by Lekan Sote

Anyone who has lived in America should have seen the frustration of the minorities — Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and women — who daily encounter the invisible glass wall that usually bars them from attaining the top slots ostensibly reserved for the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) males in Corporate America.

Sometime in the early 1980s, a television promo, with the theme ‘Bring Me Your Best,’  subtly hinted that America might soon be asking for a substantial number of the skilled work force of the rest of an unsuspecting world. And, sure enough, America rolled out the visa lottery, the ultimate tool for the re-tooling or retrofitting of its unmotivated workforce. The idea, some say, is to graft ‘ready labour’ from other climes to enhance the ability of its workforce, and improve the performance of its industry for delivery of higher throughput. More good hands would be on the deck to achieve better results. The Diversity Visa programme, to use its official appellation, was approved by the US Congress to grant, every year, United States Permanent Resident Card or the Green Card, to 55,000 citizens of countries considered to have low rates of immigration to America. America, the land of immigrants, is inviting more immigrants to come and be part of the Land of The Free. Incidentally, Africa and Europe, that respectively supplied America with cheap slave labour and managerial cadre, receive about 80 per cent of these visas between them.

Some cynics argue that the visa lottery which now ships highly proficient manpower to run the New Economy of America merely replaces the slavery that brought sheer brawn to work agrarian America. The only difference is that, unlike the slaves that were largely regarded as chattels and non-persons, these immigrants acquired American citizenship along with their work permit. More generous observers however, think that the scheme helps to repatriate much-needed hard currency to the deficient economies of the immigrants’ home countries. Others say it is a clever strategy to avert future war intentions by the mother countries of its new immigrants, and thus preserve America’s security. This seemingly farfetched theory smacks of the deft ways that the monarchies of the Old World contracted high profile marriages to form strategic military alliances. Yet, others accuse America of reaping off the educational systems of other nations. It was once rumoured that more than 25,000 medical doctors that were trained in Nigerian universities worked in America. The Yoruba adage, ‘O ja’le onile bo tie lehin,’ which roughly translates to, ‘He who pilfers the rafters of his neighbour’s abode to cover his own,’ is a fitting tribute to this American covetousness.

No doubt, America hopes that a mix of the willing hands of the new workforce, and the high concentration of Nobel laureates resident within its borders, should positively affect the genius and the performance of the American system. Consider the following trend of thought: In his novel, ‘The Lost Symbol,’ author Dan Brown argues that the power of human thought grows exponentially with the number of minds that share the thought. He adds that worshippers at the altar of the new and esoteric (some say, nonsensical) field of study called Noetic Science, insist that human thought, if properly focused, can affect the physical man, and also transform physical matter.  They proclaim the time-worn cliché that mind actually prevails over matter. They further add that because particles react to human thought, human thought can change the world. Ah ha!  If all this seems opaque to you, just remember that two or more good heads are better than one. America simply wants others to help jumpstart its comatose workforce, and subdue its space. The immigrant “intellectual workers” will be like the slaves who practically ran ancient Greece while the Greeks indulged in wanton hedonism.

Anyone who has lived in America should have seen the frustration of the minorities — Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and women — who daily encounter the invisible glass wall that usually bars them from attaining the top slots ostensibly reserved for the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) males in Corporate America. A former female acquaintance who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from an Ivy League university fetched up as a security guard! Things like this discourage minorities from seeking to improve themselves. But as they travel down the abyss of drugs, prostitution, crime, violence and self-destruction, they take some precious WASPs with them. The present generation of American leaders is justifiably scared that there might be no responsible citizens to hand over the nation to in the future. Some suggest that the American Establishment inaugurated African-American Barack Obama as President as part of a grand plan to bring hope to the minorities and rehabilitate the wayward youths. They add that the visa lottery is yet another plank of the grand plan. They posit that the wholesome imported labour force should provide skills that America desperately needs in the short-term, and help raise the moral tones with the old values of family, decorum and work ethics.

Discrimination led minorities to the cesspit of disillusionment and robbed them of the will to seek for personal improvement. This has, in turn, robbed America of potentially productive labour. Other culprits of this degeneracy include, but are not limited to: The Age of Consumerism or Modern Capitalism that has put two cars in the garage, television in the living room, another one in the bedroom, refrigerators, microwave oven, and dishwashing machine in the kitchen, laundry machine in the basement, video game joy sticks in the hands of Junior and robotics on the factory floor at General Motors. Many Americans have no incentive to work hard. This malodorous cancer is getting even more compounded as more youths go to university to acquire skills that are largely inappropriate to the demands of the new technologies that have, among others things, automated the manufacturing process and even replaced sales through physical interface with online sales and merchandising. A cheeky report indicates that a larger proportion of Asian youths perform better in mathematics and other numerate sciences than American youths. This is a big blow to America, that traditionally regards knowledge as its most strategic industry.

The careless attitude of American youths to work is also fed by the freebie unemployment claims and invalidity benefits that have turned idleness into a profitable venture. In the 1980s, an Ivy League university professor was exposed for allegedly running a financially rewarding unemployment benefits racket alongside some grannies who wore mink and pearls and drove mint BMWs. A workforce that is ageing, feeds on malnourishing diet, and neglects physical exercise, will report more idle time and frequent absenteeism. A corollary to this is the gradual reduction in reproductive capacity of the population. America’s labour crisis is getting to a head, and graying Baby Boomers — those born between 1945 and 1965 — are coming out of their retirement resorts in Miami, to report for duty in the executive suites and factory floors of Corporate America. Germany saw this coming, and quietly assimilated the hitherto despised Germans of Turkish descent, even if they had funny surnames.

Uncle Sam truly needs a hand from the Old World. But when you take away so many proficient workers from one nation to another, what you’ve done is called a “brain drain.” Yet, the major tragedy is that nations, like Nigeria, who fail to engage and adequately reward their highly skilled, exceptionally talented and ambitious professionals and artisans, will almost certainly lose them to a willing America.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.