U.S. Immigration Policy Exploits Low-Wage Foreign Workers

To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing Barbara Ehrenreich’s article, “The Shameful Treatment of America’s Poor” (September 20). I write to express my concern that many policy makers wish to escape feelings of shame about American poverty, not by addressing its causes, but by using immigration policy to redefine who is “American.”

Some politicians favor massive “guest-worker” programs, under which foreign citizens work in the United States on temporary visas. At the end of their employment, guest workers must leave the country without the opportunity to become permanent resident immigrants or citizens. That “non-immigrant” status denies them economic, political, and legal bargaining power.

Fear of being fired and deported means that few guest workers would dare to join a labor union, for example. Some policy makers argue that millions of people in poorer countries would, and should, be grateful for the opportunity to work in low-wage jobs under these conditions in the United States.

I am afraid that guest-worker programs, in part, are perceived as a way to avoid feeling shame about low-wage workers’ problems. We could feel less guilty when averting our eyes from poverty because the victims would be temporary foreign workers, not “Americans” and not even immigrants who eventually would become “Americans.” The immigration policy debate has profound implications for our antipoverty efforts.

Bruce Goldstein
Co-Executive Director
Farmworker Justice Fund Inc.
Washington