“For anybody who believes that there will be a wild and endless flow of [Mexican migrants] into the future, that’s just not realistic,” said Craig Regelbrugge, vice president for government relations at the American Nursery and Landscape Association, a trade group.
According to industry estimates, U.S. farms hire more than 2 million workers each year, at least half of whom are thought to be in the country illegally.
Yoo Woo-sung made strides in Seoul. Then his sister told interrogators he was on a mission for the North.
The launch, reported by South Korea, tests the recent calm on the peninsula after a period of heightened tension.
Many are outraged by a bill that would allow French universities to teach more courses in English.
Concerns over genetically modified seeds could cripple talks that aim to boost European, U.S. economies.
After losing value for years, U.S. currency is thriving in the fast-wilting economy Hugo Chavez left behind.
Farm laborers already tend to earn minimum wage or more, experts say, so employers wouldn’t necessarily have to pay higher wages to guest workers than what they currently pay illegal migrants.
Still, some U.S. farmers and other employers fear that if the illegal workforce is granted legal status or “amnestied,”, many of those workers will seek jobs in less-arduous occupations.
Between 1942 and 1964, U.S. “bracero” programs issued 4.5 million visas to Mexican guest workers, and today some of the same U.S. labor unions that pushed to have the programs eliminated support bringing in more guest workers.
“We don’t want to see domestic workers displaced, but we also recognize the legitimate needs that U.S. growers have,” said Erik Nicholson, a national vice president of the United Farm Workers, which wants to unionize the Mexican laborers even before they arrive in the United States.
In turn, many growers now back the unions’ insistence that temporary workers have the freedom to change employers, instead of tying their immigration status to a single job.
Under the U.S. program for seasonal agriculture workers, there is no cap on the number of visas that can be issued. But many U.S. employers prefer not to use it because the system is slow and onerous, experts say, and they instead rely on illegal migrants.
Tailored to encourage return
Until 2008, Mexican officials here in Zacatecas state worked with the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey to select temporary workers and facilitate their visa applications. But despite safeguards, officials said the program was fraught with abuses, including recruiters who would bring workers north and “sell” them to other farms and employers.
When the U.S. recession hit and demand for seasonal workers fell, Zacatecas officials said they stopped working with the U.S. Consulate.
Now they work exclusively with Canada and plan to triple the number of workers who go north, where they earn hourly wages of at least $10, as much as they would make in a day back home. Recruits are screened by Mexican officials based on education level, skills and health, but 80 percent of the workers are returnees whose employers have requested to bring them back.
At the end of the season last year, all 274 guest workers from Zacatecas returned home from Canada, according to state officials and the migrants.
This, of course, was by design.
Only married men are eligible for the Canadian program, preferably those with young children, and their families must remain in Mexico. Another incentive to return home: a cut of the migrants’ wages is placed in a Canadian pension fund, receivable only if they return to Mexico.
The Post Most: WorldMost-viewed stories, videos and galleries int he past two hours
Our Correspondents on Twitter
Loading...
Comments