TWO YEARS after first raising the idea, President Bush is again touting a guest worker program as part of his reforms for America's troubled immigration system. Foreign workers, including illegal immigrants already in the country, will be able to register for an as-yet unspecified period of legal employment and will be matched with a specific employer. After their period of employment has elapsed, they will return to their home country and be able to apply for another working permit.
According to the plan's supporters, it sounds like a win-win situation. The American economy will be boosted with a continuing flow of cheap immigrant labor. At the same time, with increased opportunities for legal work, immigrants will be less likely to come illegally. Unfortunately, though, the effects of this plan would not benearly as helpful as supporters claim.
The problems of this plan are clear on several levels. One that is often expressed is economic: Immigrants, the large majority of which are low-skilled, reduce the wages of low-skilled American workers. A 1998 study by Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent think tank that describes its vision as "pro-immigrant, low-immigration," estimated that immigration had reduced the annual wages of Americans with no more than a high school degree by nearly two thousand dollars. Guest worker proponents implicitly acknowledge this when they claim that cheap labor is needed to support the American economy. If they desired to be more specific, they would say that cheap labor is needed to support big business. Businesses reduce employment costs by employing inexpensive, non-unionized immigrants. Middle- and upper-class Americans benefit from lower costs. But low-income Americans suffer.
The deeper, more serious effect a guest worker program would have on America is to create a new class in America, which would in effect be indentured servants. The workers themselves would get less benefit from the program than is often assumed. For a few years, guest workers will earn wages significantly higher than they would in their home countries. But once that period ends, they must return to their home country. And then what? President Bush specifically stated Monday that the guest program would not be a path to citizenship. So these workers end up back in their home country, with a few more thousand dollars, but no better opportunity to become American citizens.
Whether supporters realize it or not, the guest worker program is, in effect, a complete betrayal of the foundation of our country. America is a nation founded by immigrants, who fled the oppression of the Old World to make a better life for themselves. With some exceptions, throughout most of American history it was possible for hardworking foreigners to come to America, create a new life, and become citizens. It was an unspoken social contract: Work hard and follow the law, and America will grant you and family citizenship. This guest worker plan, however, would totally change the rules of immigration. It would exploit the labor of immigrants, but instead of allowing them to become full Americans, it would then send them back to their original country.
Why should the workers who labor long hours at low-paying jobs not be considered worthy to become citizens? Who benefits from this kind of system? Low-skilled American workers will find their opportunity to advance in society even more difficult when their wages are kept low through an oversupply of foreign labor. Guest workers will be brought into the country for a few years to perform entry level jobs and then returned to their home countries. Less obvious are the negative effects it would have on upper- and middle-class America.
The program would damage the fabric of American society in ways less extreme, but similar to, the effects of slavery. Just as slavery reinforced racist attitudes towards African-Americans, so a guest worker program would cause racism towards Hispanics. The guest workers, who would be overwhelmingly Hispanic, would be regarded by many Americans as a social class that exists only to pick their fruit, cut their lawns and build their houses. Hispanic advocacy groups ought to see through the temporary allure of good wages for guest workers and recognize what the plan will really do: Help businesses keep wages low, but offer no path for the advancement of Hispanic immigrants in American society.
We need to see beyond the immediate economic advantage that a guest worker plan can offer Americans and see the deeper effects on our culture. America is more than a giant job market, and we ought to treat immigration not just as a way to keep business costs low, but as a way to admit the best and brightest of other countries as American citizens.
Stephen Parsley's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at sparsely@cavalierdaily.com.
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