my support of the bush administration's new guest worker proposal has caused some controversy in the below comments. hydro directs my attention to this page from the afl-cio working families site. as a union-side labor lawyer, the afl-cio's opinion holds a lot of weight with me, but i still think i disagree with them on this one.
the afl-cio site quotes its president john sweeney as saying that the guest worker plan would "create[] a permanent underclass of workers who are unable to fully participate in democracy." but that's not really true. there already is a permanent underclass of workers who are unable to fully participate in democracy--illegal aliens. while it's true that the plan does not make illegals citizens (the only way the could fully participate), its doesn't make them any worse off than they already are. in fact, if what is proposed actually happens, i think it will make things incrementally better for the former illegal alien who becomes a guest worker.
the afl-cio site also quotes seiu executive vice president eliseo medina criticizing the plan because it "tells immigrants you have no right to earn citizenship." but that is not true either. as i understand the plan, while the guest worker program itself would not be an avenue to citizenship, guest workers would be allowed to apply for permanent resident alien status (otherwise known as a "green card," usually a step along the way to citizenship) or apply directly for citizenship if they marry an american. (see the 14th "SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL" statement in this post on josh marshall's site). in other words, holding a guest worker visa is no barrier to citizenship. it just will not automatically lead to citizenship either. on the other hand, a guest worker will not have any of the usual hindrences to citizenship an illegal alien has. absent an amnesty, illegal aliens cannot apply for citizenship without lying on their application. thus, by turning an illegal alien into a guest worker, it actually will make it easier for theformer illegal to become a citizen than it is for them as an illegal alien under the status quo.
one question about this proposal is whether the guest worker will come from the pool of people who are currently illegal and people who would become illegal absent a guest worker program, or whether it will come from the pool of people who would otherwise become permanent residents. much of the criticism of the policy seems to contrast the proposed guest worker status with the rights of permanent residents. there is no question that the guest worker is worse off than a permanent resident. on the other hand, there is also no question (in my mind) that a guest worker is better off than an illegal alien. because the program seems to be designed to move people who would otherwise be illegal (and not permanent residents) into the guest worker program, it represents an incremental improvement from the status quo. and that is why i am in favor of it.
this controversy also raises the issue of incrementalism. ideally, i am for virtually open borders (by virtually, i mean i approve of a few barriers to movement that i don't want to get into here). a guest worker visa, like any visa requirement, clearly falls short of that. but i am also enough of a realist to recognize that it is politically impossible for my ideal to be enacted anytime soon, so i am willing to settle for incremental reform that moves things slightly closer to the ideal by legalizing, in at least a limited sense, the movement of more people to this country. incrementalism has its dangers. there is always the danger that the restrictions inherent in the incremental reforms will become entrenched, thus making it more difficult to move further towards the ideal. i recognize that there is a real danger of this in a guest worker program (for example, consider germany's guest worker program which has created an entrenched disenfranchised class of turkish "immigrants," many of whom actually were born in germany. reform of this system, which is currently at least four decades old, has proved extremely difficult. note, however, that the 14th amendment would prevent us from having the same problem as the germans). nevertheless, even considering the danger of entrenchment, i think this proposal would improve the lot of illegals and that promise of even slight improvement outweighs my reservations.
i welcome anyone to convince me otherwise. i also recognize that i could be getting some of the factual details of the proposal wrong. please feel free to correct me. until then, however, i remain in favor of bush's guest worker proposal.
