Forging a Migration Policy for Capital: Labor Shortages and Guest Workers

Abstract

The expanding use of guest work is the wave of the future global neoliberal capitalism, but is a recurring theme in capitalism. The trade in global labor was pervasive during the Victorian age, second only to trade in finance. As the United States lost manufacturing to the global South, service and professional workers and their unions found it reassuring that that their jobs could not sent abroad. In the last decade, importing service workers from the global South is a dominant trend. As the United States is closing doors to traditional forms of immigration, it promotes migrant labor as a means to fill job shortages created by capital to lower wages. Guest work destabilizes the working class through turning “good jobs” into “bad jobs.” If comprehensive immigration reform includes guest work, borders will close and free migrant labor will become indentured labor. The World Bank and WTO view these programs as the new development model for the global South. Promoting export of skilled and unskilled labor benefits a bare few while driving most workers and peasants into abject poverty while heightening exploitation of labor worldwide.

Notes

¹ Aristide R. Zolberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), pp. 1–24.

² Aristide R. Zolberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), p. 7.

³ Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004), pp. 3–26; Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005); Gwendolyn Mink, Old Labor and New Immigrants in American Political Development: Union, Party and State 1875-1920 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990).

⁴ Nancy Foner, From Ellis Island to JFK: New York's Two Great Waves of Immigration (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 1–31; Roger Waldinger (ed.), Strangers at the Gates: New Immigrants in Urban America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001), pp. 1–29.

⁵ See David Bacon, The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005); Héctor L. Delgado, New Immigrants, Old Unions: Organizing Undocumented Workers in Los Angeles (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993); Leon Fink, Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001); Peter Kwong, Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor (New York: The New Press, 1999); Ruth Milkman, LA Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2006); Ruth Milkman (ed.), Organizing Immigrants: The Challenge for Unions in Contemporary California (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000); Immanuel Ness, Immigrants Unions and the New U.S. Labor Market (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005); Ngai, op. cit.

⁶ J. D. Hayworth, Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2006); Tom Tancredo, In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security (Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 2006). In these two books, two Republican house members, J.D. Hayworth (Arizona) and 2008 presidential aspirant Tom Tancredo (Colorado), go so far as to assert that undocumented immigrants are sources of terrorism, compete with US citizens for jobs, and are barbarians harboring ideology counter to the American Judeo-Christian ethic. Patrick Buchanan, the former Nixon press secretary and presidential candidate. See Patrick Buchanan, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006).

⁷ “Immigration and the GOP: Is it Still the Party of Reagan, or of Tom Tancredo?” Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2006.

⁸ Darryl Fears, “Immigration Measure Introduced,” The Washington Post, May 13, 2005, p. A08.

⁹ Carl Hulse and Adam Nagourney, “Short on Money, McCain Campaign Dismisses Dozens,” The New York Times, July 3, 2007, p. A1.

¹⁰ Thomas Frank, What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (New York: Henry Holt, 2004).

¹¹ Zolberg, op. cit., pp. 99–124.

¹² Foner, op. cit., pp. 142–168; Nancy Foner, In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration (New York: New York University Press, 2005).

¹³ Daniels, op. cit.; Andrew Gyory, Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998); Mink, op. cit., pp. 94–96.

¹⁴ US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), “Legislation from 1790–1900,” < www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/Legislation%20from%201790%20-%201900.pdf>.

¹⁵ Joseph Nevins, Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the Illegal Alien and the Making of the U.S-Mexico Boundary (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2001), pp. 32–33.

¹⁶ Leah Haus, Unions, Immigration, and Internationalization: New Challenges and Changing Coalitions in the United States and France (New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2002), ch. 1.

¹⁷ USCIS, Immigration and Nationality Act: INA 203: Allocation of Immigration Visas. Sec 203 [8 U.S.C. 1153]. Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security, 2004. < http://uscis.gov/propub/DocView/slbid/1/2/15?hilite = >.

