Guest-worker plans – most of which would give limited permission for workers to be in the U.S. for a set period of time – have been at the center of the current immigration debate.
What’s it going to take for a U.S. guest-worker program to be successful?
At first glance, an expanded guest worker plan looks like a viable part of the solution to America’s immigration problems.
It would seem that most of the estimated 700,000 to 850,000 people entering the country illegally each year would opt for – and pay for – a legitimate work visa, even if it was for a limited time.
It would get them across the border without risking their lives and provide the documentation to get on- the-books jobs, pay taxes, buy auto insurance and open bank accounts.
For a guest-worker program to really work, however, it must offer a well-defined option for guest workers to seek legal permanent residency or citizenship. It’s unrealistic to think that most guest workers would return to their home countries after their terms were up.
A practical guest-worker program also must have fair recruitment practices, wages and benefits and strict enforcement against companies employing undocumented workers.
A temporary visa makes sense for the Argentinian college student working the ski season at a Colorado resort. But it’s a short- sighted and impractical option for the millions of Latin American and Asian immigrants working open-ended jobs that have little or no seasonal variation or end point: construction, hospitality, cleaning, manufacturing and nursing.
We pretend these workers will take their earnings and go home when their visa term ends. But that notion ignores three powerful forces:
The natural pattern of human migration that leads people to put down roots in their new community.
Dramatic wage disparity between the United States and immigrants’ countries of origin.
Resistance by employers to give up trained workers for unskilled new recruits.
Allowing people to enter as guest workers rolls out a very short welcome mat. It says we’ll take your energy and willingness to work for a year or three or six, but we won’t let you settle in and build a life here. It says you only need to learn enough English to do your job, and there’s no point in trying to understand American culture or contributing to your community.
In addition, a guest-worker visa without labor protections and opportunities to earn citizenship conveys a second-class status that discourages assimilation and aggravates animosity in communities where immigrants come to live.
An extreme example of a guest worker plan gone sour is the rioting last fall in France, when second- and third-generation North African immigrant youths violently expressed their frustration at facing a future with no hope for citizenship or economic parity.
Other European countries struggle with various levels of acceptance for guest workers. Germany’s Gastarbeiter guest-worker program, which welcomed Turkish workers from 1961 to 1973, never referred to them as immigrants. Yet 30 years later, 3 million Turks live and work in Germany.
Because the program was billed as temporary, neither the German government nor migrant Turks made much effort at assimilation. As a result, many Turks live in rough neighborhoods with high unemployment and second-rate schools, and many still don’t speak German.
Ukrainian immigrants live under similar conditions in the Czech Republic and Russia.
The United States already runs a substantial guest-worker program, according to the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics.
In 2004, the federal government admitted nearly 1 million temporary workers and trainees and another 300,000 dependents. By contrast, the country admitted just 155,000 immigrants as permanent legal residents coming for work.
For some guest workers, the arrangement is fine. Their goal is to earn enough money to go back home and live comfortably in a familiar culture. The Pew Hispanic Center’s 2004-05 survey of migrants in the United States who applied for the Mexican government’s matrícula consular identity card showed that 44 percent of those who had been here for five years or less expected to stay no more than five years.
But of those here for six to 10 years, 67 percent said they wanted to stay as long as possible or for the rest of their lives.
And, of the estimated 11.5 million to 12 million illegal immigrants now in the country, about 40 percent, or 4.5 million, came here legally but have overstayed their visas.
Some find their way through the legal process to gain legal permanent residency. They get green cards and can work for competitive wages in the open economy. Others live in fear, uncertain of how to resolve their status but unwilling to leave their work and communities and, in many cases, their families.
In other words, the longer people stay in the United States, the longer they hope to stay in the future.
It’s a complicated mess, and that’s why people are clamoring for changes in federal immigration policy. A federal guest-worker plan should include these elements:
A well-defined process for those holding guest-worker visas to seek legal permanent residency or citizenship during their visa term.
A practical system for companies to advertise seasonal and open-ended jobs to U.S. workers and certify a labor shortage in time to bring foreign workers in on legitimate visas.
Enforcement, with stiff penalties, against employers who circumvent the visa system and hire undocumented workers.
Full protection of U.S. labor laws for guest workers, including workplace safety guarantees, compensation for on-the-job injuries and pay at rates equal to other workers in similar jobs.
Visa portability, so workers can move on to jobs with other employers.
Giving immigrant workers legal rights under such a system can dramatically reduce exploitation by employers, and that benefits native workers as well. Otherwise, unscrupulous employers can continue to play one group against the other, driving down wages and benefits for all.
A guest worker plan will likely be a key part of any comprehensive reform of immigration laws. The trick is to make sure the plan protects the interests of business and the rights of all workers, and gives guest workers the option to settle here permanently.
Go to www.thebell.org/Immigration.html for more information on the center’s immigration research.
Rich Jones is Director of
policy and
research, Bell
Policy Center and Heather is Communications
director,
Bell Policy
Center.
