“What you tend to get are college-educated Eastern Europeans with a fabulous work ethic who are willing to put in long hours and by far outperform and are more reliable than comparable American employees—if you could even get them.”
I’ve read about the summer workers from Eastern Europe and that at least they do as you describe. Unfortunately, the far greater number of temporary workers are from south-of-the-border. They might come in legally, but more likely illegally, or they’re already here. A true temporary worker program where the workers go home makes sense, but like most everything related to immigration and illegal aliens, our government still has little or no desire to enforce the law.
What you’re describing is the exception, not the rule.
When my employer did a construction project to expand the building, one of the contractors hired these educated Eastern Europeans with a fabulous work ethic to do the electrical work. They performed efficiently and did the work according to European code standards. The whole building was done that way, and is still that way. Caused a lot of problems.