October 26, 2005: A Shortage of Immigration Enthusiast Honesty In California Provides Some Ominous Insights For Canada
PRESS RELEASE
When Canadians hear calls for more immigration, they should look at what an American columnist recently uncovered when he heard similar calls for more Mexican agricultural workers in California, says Immigration Watch Canada.
The L.A. Times, National Public Radio and Time magazine (and a large number of media imitators) reported there was a massive shortage of agricultural labourers to harvest this fall's California raisin crop. These media outlets claimed that more security at the U.S.- Mexico border and activity by civilian Minutemen (civilians doing the border patrolling that their federal government refused to do) were causing the shortage. With the help of readers, the columnist (Joe Guzzardi) did some research. He discovered four important problems in the reporting:
(1) Although the media reported that the raisin crop, if not picked, was threatened by September rains, and that there was an immediate need to bring in foreign workers, the truth was that the area where the crop grows receives very little rain. In fact, since 2000, University of California Co-operative Extension records show that the area has received an average of 3/10 of an inch of rain for all of September in each of those years. In other words, “facts” were invented to pressure government into increasing immigration.
(2) The columnist discovered that a California Economic Development Report stated that California had about 1.1 million farm labourers, but only 380,000 agricultural jobs—about 11 workers for every 3.8 jobs. In other words, California actually had a surplus of agricultural workers.
(3) Although California's immigration industry claimed that increases in wages to farm workers would cause unbearable increases in prices to consumers, the columnist discovered research that contradicted these claims. He consulted Rural Migration News, a University of California (Davis) publication which “summarizes and analyzes the most important migration-related issues affecting immigrant farm workers in California and the U.S.”. They found that a 40% increase in farm labour costs translated to a 2 to 3% price rise in farm produce. (Details are available from Rural Migration News.) In other words, there is an economic alternative to cheap-labour immigration.
(4) Forty years ago in 1965, Time magazine featured a story titled “Who Will Pick The Strawberries?” The article made the same arguments that are being advanced today, that is, that crops are rotting in the fields and that farmers face a multi-billion dollar loss unless guest workers come to California quickly. In other words, a considerable number of the media parroted the claims of the immigration industry and cheerled an increase in immigration.
Co-incidentally, in 2005, a considerable number of the media are calling for foreign workers and an amnesty for illegals.
American immigration reformers know that 1965 was the same year that the U.S. Immigration Act (1965) was passed. This act is generally regarded by real enviromentalists (This excludes the U.S. Sierra Club) and the U.S. population stabilization movement as a disaster. The act eventually increased legal immigration from about 300,000 to 1+ million per year. It also has been the direct major factor in the surge in U.S. legal population growth from around 200 million in 1965 to close to 300 million in 2005. If trends continue, it will be responsible for a probable 400-500 million population by 2050. It has also been an indirect factor in the inflow into the U.S. of an estimated 20 million illegals.
Canadians should take note of an analysis of the 1965 U.S. Immigration Bill by Ben Johnson of Front Page Magazine.com: “…the 1965 bill abolished the national origins quota system that had regulated the ethnic composition of immigration in fair proportion to each group's existing presence in the population.” “In fact, the 1965 bill made 'family re-unification'–including extended family members–the key criterion for eligibility. These new citizens (would) in turn send for their families, creating an endless cycle known to sociologists as the immigration chain.” “In all, 21% of immigrants receive public assistance, whereas 14% of natives do so. Immigrants are 50% more likely than natives to live in poverty.”
As many have observed, both the U.S. and Canada are wallowing in immigration-generated quagmires.
On the eve of making decisions such as increasing Canadian immigration and granting amnesty to illegals in Canada–which will make the Canadian quagmire even worse– our federal government, our media, and all Canadians should take some lessons from ominous events in both California and the rest of the U.S.
END OF PRESS RELEASE
NOTE: Columnist Joe Guzzardi's article of October 15, 2005: “There Is No Raisin Shortage (Just A Shortage Of Immigration Enthusiast Honesty)” is available on the Immigration Watch Canada web site in the “News Articles” section (American). It is also available on the VDARE.com web site.
