"They Take Our Jobs!": and 20 Other Myths about Immigration | 
| Author: Aviva Chomsky
Publisher: Beacon Press
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 28071
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 236
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0807041564
Dewey Decimal Number: 304.873
EAN: 9780807041567
ASIN: 0807041564
Publication Date: July 15, 2007
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Product Description
Claims that immigrants take Americans' jobs, are a drain on the American economy, contribute to poverty and inequality, destroy the social fabric, challenge American identity, and contribute to a host of social ills by their very existence are openly discussed and debated at all levels of society. Chomsky dismantles twenty of the most common assumptions and beliefs underlying statements like "I'm not against immigration, only illegal immigration" and challenges the misinformation in clear, straightforward prose.
In exposing the myths that underlie today's debate, Chomsky illustrates how the parameters and presumptions of the debate distort how we think?and have been thinking?about immigration. She observes that race, ethnicity, and gender were historically used as reasons to exclude portions of the population from access to rights. Today, Chomsky argues, the dividing line is citizenship. Although resentment against immigrants and attempts to further marginalize them are still apparent today, the notion that non-citizens, too, are created equal is virtually absent from the public sphere. Engaging and fresh, this book will challenge common assumptions about immigrants, immigration, and U.S. history.
"Chomsky's book is an indispensable guide to the current debate on immigration. If you are at all uncertain about how to deal with anti-immigrant arguments, you will find Chomsky's book a perfect response to those arguments. She makes her points with crystal-clear clarity, and unassailable evidence, while offering constructive solutions, both short-term and long-term."
?Howard Zinn, author of You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
"Immigrants take away jobs from "Americans." Immigrants drive down wages. Immigrants don't pay taxes and yet benefit from public services. You've heard it all before, probably from CNN's Lou Dobbs. But as Avi Chomsky demonstrates, these are all myths, if not outright lies. She not only demolishes virtually every myth about immigrants and immigration to the U.S., she offers policy makers and activists solutions for tackling many of the issues created by globalization and an immigration policy grounded in falsehoods, and in so doing destroys the greatest myth of all: that nothing can be done."
?Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"Finally, a concise and comprehensive breakdown of the most prevalent misconceptions about immigration. Avi Chomsky provides not only practical ammunition for the pundit wars, but also real thinking about the intersection of migration with the history of race and rights in the U.S. It's the definitive field guide to today's immigration debate."
?Tram Nguyen, executive editor of Colorlines magazine and author of We Are All Suspects Now
"Avi Chomsky's new book, "They Take Our Jobs!" is a welcome addition to the literature and tools needed to inform the current debate on immigration. In identifying more than 20 "myths" about immigration, the author brings readers through an accessible discussion that includes history, politics, economics and social analysis to challenge these myths and more. At a time when we desperately need to shift the public discourse in the U.S. and elsewhere, to include a more humane and informed perspective on the process of immigration and the lives of migrants and their families, Chomsky's book provides us all with a much-needed sense of history and justice?and injustice?that must be included as we struggle for fair and humane immigration policies."
?Catherine Tactaquin, Executive Director, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
"If ever there was a need for a pithy primer on immigration, it's now, and scholar-activist Aviva Chomsky has provided just that. She considers myths from the book's title, "immigrants don't pay taxes" and then gracefully and in plain language delivers arguments with lessons on history, law and racism. In other words, this is the book to give your xenophobic mother-in-law at the next family barbecue."
?Daisy Hernandez, ColorLines Review
"Aviva Chomsky's "They Take Our Jobs!" should be mandatory reading in high schools. Cleanly organized into 21 chapters?one for each myth, as well as an extra one in there at the end?the volume serves as a quick, crystal-clear introduction to immigration issues . . . If every American?not just high schoolers, but our elected officials?read this concise, well-documented primer, we just might find ourselves overhauling our system."
?FeministReview (blogspot)
"Chomsky reminds us that in the 19th century white workers in the South "clung to their status of legal and racial superiority, but the entrenched racial inequalities undermined the status of poor whites as well." Black job seekers per se did not hurt poor whites, but rather their disenfranchisement combined with racism prevented their organization into unions and political movements. Employers enjoyed a pool of poor and easily exploitable workers with which to break strikes and undermine all working-class wages."
?Bangor Daily News
Aviva Chomsky is professor of history and coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State College. The author of several books, Chomsky has been active in Latin American solidarity and immigrants' rights issues for over twenty-five years. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Drivel with poor economics July 24, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I agree with the basic premise of this book that the current anti immigration reaction is racist and is wrapped in poor economics and scapegoating.