¹⁸ Glenn Firebaugh, The New Geography of Global Income Inequality (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003) contends that in the 1970s, a historic transformation occurred: the income gap between the global North and South reached a climax and has continued a steady process of decline. Subsequently the differentiation in income between the North and South has narrowed. From 1970 to 2005 relocation of manufacturing and services from the North to the low-wage South has increased corporate profitability. Nevertheless, finance capitalists situated in the North repatriate profits to the North, driving down standards of living in the South. Concurrently, inequality began to expand within countries as the disparity of income between the rich and the poor began to grow. In both the South and North, a redistribution of income is occurring from the working class and poor to corporations and the upper class. In the South, inequality has widened further as new non-unionized industry displaces older firms that had unions that facilitated greater labor protection.

¹⁹ In 2006, the UNPC reported that almost half of all international migrants are female, and that they “outnumber male migrants in developed countries.” See United Nations Commission on Population and Development, United Nations Economic and Social Council POP/943, 3 April 2006, 39th session, 2nd Meeting; and United Nations Press Release POP/844, New York, 28 October 2002.

²⁰ Mike Davis, Planet of Slums (London: Verso, 2006).

²¹ Gilbert Gonzalez, Guest Workers or Colonized Labor?: Mexican Labor Migration to the United States (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2006), p. 7. He views US guest worker programs as an imperialist strategy equivalent to historic British and French colonial policies in India and Algeria. His study of Mexicans in the US Bracero guest worker program supports the position that corporate and business monoliths drive labor migration. Contract laborers are disposable, sent back to their home countries when they complete their tasks. In effect, since 1917 the United States functioned as a labor contractor through the establishment of the Bracero agreements, bringing low-wage labor from Mexico to work in agriculture and transportation industries during periods of labor shortage in World War I and World War II. In turn, Mexico performed the duties of labor recruiter for large-scale agricultural interests in the southwest and in the east. Braceros were readily available and disposable, effortlessly controlled and efficient, and, best of all, cheap.

²² Beverly J. Silver, Forces of Labor: Workers’ Movements and Globalization since 1870 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 26–27.

²⁵ Tamar Jacoby, “Immigration Reform: Politics and Prospects,” Speech to the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, January 10, 2005.

²³ The White House, “Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Securing Our Border,” Washington, DC, April 24, 2006, < http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/immigration>.

²⁴ Tamar Jacoby, “Testimony of Tamar Jacoby before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary,” Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, July 26, 2005.

²⁶ Office of Trade and Industry Information, Manufacturing and Services, International Trade Administration, US Department of Commerce, TradeStats Express™, National Trade Data, 2006, < http://tse.export.gov/NTDMapPP.aspx? UniqueURL = dtkj5ranxj1s414xtb1m045-2006-4-21-2006>.

²⁷ The WTO comprises 146 member states that agree to lower tariffs and obstacles to free trade. The WTO polices the agreements and adjudicates conflict over free trade barriers, serving as a forum for negotiations that expand free trade in diverse sectors of the global economy. In the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the United States is at the forefront of pushing for passage of a broad agreement covering an array of financial services and technology. While the United States operates a huge deficit in trade in manufacturing, there is a modest surplus in trade in services. See Sydney J. Sydney Key, The Doha Round and Financial Services Negotiations (Washington, DC: The AEI Press, 2003) and Richard Peet, Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank, and WTO (London: Zed Books, 2003).

²⁹ The World Bank, Global Economic Prospects: Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration: 2006 (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2006).

²⁸ As Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2005, Paul Wolfowitz formed part of a small inner circle of strategic advisers to President Bush on the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He became the president's chief propagandist to rally public support for the invasion, taking the nation on a unilateral path in world affairs, and was the architect and proponent of the Bush Doctrine, which calls for pre-emption—the notion that the United States may use military force against a regime it deems dangerous to its interests. Following Wolfowitz's appointment to lead the World Bank, global remittances have become the most salient feature of development in the global South, more revealing of the vital importance of low-wage migration to the North than a development —plan for the South.

³⁰ George W. Bush, speech delivered January 4, 2004, Washington, DC, < http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040107-3.html>.

³¹ The White House, “Fact Sheet: Fair and Secure Immigration Reform,” Office of the Press Secretary, < http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040107-1.html>.

