Posted on 01/13/2004 4:47:35 PM PST by lonewacko_dot_com
[Unfortunately, the full text of this article is not available online. You need to either click the link above and pay $5.95, or go to your local library and look for 80 Foreign Affairs No. 6, November/December 2001. I've excerpted some of the more interesting parts of the article below.]
The only problem with this "win-win" scenario is that it will not work. Bush's proposal [the 2001 proposal --LW] ignores the fact that virtually no low-wage "temporary worker" program in a high-wage liberal democracy has ever turned out to be genuinely temporary. On the contrary, most initially small (and often "emergency") temporary worker programs have grown much larger, and lasted far longer, than originally promised.
...guest worker programs are virtual recipes for mutual dependence between employers and the migrants who work for them. Employers naturally grow to depend on the supply of low-wage and compliant labor, relaxing their domestic recruitment efforts and adjusting their production methods to take advantage of the cheap labor. History has shown that in agriculture (where many Mexican guest workers would be employed), a pool of cheap workers gives farm owners strong incentives to expand the planting of labor-intensive crops rather than invest in mechanized labor-saving equipment and the crops suitable for it...
...political leaders have often belatedly discovered that admitting temporary low-wage workers unnaturally sustains industries with low productivity and wages, such as garment manufacturing, labor-intensive agriculture, and domestic services. In consequence, the economy's overall productivity and growth suffer...
Proponents of a new Mexico-U.S. often portray it as a legal and humane alternative to what has become a huge problem - the unauthorized mass migration of Mexicans to the United States. Such advocates seem blind, however, to the unequivocal lessons of history. Far from mitigating illegal immigration, the two countries' last major temporary worker program actually initiated and accelerated its flow. During the so-called bracero ("strong-armed one") program from 1942 to 1964, the number of unauthorized Mexicans slipping across the border actually expanded in parallel with the number of authorized temporary workers; the illegal flows then continued to accelerate after the program's termination... Today, scholars largely agree that the 22 years of bracero employment created the conditions for the subsequent boom of unauthorized Mexican migration...
...California Farmer reported in 1963 that if the flow of braceros stopped, tomato growers and canners "agree the State will never [again be able to plant] the 100,000 to 175,000 acres planted when there was a guaranteed supplemental labor force in the form of the braceros..."
Reality, however, never confirmed these dire predictions. In 1960 some 45,000 farm workers (mostly braceros) had harvested 2.2 million tons of processing tomatoes. By 1999, it took only 5,000 workers to operate machinery that harvested some 12 million tons. Thanks to these efficiency gains from mechanization, the real price of processing tomatoes declined 54 percent while per capita consumption rose 23 percent...
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignaffairs.org ...
No I haven't. Americans will choose the cheapest produce. If that turns out to be produce shipped from Mexico or SA, so be it.
And these people aren't "slaves". They're willing workers. Anyone who risks death to get to a job is hardly a "slave".
No, we can't, because not all Republicans think alike. There might be one *you* like better, but it's sure that there would be a lot of others who would dislike him or her even more than you dislike Bush.
The jobs that illegal immigrants take are ones that require no English, no high school diploma, and no training or background check. If we have many Americans who are looking for jobs like that, we have a much bigger problem than immigration. Every American should have a high school diploma and some work training.
We don't know. Nor do we know how many Chinese get here in cargo ships. We just know that people get here this way.
And, BTW, if we cut off the desert crossing for people from Mexico, do you really think they wouldn't start taking boats from their coast to ours?
We don't know. Nor do we know how many Chinese get here in cargo ships. We just know that people get here this way.
And, BTW, if we cut off the desert crossing for people from Mexico, do you really think they wouldn't start taking boats from their coast to ours?
We don't know. Nor do we know how many Chinese get here in cargo ships. We just know that people get here this way.
And, BTW, if we cut off the desert crossing for people from Mexico, do you really think they wouldn't start taking boats from their coast to ours?
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