However the author has clearly never even read basic economic theory because she is assuming that wages have dropped due to the wealthy snagging more money from the pockets of the masses which should make you wonder who would these capitalists sell to in that case? A mass of dirt poor customers?. After all you can get rich selling to the rich but you can get far richer by selling affordable products to everyone. Besides since there are more moderate to lower income people than the wealthy where do you suppose the most amount of sales would be concentrated.
Immigrants have never caused a drop in standard of living but she clearly has an ideological ax to grind and would not even look at the various empirically proven reasons as to why wages have dropped she just blindly states that it is an out in the open conspiracy of the capitalists. The real reason has to due with the banking infrastructure and a bunch of other real world reasons not a conspiracy amongst the millions of capitalists in the United States. Dialectical Materialism is a dried up out dated view of the world that simplifies reality in an immense way.
Also as far as the US always trying to remain white I wish she could tell that to the nativists who thought the Irish and especially the Italians were a different race not just a different ethnicity.
I suggest to people looking for a more moderate yet pro immigration read that they should look up "Immigrants: Why your country needs them" by Phillip Legraine. He is pro welfare state and pro multiculturalism but avoids the monolithic world view that this author was unfortunately raised in.
Is this the La Raza edition? May 22, 2008
3 out of 14 found this review helpful
Miguel: Donde es mi welfare check?:
Human services lady: Oh...I'm very sorry about this Miguel, how long has it been?
Miguel: Dos weeks, sonorita. Es muy tarde!!!!
HS:I understand, sir, we'll have it to you in two business days.
Miguel:Aye aye aye, mi anchor-babies son muy hambre!
HS: Don't worry! Here's a few food stamps to keep you going until then.
Miguel: Muchas gracias, sonorita. Yo canto.
HS: Huh? Your going to sing now?
Miguel: Aye, aye, aye-aye, mi welfare check es muy late now/Que supposed to be here dos weeks ago/yo got better treatment back in Mexico.
HS: That's a nice song Miguel. Now your check should be in the-
Miguel: AYE AYE AYE-AYE! Mi anchor-babies son hambre!/ Todos los dias they cry and they whine/Pero food-stamps to hold them over is fine!
(Human services lady ushers him out)
HS: Next!
(Pedro enters)
Pedro: Donde es mi welfare check?
HS: Looks like it's going to be one of those days.
(They embrace and sing)
Both: Aye aye aye-aye, mi welfare check es muy late now!
Just 20 myths about Immigration? April 20, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Aviva Chomsky does a great job of analyzing and whetting the scores of myths about immigration into a concise list of about 20. An immigrant to American myself, I could relate to many of the myths articulated in the book, and can probably add to the list myself too.
The list is certainly well thought out and the analysis scholarly; the author was probably leaning towards a Textbook style. I wish Chomsky had added a few relevant anecdotes to make the cases more compelling.
A good read and a reference for those trying to analyze aspects of immigration.
Not a textbook, but just as informative. March 3, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Aviva Chomsky does a great job skewering fourteen of the twenty myths she strives to debunk - and a so-so job of the last six. This book was assigned for a class, and was a useful adjunct to the main text.
In a quasi-FAQ manner, the book addresses each myth in turn, rapidly debunking many of the regular pablums of the anti-immigrant crowd. Dr. Chomsky provides a lot of data to back up her statements, which is great.
The main failing comes at the end of the book, where the text starts to take a less balanced view of globalization, Westernization, and modernization. The peasant farmer lifestyle is held up in a variation of the "noble savage" fallacy, and there are several cases in the last six where the logic is a little shakier (e.g.: "Reducing American military expeditions will reduce terrorism" instead of "reducing global conflicts will, in turn, reduce terrorism, which is a conflict, proportionately"). But even these are problems with wording, not with content.
The book is better than most texts, though, and addresses the often-expressed concerns of real people instead of some ivory-tower theory.
 Key to any collection strong in immigrant history February 7, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
"THEY TAKE OUR JOBS!" AND 20 OTHER MYTHS ABOUT IMMIGRATION is key to any collection strong in immigrant history, culture and issues in America, whether it be for a public lending library or a high school or college collection seeking to foster debates and education on the topic. Over twenty of the most common myths are debunked in a series of discussions which examine realities about immigrant issues and the underlying assumptions which fuel these debates.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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