Immigration Is Not The Problem

During the pandemic lockdown, millions of Americans lost their jobs. Months later, many of our service and retail personnel are returning to work as reopenings happen all across the country. However, our unemployment numbers stay high, with thousands of new claims being reported every month. Where are these new claims coming from with so many going back to work?

This month, I was one of those thousands making a new claim for unemployment benefits. I was laid off from my technical job as a database administrator, along with about 130 of my fellow co-workers. All of us were in data or software in some way: database administrators, software developers, systems engineers. Many of us had already worked remotely for years before the pandemic, and we did it very well. With the use of current tools, we stayed in constant communication throughout the day, resolving customer issues and maintaining systems. Most of us received regular high marks on our performance reviews and were regularly recognized by management for doing our jobs above and beyond. So why were we now no longer needed by our company?

Before the layoff, there were rumors that the company was bleeding money. Projects that were undertaken apparently cost more than initial forecasts. We were not losing clients (as I was a key person involved in onboarding and offboarding clients on the systems side). Most of our clients weathered the pandemic storm well, as spending shifted to web commerce rather than brick and mortar stores. One could only speculate that the projects were not adequately planned out to fully assess costs. The company needed to cut costs.

When the company laid off so much high-quality talent, I had to wonder how the company would function. One of my co-workers messaged me that he didn't understand how they allowed our department to hire on a new DBA when they were going to make staff cuts! The answer became apparent about 2 weeks later.

While working on my hunt for a new job, I got curious. I decided to look up the open job positions for the company that just laid me off. To my surprise, there were nearly 100 openings posted, and all posted very recently. Even more surprising, all of these positions were the same descriptions as the people they just laid off! If they needed us, why did they get rid of us? That question was answered as I started noting the locations they were hiring these positions from! All of the positions were listed as being either in India or Poland. I did a quick search on the internet to see what the average DBA makes in these countries. Once converted to USD, this type of work in these countries averages about $2,500/month...far less than the same position makes here in the United States. The harsh reality hit me...I was laid off in order for the company to port my job overseas so they could take advantage of lower-wage workers!

We hear so many arguments in this country against immigration. One of the biggest arguments is the fear that immigrants are stealing jobs from Americans. This is not what we need to be fearing! Americans are losing jobs to cheap labor overseas. In a time where technology does not require people in the office to do jobs such as support, software development, server administration, etc., it has become too easy for companies to move jobs. They do not need to build an office or a factory in another country for these jobs. They simply need to post the positions and hire the people to work remotely! That DBA my department was allowed to hire before laying me off? They were hired overseas in one of these countries where companies can get cheaper tech labor. The process had already started.

As I sit here now applying for job after job, barely a call back in 3 weeks, I realize the competition is tough! I'm going to have to take a severe cut in pay...after working 30 years to get where I am...just to compete. Companies want skills on the cheap, and they are willing to sacrifice Americans to get that! Don't blame the immigrants. They are just trying to pursue a dream like you and me, and chances are they are now losing out on jobs, too, having moved here away from those "cheap labor" countries. No, blame the greedy companies! Blame the people who are only seeing a way to increase their profits by sacrificing the American people for "cheap labor" in other countries. It isn't that this country doesn't have the skilled workers. As I'm finding in my quest for a new job, we have plenty! Our problem is that having advanced skills in this country costs too much. Yes, we demand a higher salary. We have to! The cost of living here is higher, and many are paying off the schooling required to get the advanced degrees that these companies seek.

How do we stop the moving of American jobs to other countries? I wish I had the answer to that. If I did, I probably would be a prime candidate to run for public office. In the meantime, I can only wish my fellow out of work, and likely soon to be out of work, American citizens all of the luck. We are all going to need it!