guest worker

[WS244]

[This message has been edited by WS244]

The Middle East countries have guest worker programs that work.

They are brought over under contract.
Laborers are not allowed to bring their families.
They are not allowed to have citizenship except in unusual circumstances (1%)
They are forced to return to their native country upon completion of their contract. (1 or 2 years)

This takes politics, minority rights issues, disadvantaged issues,  and vote buying issues completely out of the picture.
There is no additional cost of social services for families.
These countries understand there are more educated and uneducated people for the jobs available in the world as it stands, and in the end their own country and peoples suffer if they were to open the flood gates as the U.S and european countries..

[Bob S]

... in response to guest worker, posted by WS244 on Dec 14, 2005

[rant]
The type of guest worker program you mentioned as used in other countries would be a much better solution.  Having been on the other side of the equation (getting a guest worker visa to Japan), I can see how to add safeguards to make sure the worker doesn't become a public burden.  Basically, expand the HB worker visa to include more unskilled workers.  To get an HB visa, you have to be sponsored (sort of) by a company specifically requesting you.  Let the sponsor include mom-n-pop shops that need dishwashers and stock clerks.  Couple that with requirements for salary and benefits (medical coverage) to ensure the worker does not become a public charge.  As long as the worker stays gainfully employed (they can change employers, but as non-greencard holders they cannot get unemployment), law-abiding, and off public assistance, they can repeatedly renew their non-immigrant visa.

The problem is, the HB type visa is available to anyone in the world.  Don't you think there are millions of Fillipinos, Vietnamese, Chinese, MidEast, FSU-country, and African workers who'd love to come over and get a stock clerk job at WalMart?  I doubt the big companies looking for cheap unskilled workers care where the workers come from.  And a broader mix of nationalities is much more fair and in the spirit of America.  But that is not in the interest of the people (namely Bush) pushing the "guest worker" -amnesty program.  The amnesty people are all about appealing to Latino voters at the expense of America collectively performing oral copulation on Vicente Fox.  Any sensible reform that doesn't give preference to the law-breakers already here simply won't fly.

And that is why you won't see real immigration reform till we elect a president willing to stand up to the thugocracy of Mexico.
[/rant]

[WS244]

... in response to Why a real "Guest Worker" prog..., posted by Bob S on Dec 16, 2005

Well i think at this point we have enough mix of nationalities, and it is time for Americans to be Nationalistic about America first.  Other problems with the H1 visa program, let us take Indian Computer workers for example.  They get an H1 visa to work here for half the price of an american worker, but the problem is they never go back to India.  Also remember in India in their much touted largest democracy in the world, their people are not equal, but basically have 5 structures of class or in their case it is known as the "caste" system. So what happens is the well to do Indians that can afford the education get educated, then leave India never to return.  The result being a dis-service to india for talent, and a dis-service to us for more cheap labor.  

Any job one has in the states, laborer to management can be replaced by a foreigner today, including the globalization kings in our own government and in Wallstreet who only care about money and not about Americans.  None of these globalizations guys will ever admit to the truth, that we can never have a level playing field in labor costs. These are money and stock market people, only caring about the stockholders, stockmarket, and themselves, which in reality is nothing more than legalized gambling, some win, but only win because others lose, in this case the american middle class. These globalization people are no different than the Casino owners in las Vegas.  Casinos never go broke, the house is in their favor with an endless supply of ignorant players.  In the Globalization gurus mind they are thriving and getting rich on an endless world wide supply of cheap labor.

Under their rationale since  foreign workers do it cheaper, we Americans just have to reduce our lifestyle to accomadate the rest of the world. Under their bottom line thinking, we then ought to give our space program to the chinese, etc as they can do it cheaper.

Capitalism under its purist form does not work.  Anyone reading history will understand the stock market crash of 29 was due to no restrictions to Wallstreet.  After the crash the FDIC was created, anti trust laws, etc etc.  This globalization is killing our middle class, most americans are not better off than 20 years ago, and eventually people will not even be able to buy in Walmart.          

I just returned from "Exito" in Bogota a few minutes ago. Exito is like a Walmart.  In any case i was looking at their clothing, and almost everything i looked at said "hecho en Colombia"  You give the Chinese any chance at all, and the whole Colombian manufacturing textile business will be gone, along with the manufacturing jobs.  No wonder South America is anti globalization or free trade.  The only way a middleclass can be a middle class, or a middle class even to survive is to have "manufacturing".

China is booming and creating a middle class because of "manufacturing"