The New Slaves--Temporary Guest Workers
America has many different kinds of temporary guest worker visa programs. There's even a separate visa for models and actors.
I don't think there is a cap on how many famous models and actors can enter America to work, but there is a limit for all the other occupations. And it is a good thing there is a limit because once a person enters the United States on a temporary guest worker visa, the federal government does nothing to insure that person will ever leave after the visa and its legal extensions run out. A few guest workers apply for green cards after enough time passes, but most just stay around as illegals to make more money to send home.
Most guest workers are not interested in becoming immigrants. They simply want to keep working in America until they have accumulated as much money as they believe they need to start their real life: as rich young retirees in their homelands. Working here is their get-rich-quick scheme.
Many countries do not have temporary work visas (not counting entertainers). If you are an American, don't try to get a temporary visa to work in Mexico or Canada. Both of those countries jealously guard jobs for their own citizens.
Guest workers are paid only a fraction of what American citizens receive and they do not get any benefits. Bill Gates and every landscaper in America want unlimited guest workers and if they got their way, we'd all be replaced in short order. After all, they are dirt-cheap and we are not.
After official guest worker visas expire and all legal extensions have run out, guest workers convert to illegal aliens if they remain in America. However most of them are technically employed by recruiting agencies so employers don't care if they are legal or not.
If foreign nationals can be used and abused as guest workers, they can really be mistreated once they are illegals. Once the guest worker converts to an illegal, there is always an implicit threat of deportation if the American employer is not pleased. A lot of employers fancy employees they can make unreasonable demands on, employees who are not in a position to talk back or to refuse to do what they are told to do.
I haven't seen anyone whipped, but I have seen people forced to work forty-eight hour shifts without breaks. New Slaves indeed.
I don't think most Americans would really fuss if an unlimited number of people were allowed into the country for part of the year to pick crops or mow lawns and then go home. People who enter the country to do six months of stoop labor each year are not earning enough to pay taxes (even if they don't get cheated out of part of their wages--which happens) but they aren't much of an expense to the taxpayer either. Temporary guest workers may not have medical insurance, but it is not care for legal guest workers that bankrupts hospitals.
Nurses enter the United States as guest workers in large numbers. We need to import nurses as guest workers because we are not willing to spend the money necessary to train enough nurses of our own. As a result we bleed nurses out of poorer countries--countries where nurses are the sole health care system. We are not the only nation doing this, of course. Other industrialized nations--like England--also loot poorer nations of their nurses rather than opening nursing schools and paying experienced nurses a fair wage to be professors.
Then there are occupations like information technology. In America there are already tens of thousands of unemployed (and frequently older) citizens who are experienced in information technology and would be happy to learn new skills if their prior experience wasn't good enough. But Bill Gates says he needs an unlimited number of temporary guest workers. Our politicians fawn over Bill Gates because he's made himself so rich. Never mind that he's made himself rich by making tens of thousands of other Americans poor.
Even in occupations like information technology and nursing where the guest worker is educated and skilled, the majority of the guest worker's wages are often paid into overseas accounts. If not, the guest worker generally chooses to send money home for the future.
Guest workers are often assigned to live in dorms or cramped substandard housing provided by the American employer or by the recruiting company that contracted the guest worker to come to America.
Not everyone comes to America as a guest worker because they like or respect America. Coming to the United States is a lucrative opportunity for most of the people who come here as legal guest workers. They come here for the money, prepared to sacrifice part of their youth for future comfort and security at home. They probably are not aware that they are being taken advantage of until they actually get here. Sometimes they leave America liking it less than when they arrived. Their presence makes a few rich Americans richer. Their presence makes America poorer.
I don't think there is a cap on how many famous models and actors can enter America to work, but there is a limit for all the other occupations. And it is a good thing there is a limit because once a person enters the United States on a temporary guest worker visa, the federal government does nothing to insure that person will ever leave after the visa and its legal extensions run out. A few guest workers apply for green cards after enough time passes, but most just stay around as illegals to make more money to send home.
Most guest workers are not interested in becoming immigrants. They simply want to keep working in America until they have accumulated as much money as they believe they need to start their real life: as rich young retirees in their homelands. Working here is their get-rich-quick scheme.
Many countries do not have temporary work visas (not counting entertainers). If you are an American, don't try to get a temporary visa to work in Mexico or Canada. Both of those countries jealously guard jobs for their own citizens.
Guest workers are paid only a fraction of what American citizens receive and they do not get any benefits. Bill Gates and every landscaper in America want unlimited guest workers and if they got their way, we'd all be replaced in short order. After all, they are dirt-cheap and we are not.
After official guest worker visas expire and all legal extensions have run out, guest workers convert to illegal aliens if they remain in America. However most of them are technically employed by recruiting agencies so employers don't care if they are legal or not.
If foreign nationals can be used and abused as guest workers, they can really be mistreated once they are illegals. Once the guest worker converts to an illegal, there is always an implicit threat of deportation if the American employer is not pleased. A lot of employers fancy employees they can make unreasonable demands on, employees who are not in a position to talk back or to refuse to do what they are told to do.
I haven't seen anyone whipped, but I have seen people forced to work forty-eight hour shifts without breaks. New Slaves indeed.
I don't think most Americans would really fuss if an unlimited number of people were allowed into the country for part of the year to pick crops or mow lawns and then go home. People who enter the country to do six months of stoop labor each year are not earning enough to pay taxes (even if they don't get cheated out of part of their wages--which happens) but they aren't much of an expense to the taxpayer either. Temporary guest workers may not have medical insurance, but it is not care for legal guest workers that bankrupts hospitals.
Nurses enter the United States as guest workers in large numbers. We need to import nurses as guest workers because we are not willing to spend the money necessary to train enough nurses of our own. As a result we bleed nurses out of poorer countries--countries where nurses are the sole health care system. We are not the only nation doing this, of course. Other industrialized nations--like England--also loot poorer nations of their nurses rather than opening nursing schools and paying experienced nurses a fair wage to be professors.
Then there are occupations like information technology. In America there are already tens of thousands of unemployed (and frequently older) citizens who are experienced in information technology and would be happy to learn new skills if their prior experience wasn't good enough. But Bill Gates says he needs an unlimited number of temporary guest workers. Our politicians fawn over Bill Gates because he's made himself so rich. Never mind that he's made himself rich by making tens of thousands of other Americans poor.
Even in occupations like information technology and nursing where the guest worker is educated and skilled, the majority of the guest worker's wages are often paid into overseas accounts. If not, the guest worker generally chooses to send money home for the future.
Guest workers are often assigned to live in dorms or cramped substandard housing provided by the American employer or by the recruiting company that contracted the guest worker to come to America.
Not everyone comes to America as a guest worker because they like or respect America. Coming to the United States is a lucrative opportunity for most of the people who come here as legal guest workers. They come here for the money, prepared to sacrifice part of their youth for future comfort and security at home. They probably are not aware that they are being taken advantage of until they actually get here. Sometimes they leave America liking it less than when they arrived. Their presence makes a few rich Americans richer. Their presence makes America poorer.
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