Actually it is American Samoa, and the temporary workers did receive a lower wage than normal residents, but the net benefit of their employment and the economic activity around both canneries was positive for the territory.
The loss of one cannery caused a recession and the territory hasn't recovered. The politicians, rather than taking effective measures to revamp the tax code to attract investment, and rather than paying their bills to private sector vendors, has chosen to increase hiring for public sector jobs, and this has severely impacted public services, and created a huge spending and budget crisis. They're raising taxes again this week to try and make up for it, but frankly that's stupid because they don't even collect all the taxes they're owed from all the cheating that goes on, so this means that only the honest businesses and honest people will be paying full taxes and the not so honest will prosper, which will in turn cause more problems and more corruption.
Thanks for fixing my tangle plus your perspectives and detail on the issues of importance to the territory.