http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE93607C20130407?irpc=932


Anyone have thoughts on Immigration?

I'd like to live in USA, but I better get Green Card than go there and paint walls.

What are YOUR thoughts?

Me personally as long as employment is held I have zero problem with it! What's the saying "give me your tired and poor" believe that's from The Colossus? Back to the topic, seems like many disagree and don't want any new immigrants here for various reasons. Again I say come, just work, and do what's asked of an American. Don't come here and make every excuse why your not producing or holding your weight!

i love these catchy names given to this kind of shit. immigration reform? more like a free for all for those who already broke the law and are here illegally. i've seen the damage that illegals have done first-hand in my last 2 professions, the restaurant industry and landscaping. forget the social costs, and forget money being shipped out of the country. its becoming increasingly hard for native born folks to earn a livable wage in those 2 fields because we have people willing to work for way less money.

call it whatever you want, but its bullshit. its alot easier for these guys to live off of $8/hour when they cram 20 guys into an apartment. i don't blame them, they are just taking advantage of a system which has for way too long been seemingly more concerned with the needs of people other than its own citizens. the loss of blue collar jobs is one of the biggest reasons our economy is shit imo, and this does nothing to help people earn an honest wage for a hard days work. this kind of shit will just make it even more appealing for more illegals to come pouring over, why not, they can just earn their citizenship once already here illegally.

also, let me add for those who will say that they make up a huge part of certain industries, that is true, but it has only gotten that way because a blind eye has been turned for way too long. there are plenty of latinos who go through the right channels to get here, and with the unemployment rates as high as they are, i doubt filling the positions would be a hard sell.

another point worthy of note is the extremely high rate of guys paid in cash off the books. its not a problem with regards to just illegals, but it sure takes its toll. no tax revenue generated, which sure doesn't help things.

Nothing for nothing, who going to mow lawns, dig ditches! Kids today! Not a chance! And remember most of these laborers are kids who grew up on farms which make them efficient and experienced at working hard and long. The only exception in South America is Brazilians there mostly immigrating from the cities which is why many are in the service sector. Hey and what ethnic group hasn't cramped to live when they get here! They bunk up, share and save. Good for them because there smart enough to know they'll move up the ladder if they work and save! We need to applaud the ones who work no matter the occupation. There being productive bottom line.

As far as the trouble makers every group has them. I thought they were tossed after incident #1?

Kind of reminds me about gun control. They had a system in place but didn't follow it, then bitch and clamp down on every good person who did things the right way in the first place.... when some things went bad.
Now there is a system/path that can be used and followed and it is not being used right... so instead of clamping down, just lower the standards and let everyone who did something wrong get a pass. Talk about bullshit in the works.

sliding my orange jumpsuit on already...

i agree, and no matter which way you look at it it only hurts the honest people in the end. i'm not too familiar with the current immigration process as it stands, so maybe it needs to be looked at and streamlined to make it easier for honest folks to get here the right way. with that said, i find the idea of just letting everyone here stay as nothing more than a slap in the face to not only every single immigrant who has come here legally, but to every single tax payer.

i work with these guys all the time, and i enjoy working with them, and like i said, i don't blame them for doing whats best for them and their families, but thats where it ends.

i spent years working in various kitchens, and the spanish guys are great workers, but they make it very hard to earn a decent living in that field. you have a huge group of people who watch top chef and all of these other food related programs, and spend alot of money going to culinary school with unrealistic views of their future. its a real bitter pill to graduate expecting the world, only to realize that your making $10/hour and paying taxes on it, while the dishwashers/prep cooks are making $8 cash.

That's the absolute truth. You can get three Mexicans from Pueblo for the price of one CIA grad. It's a rude awakening for these kids when they graduate culinary school, to say the very least.

But slightly off topic, you know as well as I do that celebrity chefs aren't always the tops in their field. Not remotely. They're just the luckiest (or the most photogenic). There are "chefs" pulling in a million a year on Food Channel and Food Network who I wouldn't give a pantry job to. And you know I'm right about that.

Ok, I will buy into some of these arguments. However lets out this in perspective, how much is a line chef command for pay? The Executive Chef should command a decent salary I agree, even the Sous Chef(Underboss we can call him) also a productive position. However if we think prices are high now wait until the line chefs and dishwashers get organized! And nothing for nothing I understand culinary school is rigorous and difficult, however we all started at the bottom? Had to tough it out along the way and work hard. With hard work comes responsibility and money? No? PB I. Sure you had to spend time as an apprentice before becoming a journeyman( not sure if that's the proper phrase) for your industry.

its a shame. again, i don't even necessarily blame the restaurants themselves, because at the end of the day profits speak the loudest. it comes down to the systems in place, and the lack of almost any enforcement at all with regards to illegals working right out in the open. from what i hear, nyc does a better job than most, at least in the more well known establishments, but its still far from perfect.

the second part in generally true, take your buddy fieri for example. there are, however, guys like gordon ramsey. the guy is an asshole, but from all accounts he could jump right into the busiest manhattan eateries and fit right in. still, the whole celebrity chef fad, along with the immigration concerns, have turned one of the biggest industries in the us into a false promise, nothing more than a pipe dream for most.

the pay for a top position is so incredibly subjective to start, it varies so much from place to place. there is generally a huge gap in pay between the #1 and #2, and the problem lies in that there are only so many #1 positions available, thus making it very hard for a talented #2 to make a very modest living. the gaps in pay are bigger than almost any other industry i can think of, and the illegal immigration situation is the main reason for that. its very hard to move up in pay for the simple reason that you can hire 3 for the price of one, and its very hard to overcome that.

the best bet for somebody looking to move up the ladder is to familiarize yourself with food and labor cost %, purchasing and ordering, more on the logistical side of things, which will help to set you apart from the rest. some people unfamiliar with the industry might look at my reasoning as nothing more than sour grapes, but once you get a feel for things from an insiders perspective, things become alot more clear.

And if you're going to be competing in a huge foodcentric city (like New York or Chicago), I'll just throw in that a little background in marketing wouldn't hurt (especially digital marketing). Twenty years ago that was unheard of. Today it's just about essential.

I've got a question, with this new chef craze. Is cooking actually fun? Looks like a giant pain in the ass to me!

there's also alot of fuckery that goes on in that industry. i'm not saying its exclusive to this field, but it definatly has more than its fair share. just a quick example from my personal experiences: a decent place that i worked at, and was paid pretty good by industry standards, would never allow me to work more than 40 hours "on the clock", to avoid overtime. they would pay me cash, but here's the kicker: they would "take the taxes out for me", which is nothing more than theft, rap your mind around that one. the obvious answer is to report it, but then i'm out of a job!

cooking is fun when you're doing it for a some family/friends enjoying some booze, but certainly not on a professional level. working in a hot, fast paced environment on top of other people sucks. you need a great memory, and there are no deadlines, the deadline is right fucking now.

its even more of a pain in the ass because food isn't all the same. this steak is thicker than the last one, this part of the grill is hotter, this saute pan has a hole in it, this burner doesn't work. ditto for the staff. that waitress is a bitch, jose is all fucked up on heroin and can't stay awake, armando the dishwasher is drunk and we don't have any more fucking sizzle plates, it goes on and on. thats why, at least for now, i'm through with it. it sucks the fun out of cooking. the free(or stolen) booze is a nice perk though!

Now boozing and cooking I can handle! Booze makes anything not a pain in the ass!!