Sorry, Not Hiring.

Will You Have a Job this Summer?

In the back of every students mind, one can hear the repeated and much dreaded sentence from frustrated parents, “You must get a job this summer!” As the years progress, many more college students return home for the summer and find that they have been replaced in the work force and cannot get another job. With parents bickering, and a severe lack of money, students are wondering where they can get a job and who is taking theirs.

And the answer: New studies show that most of the summer jobs have been taken over by new workers in the U.S., illegal immigrants. Immigration has been researched back and forth by the Center for Immigration Studies. Steven A. Camarota, Director of Research at the Center said, “The evidence indicates that immigration accounts for a significant share of the decline in teen labor force participation. The decline in teen work is worrisome because research shows that those who do not hold jobs as teenagers often fail to develop the work habits necessary to function in the labor market, creating significant negative consequences for them later in life.” This is an issue because these teenagers are the future of our country.

Many teen-workers are losing in the fight to have a summer job they do not have as much work experience as some of their competitors. Some of the immigrants they compete against are in their mid-20s and have quite the work experience under their belts.

Michelle Forbert, a freshman at the University of Mississippi has worked at a tobacco store for the past two summers in San Angelo, Texas. She went to a public school and saw firsthand the amount of jobs that were being filled. “My high school was full of students from Mexico that already had families. The pregnant girls would sometimes have two or three children and their boyfriends would be working several jobs in order to support them. I couldn’t get my job back this summer after being away because my spot had been filled by one of the guys from my high school.” Michelle is not the only one feeling this strain.

In 1994, almost two-thirds of U.S.-born teenagers were in the summer labor force. In 2009, the number had dropped down to 45 percent. Over that same period, the number of teens not in the labor force rose from 4.7 million to 8.1 million. Teen unemployment is at its peak.

The issues with immigration don’t just stop at the domination of jobs, but delve further into issues such as crime, and tax dollars. Immigration has been a very controversial issue in the United States. Both racism and the people affected by immigration help make it such a tender subject. Researches and government officials are working to solve the problems with immigration.