national expectation for these companies to be profitable. If WalMart, Target, etc, weren't providing you with bargains, weren't providing you with bulk goods, would you shop there? Now, maybe the stuff that's on sale is something you don't want this week - but maybe next week it is. Someone is buying this stuff, even if it's not you. Thats what business is all about. You can't tell them to not be profitable, that would compromise all the structures on which the Western world is based. Yes, they should be expected to follow the law - but since, like the borders, it is nearly impossible to police every single business' activities (most illegal immigrants are paid under the table, right, so this won't come out in tax reports without thourough dredging), what is to be done?
Americans could still be winning those jobs, even if the companies ignored more laws by continuing to hire illegal workers, by vying for the position: working harder for less, and working illegally as an American. Right, you shouldn't have to stoop so low as to waive your workers rights and get paid under the table just to have a job instead of being unemployed. Of course, maybe you'd prefer to be unemployed and just complain about the illegal immigrants taking your jobs because you're unwilling to do what they are. Those immigrants and their desperation for work and living conditions that aren't total crap, they should just sod off because even if they won't respect the laws of the US and that doesn't mean you should sully yourself by breaking the law - after all, if you live by the law, the country owes you something, right? I'm not so sure that it does. Even if there were no illegal immigrants, your country couldn't guaruntee you a job. They cannot force someone to hire you. And after all, if you're an American working illegally (that is to say, ignoring your workers rights and workign for less than minimum wage, or for more hours per week than is permitted) you aren't going to be the one thrown in jail: that's your employers responsibility.
It is an expectation that all people find work, yes, but is it a right, that all Americans will have jobs? I don't think so. With all the outsourcing of labour that occurs in the US in the name of profits there are a lot of American jobs that aren't being done in America to begin with. Mostly blue collar stuff. It leaves most of the mundane physical work that has to be done on site and can't be done elsewhere: road work, waiting tables, cashier roles, loading and unloading trucks, etc. If the sum total of your life after being born in the US, with all the amenities that the greatest country in the world can provide, is working in WalMart as a cashier, or mopping up the crapper at Denny's, I mean no disrespect when I say you don't deserve the jobs that people are taking from you. Theres a certain level of expectation here not that you'll find a job but that you'll be competent enough as a human being to excell above the lowest of the blue collar levels and work a real job, you aren't going to be given anything if you don't work for it, and checking out soccer moms at WalMart should not be a long-term career plan. If you're a tradesperson, a skilled labourer, that's fine, that is real honest work, and I make no attack on those people. If you're a cashier, or a cook at McDonalds, and that is your life... I'm not sure I'd say it's noble and honourable work, but at the very least it is work and worthy of some measure of respect. The thing is, I find it hard to sympathize with people who have settled and aren't willing to try for anything else and all the while aren't happy with it. If you're happy with what you've got, wonderful, thats incredibly admirable and rare regardless of where it is you are and what it is you do. I'll add that if you are indeed happy doing what you do, then you are probably willing to do it for less money if it meant keeping your job instead of going elsewhere to work one you hated. However, it's not always easy to find a job, but it sure is easy to give up and blame someone else because you can't be bothered to do what other people will. I have far less sympathy for people who are chronic whiners with a lazy streak a mile wide, and just like the illegal immigrants who are perceived as harmful criminals take the publics eye, I believe it is only the chronic whiners amongst the Americans who have the publics ear and are making that problem seem far larger than it is.