³² This growing opposition is becoming increasingly evident. IT and engineering workers and unions threatened by low-wage guest workers, who may undermine established terms of trade or wages, claim that opening a guest worker migration program undermines social and economic standards by driving down wages. National, state, and local organizations continue to appeal to Congress to eliminate guest worker programs and enforce the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which bans unauthorized immigrants from working in the United States. The intensity of the debate extends to immigrants—both documented and undocumented—who dramatically oppose a guest worker program. Guest workers, who are not subject to government labor laws, represent a threat to all workers in the United States. Employers of contract workers are not subject to federal wage and hour legislation or to the National Labor Relations Act, which permits workers to form unions. As guest workers, they are subject to employer tyranny and threats of deportation rather than simply dismissal. While US courts are diminishing the rights of undocumented immigrants to organize, most still have the ability to find a new employer. If governed by a guest worker program, migrant workers would be subject to immediate deportation.

³³ Randal C. Archibald, “Strategy Sessions Fueled Immigration Marches,” The New York Times, April 12, 2006, p. A16.

³⁴ Rachel L. Swarns, “Immigrants Rally in Scores of Cities for Legal Status,” The New York Times, April 11, 2006, p. A1.

³⁵ Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Stephen Yale-Loehr contend that the United States must shift its focus to stress an economic stream of migration to provide the labor force needed to promote industrial development. They argue that the social stream of migration, which focuses on family reunification, and the compassionate stream, which provides asylum to refugees, for very long the center of US immigration policy, do not offer benefits to the economy. Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Stephen Yale-Loehr, Balancing Interests: Rethinking U.S. Selection of Skilled Immigrants, International Migration Policy Program Series, Vol. 4 (New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1996), p. 15.

³⁶ American Hospitality, Travel, Tourism and Franchise Industries, “Letter to U.S. Senate,” February 10, 2006.

³⁷ Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, “Businesses Urge Review and Consideration of Compromise” Offered by Senators Mel Martinez (R-Florida) and Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska). Press release, April 5, 2006.

³⁸ Duménil and Lévy see finance as the major beneficiary of the transfer of wealth. Indeed, financial companies stand to benefit from the major industry crises, for example, as declarations of bankruptcy provide the opportunity to restructure companies. During the course of corporate restructuring a bankrupt corporation may lay-off workers en masse, sharply reduce wage rates, and cut benefits to lay the groundwork for restoring financial profitability. David Harvey brilliantly makes use of Duménil and Lévy's work to demonstrate concretely the reassertion of capital—through a historical examination of privatization, market reform, and the growth of financial institutions in Chile, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy, Capital Resurgent: Roots of the Neoliberal Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004); originally published as Crise et Sortie de Crise: Ordre et Désordres Néolibéraux (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2000); David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).

³⁹ US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Members in 2006,” January 20, < ftp://ftp:/ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/union2.txt>

⁴⁰ The World Bank, op. cit., pp. 29–33.

⁴¹ The World Bank, op. cit., pp. 29–33.

⁴² John L. Helgerson, “The National Security Implications of Global Demographic Change,” speech to the National Intelligence Council, 2002, < http://www.dni.gov/nic/speeches_demochange.htm>.

⁴³ United States Trade Representative, “US Submits Revised Services Offer to the WTO,” < http://www.ustr.gov/Docuent_Library/Press_Releases/2005/MayUS_Submits_Revised_Services_offer_to_the_WTO.html>.

⁴⁴ Jacoby, “Testimony of Tamar Jacoby,” op. cit.

⁴⁵ Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., “Evaluating a Temporary Guest Worker Proposal—Guest Workers Programs for Low-Skilled Workers: Lessons from the Past and Warnings for the Future,” Testimony to United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, GPO, Washington, DC, February 5, 2005.

⁴⁶ Ken Dychtwald, Tamara J. Erickson, and Robert Morison, Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming of Skills and Talent (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2006).

⁴⁷ Philip Sheldon Foner, The Great Labor Uprising of 1877 (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1977).

⁴⁸ Henry Pelling, “The Knights of Labor in Britain, 1880–1901,” The Economic History Review 9 (1956), p. 314.