Recently, after hitting my destination floor button, I was waiting for the elevator doors to close when I saw a young man walking towards the closing gap between the doors. I hurriedly pushed the “open doors” button to allow him to enter. After gaining entry the very first thing he did was push the close doors button. This, I thought, is a perfect metaphor for the immigration problem in USA. Everybody is grateful somebody inside has made some effort to keep doors open for them, but once inside they want to close the doors on others. Especially when those inside have the perception that the approaching others threaten to impede them from elevating their lot as quickly as they desire.
the very first thing he did was push the close doors button. This, I thought, is a perfect metaphor for the immigration problem in USA
Of course the interlopers who are most often visible outside the doors, the ones who congregate on the ground floor, are the ones the insiders feel most justified closing the doors on. If the person wishing to ascend is entering on a higher floor, they have the advantage of the perception of permission, because they are already inside.
Those on the ground floor are the desperate and destitute. A large portion of would-be immigrants from South America are among them. A large portion of immigrants from Asia are upper floor entrants, because they have gained entry through the student ‘side’ door or had an insider allow them to enter. Since 2013 immigrants from India and China have been the largest and second largest immigrant groups. The majority of these immigrants enter legally.
Since 2013 immigrants from India and China have been the largest and second largest immigrant groups.
What are the conditions of this “legal” entry? Foreign students can apply for an “Optional Practical Training” program extension to their student visa and stay in USA for up to 3 years after graduation. During this time they can stay for up to two years simply searching for work. Their employer is not required to pay a prevailing wage, a minimum wage –employers often consider them as interns and pay (or don’t) them accordingly– or provide benefits that would be required for employing a US citizen. There are no limitations on the amount of these visas granted each year. By the end of the period 2004 to 2016, more than 1.4 million OPT visa extensions were approved.
Companies with offices both in USA and abroad can bring their foreign employees into USA on L1 visas. Again there are no minimum pay requirements for these employees. Employers often pay these employees the same salary the employee would receive in their home country, regardless of the cost of living expenses where they are employed. There are no limitations on the amount of these visas granted each year.
There are no limitations on the amount of OPT visa extensions and L1 visas granted each year, and no minimum wage requirements.
H1B or special talent visas. Employers hire immigrants under this visa program to theoretically hire employees with skills they can’t find in USA. These visas have many more proof of need and wage requirements than the previous two. Until recent years they were the largest legal working visa group but they have been eclipsed by OPT visa holders. Although there is a quota on yearly H1B visas, unused visas are allowed to roll over to successive years.
Proponents of preserving or expanding current work visa programs claim they are necessary to fill high demand, high qualifications job openings, and to ensure American companies and institutions are staffed by the world’s best talent. If this is in fact the principal motivation for corporations to hire immigrants over American citizens, then they shouldn’t have any objections to paying these exceptional specialists equal to their American counterparts. If the OPT employee is justifiably paid as an intern because he or she is being trained for the job, then why can’t that company ‘train’ a US citizen? Of course there is another reason for hiring an immigrant over a US citizen, and that is subservience. Asian cultures have a high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance. This means they are considerably less likely to challenge authority figures even when they know their labor rights are being violated.
another reason for hiring an immigrant over a US citizen is subservience
Many who defend immigration or challenge tougher border enforcement policies, often remind people that America is predominantly a nation of immigrants. Most of our ancestors, they say, came here as equally desperate as those seeking entry today. And that prior to the twentieth century, most immigrants arrived without permission to enter USA, because there were no laws preventing their entry.
This argument refuses to acknowledge some truths about immigration today.
First: It is possible for even people of modest means to travel from their homes, nearly anywhere in the world, to the USA in less than a week.
Second: We are all instantly, and personally connected to people of our choosing, anyplace in the world with little or no concern for national boundaries or cultural conventions.
Third: The employment opportunities for immigrants in USA are increasingly clustered in coastal metropolitan areas. During the immigrant waves of the 18th to 20th centuries, there were land development, resource extraction jobs and infrastructure development projects to disperse immigrants more evenly across the country.
Requiring companies to extend equal benefits and pay to all immigrants on par with his or her American counterpart will not open up hundreds of thousands of jobs to US citizens. It may slightly decrease foreign enrolment in US universities. In this case, neither of these consequences are important. What is important is the message it sends to American workers. By requiring employers to pay a prevailing wage to immigrant labor, American citizens can believe their government is defending and not undermining American citizens.
American middle class citizens want desperately to know some people in their government understand the value of ‘made in America, by Americans.’
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For more reading:
Pew Research: Foreign Students staying in USA after Graduation
The Hill: Effects of Foreign Work Visas on US Wages
Center for Immigration Studies: History of Optional Practical Training Program
Composite image created from source images at: Pixabay