Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Workers Without Borders

By Jennifer Gordon, New York Times op-ed
March 9, 2009

Americans are hardly in the mood to welcome new immigrants. The last thing we need, the reasoning goes, is more competition for increasingly scarce jobs. But the need for immigration reform is more urgent than ever. The current system hurts wages and working conditions — for everyone.

Today, millions of undocumented immigrants accept whatever wage is offered. They don’t protest out of fear of being fired or deported. A few hundred thousand guest workers, brought in for seasonal and agricultural jobs, know that asserting their rights could result in a swift flight home. This system traps migrants in bad jobs and ends up lowering wages all around.

Read the full op-ed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/opinion/10gordon.html?ref=opinion

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