Many people have argued that globalization is a negative thing for the job market. One such argument against globalization is that the increase in competition of labor allows for citizens of other nations to be hired by a company instead of hiring a citizen within that company’s native country. Another argument that people have is that it is not right for someone to come from a poorer nation to go to a richer nation and earn a higher wage only to send it back to their native land.

This is an interesting argument when you think about it in the world of sports. A fellow blogger of mine (Jill G) wrote about watching the Chicago Cubs and the team’s multitude of players that come from outside the United States. She’s correct when she says that baseball and the Cubs are filled with immigrants coming from all over the world. What is interesting to me is that people are surprised when it goes the other way around.

Since free agency began in the NBA on July 1, nine players have left the United States to play basketball in countries, including Russia, Italy, and Spain. Sports journalists have come up with a number of reasons why these players are leaving. One argument is that several of these players are simply heading back to their home country. Others see their exodus from the States due to economic reasons. They say that players are leaving because of the strength of the Euro compared to the US dollar. Some may even think that they are leaving simply because it is a better job opportunity than they may find in the NBA.

While I’m not convinced that these are the real reasons players are leaving the United States, I would like to consider our attitude towards globalization for a minute.

While the United States is often seen as the land of opportunity, many citizens inside the United States think that this opportunity is only for them. This isn’t the case anymore. Due to globalization, our opportunity has become immigrants’ opportunity as well. And American citizens shouldn’t be angered by this fact. The argument shouldn’t be that jobs are being taken away from American citizen.

I believe something needs to change how people look at this situation. Instead of thinking that a ballplayer from country A is coming over to country B and taking a job away from country A’s players, we need to accept this fact and say hey, that’s the way the global world works today.

Whenever American citizens travel abroad they often like seeing American icons. Today there’s McDonald’s in Russia, Disney in Tokyo, and Coca-Cola can be found in over 200 nations. These are things that we accept and say, “Sure, that’s good globalization because we’re bringing Us to Them.

But there’s a certain type of hypocrisy when people don’t get upset when American players go to other countries for economic reasons or better job opportunities. Perhaps players are going to Europe to play basketball because of the weakening US dollar or because it offers them more job security than in the highly competitive level of the NBA. But either way, these things should not be looked down upon, especially since wer’re a nation built on capitalism. To be a success in our capitalist system you must be diligent, hard working, and prudent in your finance expenses.

These are things Americans celebrate when someone within our country succeeds. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs weren’t always entrepreneurs. They were businessmen that knew what it took to become a success (along with resources already at their fingertips), and sometimes that meant being cut throat.

In today’s globalized world, we cannot get upset at the “infiltration of immigrants” in our job market. We need to adopt the lassez-fair attitude that we have about players coming from other countries to play sports in America. The only way many of these players get to the United States and remain successful is by being better than their American counterparts. We gladly accept this in most professional sports today, and I think it’s about time we adopt this policy in regards to the rest of the job market. I have hope that Americans can do this in the future, but only if globalization is truly accepted by American citizens.