From: Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Immigration and Inequality Re: Race to the Bottom Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 19:10:11 -0800 (PST)
--- "John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > JDG - Who thinks that Bush's guest worker program is > one of his shining > moments so far.
I haven't analyzed it in detail, but from what I've seen, I'm not impressed. It seems to me that there's a real danger in his program of creating a permanent class of guest workers - exactly the program that the Europeans have tried and that has failed miserably for them.
I did glance at the proposal and agree with Gautam's assessment.
Bush's plan is essentially the same as the disastrous attempts made by the Swiss and French decades ago. I fail to see how anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of how those (and other) programs failed could think this plan had any hope of success.
In particular, two main problems stand out:
1) A guest worker program doesn't necessarily impact the rate of illegal immigration into the host country. No limits have been set for the numbers of workers who can/will be given the 3 year work permit.
2) (and more importantly) Once the guest workers experience life in the host country, they never, ever want to leave. There's no provision for enforcement to remove them and keep them from becoming illegals once their permits expire. Without one, the long-term negative impact to our economy could be severe.
The second problem will eventually, inevitably, result in the worker class Gautam referred to.
There may be other problems, but these are the ones that jumped out at me. I was pleased to see that they put provisions in place to limit employer exploitation of workers without citizenship. But that's not enough of an improvement over past, failed plans.
Jon
Le Blog: http://zarq.livejournal.com
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