Hello
Sorry to hear about people loosing jobs. Very unpleasant for all concerned.
However I think a few posters on this thread need a reality check. It doesn't matter if your are a US, Aust, NZ, UK or whatever. When you are a foreigner employed in someone else's country you are a guest worker, nothing more. When you are not wanted you are out, period. Why should a foreigner be kept on and a local loose his or her job. It don't work like that anymore.
How would you feel being an Australian for E.G., employed in Australia, by an Australian company who employed foreign guest workers also. Then recession and redundancies, raise their ugly heads and you are put off and a foreigner is kept on. Would you like that? Of course you wouldn't and you would not accept it.
Before you try and shoot me down for my views I have been an expat for over 30 years in various countries and continents and I know where I stand on this one and have been the victim "locals win again" many times. When this becomes unacceptable I will go home, to be a "stranger" in my own country!