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- Link – H2-Bs Job Displacement
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Link – H2-As Lower WagesH-2A visas lock in wages driving down other employees wages and increasing over head costs Hallstrom 6 (Luawanna – GM Coo, Harry, Singh and Sons for THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYERS AND THE AGRICULTURE COALITION FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM; 7/19/06; GUEST WORKER PROGRAMS: IMPACT ON THE AMERICAN WORKFORCE AND U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES) BHB In order for us to survive post-9/11, we had no choice but to attempt the use of the H-2A Agriculture Guest Worker Program. We are now the largest California user of a dysfunctional 50-year-old H-2A Program, which currently supplies less than 3 percent of the U.S. seasonal agricultural workforce. The program is administratively cumbersome, it is costly, it requires farmers to wade through 33 pages of Federal regulations to try and comply with the complex requirements. We have had to hire additional staff, lawyers and consultants to keep up with the demands of the program and to protect ourselves from frivolous lawsuits. And we struggle to keep up with the spiraling adverse effect wage rate. Every year it changes on March 1. The wage rate is not market based, it does not relate to the specific job. In the area of employment, this year’s average wage hike came at a half-a-million-dollar price tag that we could have not budgeted for. Link – H2-Bs Job DisplacementH-2B’s hurt the economy by taking jobs away from our most vulnerable workers NumbersUSA.com 8 (“H-2B Low-Skill, Nonimmigrant Visas”, May, 19 2008 http://www.numbersusa.com/content/news/may-9-2008/h-2b-low-skill-nonimmigrant-visas.html) TKK Increasing the number of H-2B workers in the U.S. at any given time may most profoundly affect teenagers looking for summer work. According to a study out of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, the percentage of 16-to 19-year-olds holding jobs in the United States is the lowest it has been since the government began tracking statistics in 1948. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the rolls of millions of unemployed Americans include a disproportionate number of workers who do not have a high school diploma. Official unemployment rates for Americans without a diploma are nearly twice as high as for other Americans. In light of this, it is clear that increasing the number of low-skill, seasonal, foreign workers (H-2B workers) will most profoundly harm our most vulnerable workers. Policies that increase the number of H-2B visas hurt the US taxpayer and their job markets Lofgren 8 (“Rep. Zoe Lofgren holds a hearing on the H-2B visa program”, Subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, refugees, border security, and international law, April 16, 2008) TKK Immigrants represent a substantial share of poorly educated persons in the U.S. While 9 percent of native-born adults lack a high school degree, the figure is 34 percent for legal immigrants, and roughly 60 (ph) percent for illegal aliens. Nearly a third of all immigrant households are headed by persons without a high school degree. Policies that would substantially increase the number of low-skilled immigrants entering the U.S. would significantly raise costs on the U.S. taxpayer. Because of all these reasons and the fact that there are currently 69 million working-age Americans currently not working in the United States -- they're simply not in the workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics -- I oppose expanding H-2B visa programs. Speaker Pelosi and many Democrats are advocating extending unemployment benefits because the job market is so bad. How can Democrats argue at the same time that Americans don't have enough jobs, but that we need more foreign workers? I'm looking forward to the answers to these questions during our hearing today, along with the testimony of the witnesses. Link – H2-Bs Job DisplacementPolicies that increase H-2B’s, rely on the flawed assumption that unemployed Americans wouldn’t take the jobs available, and hurt the American job market Francis 10 (“Don’t let immigrants take US jobs; Short-term positions filled through immigration should be utilized by Americans”, David R. Francis, The Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 2, 2010) TKK About 15 million Americans are unemployed. Yet Washington allows businesses to bring in about 1 million foreigners a year to take supposedly short-term jobs that many jobless would leap at taking if they could. It's a "ridiculous" situation, says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington think tank that generally urges a lower level of immigration into the United States. This year, the H-2B program alone will let more than 100,000 lower-skilled foreign workers come to the US as "temporary, seasonal, nonagricultural guest workers." Businesses like the program because the foreigners, who need the jobs in order to stay in the US, "shut up and do what they are told," says Mr. Krikorian. But H-2B operates under a flawed assumption, says David Seminara, a former US Foreign Service officer and author of a CIS study on the program. The flawed assumption is that "Americans don't want to mow your lawn. They don't want to serve you your lobster roll sandwich during your summer holiday in Maine. They won't drive the trucks that bring food to the grocery store." In fact, many Americans would welcome such jobs. Link – H2-Bs Lower WagesThe H-2B program hurts union wages, and those it was originally meant to help The Economist 10 (“Invisible hands; Immigration Law”, The Economist, April 17, 2010) TKK Like much of America's rickety immigration system, the H-2B programme draws scorn from all sides. Companies in such industries as forestry and fisheries depend heavily on guest workers. But since 1990 the H-2B has been capped at a paltry 66,000 a year. Even with exemptions for workers who extend their visas, that cap has been hit every year but one. In 2008 American companies requested nearly 294,000 H-2Bs. Unions, for their part, fret that guest workers take jobs from willing Americans, as well as driving down wages and benefits. And immigrant-rights advocates point to the potential for abuse inherent in the programme. Although temporary agricultural workers are guaranteed housing, travel expenses, firm hours of work and access to lawyers, H-2B visa-holders are promised only prevailing local wages. Their visas are tied to their jobs, which deters complaint. Download 0.75 Mb. Share with your friends:
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