Farmers are responding with four strategies: satisfy current workers to retain them, stretch them with mechanical aids that increase their productivity, substitute machines for workers, and supplement current workers with H-2A
guest workers.
In this study, we develop a quantitative general equilibrium (GE) model of native workers, assess the impact of various
guest worker programs on the Japanese economy, and evaluate the welfare effects of these programs on the native Japanese.
It seems clear, then, that broad, diverse immigration policies can strengthen the nation, while targeted, restrictive
guest worker policies are more likely to undermine it.
Historically,
guest worker programs in the United States served as a solution for addressing the shortfall of workers during wartime.
During the first attempt to deal with illegal migration in the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, farm employers and worker advocates eventually agreed on a compromise that legalized unauthorized farm workers who had completed at least 90 days of farm work in 1985-86 and made employer-friendly changes to the then agricultural
guest worker program, whose name was changed from H-2 to H-2A.
Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) led the opposition to the
guest worker program, arguing that temporary farm workers should have shorter stays working in the United States.
This exemption attracted business opportunities, which led to a high demand for
guest workers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises the US Citizenship and Immigration Services of vaccination requirements for those applying for immigration and work visas before the applications are approved (1).
In The
Guest Worker Question in Postwar Germany, Rita Chin guides us through fifty years of public debates about labour migration and multiculturalism in the Federal Republic of Germany.
The first chapter sets the tone here, entitled "Aras Oren and the
Guest Worker Question." Her literary analysis and her explanation of the strategies these writers and artists have followed to find their voice and gain a hearing in Germany are extraordinary.
The Bush administration also made changes to the H-2A
guest worker program so the government will not have to provide oversight of workers' housing and worksite conditions.
A
guest worker scheme no doubt would benefit the individuals lucky enough to be selected to participate in it, but it is not a development solution for the Pacific.
The most important contribution of Chin's work to scholarship in the field lies in her remarkably thorough and systematic evaluation of thus far neglected issues inherent in the
guest worker question within the context of Germany as well as Western Europe at large.
