Color me skeptical

The proposal by the “usual suspects” on the U.S. right — including Steve Moore from the Wall Street Journal; James Carafano, Heritage Foundation; Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works; and Mario Lopez, Hispanic Leadership Fund — unveiled a “red card solution” to some immigration concerns in the United States which is not bad… in theory.

Benders Immigration Daily, which mentions the proposal, links to a press release, which in turn links to a not very informative piece on a site for employers in the temporary worker industry.

This is a neo-bracero program, and though I realize most of those in the immigrant rights movement reject out of hand a bracero type program — based on the abuses in what was meant to be an emergency program to free up labor in the United States during World War II for military needs, but was expanded and continued through the 1960s.  Still, there are some merits to the idea.

It’s been the tightening of immigration rules that have, ironically, led to higher immigration.  Before, when workers could reasonably expect to return home,  workers were only in the United States long enough to save the money needed for some purpose at home, and would return to their families.  Under the stricter rules, the workers are separated from their families, and need to arrange for the family’s subsequent migration. Not all these workers intend to, or want, to become U.S. citizens, nor are their families necesarily well-equiped to emigrate.

Employers, under the old non-rules, especially in border regions, often had informal agreements with workers… using traditonal family and village networks to meet their staffing needs (a pretentious way of saying a crew of orange pickers or constrution laborers, but let it pass).  A community, or family, provided A worker, just not any particular individual to the employer with the understanding that there would be a worker for the job, and a job for someone in the community that contributed to the group’s welfare.  When Jose did his time, came home and married, his younger brother, Juan worked until he had enough cash to go to college, when his cousin Julio would fill in for a season, then…

I haven’t seen the specifics of this “red card” plan (and the backers make me dubious that workers’ rights are upmost in their minds), but there’s no reason hiring can’t be orderly, done through Kelly Services or other agencies with a few provisos:

The employees have to receive a living wage.  One problem now is that in low wage countries like Mexico, $8.00 an hour in the United States sounds like a lot of money… until the worker discovers what housing costs, and that he can’t work 60 hours a week, and… if he is injured or gets sick… the employer doesn’t pick up the costs (and the taxpayers start complaining about “illegal immigants” using public services).

Workers rights have to be protected.  One question that I have (and the Red Card Solution folks gloss over is whether workers can leave their jobs, can file grievances, and would enjoy the normal liberties of any worker.  I get the sense that workers might be in the position of those that take those “work in Saudi Arabian and earn a $50K bonus upon completion” jobs… only paid if they follow the exact rules, but likely to be let go just short of meeting the contracted job duration (and working jobs designed to make completing the contract impossible), and forced to live in dormitories without chance of social interaction.

After all, we’re talking mostly about younger people here.  You have to assume some are going to find girl-friends or boy-friends, or want to get out and do something once in a while.  Or go home.  Some will drop out, and some will form bonds in the United States and want to stay.

I don’t automatically assume all the problems with the Bracero program were due to exploitation and theft, though the program was plagued with them.  A big part of the problem (and one that allowed for misuse) was the lack of a good paper trail for work and pay records.  Of course, this was in the days before computer records, and it’s somewhat understandable that a farmer in California might not have the right names for his employees, or his local bank didn’t keep the records of set-aside deposits separated out correctly, or any number of things… including theft.

Tying an employee ID number (which could be a social security number, or even a special temporary social security number) to bank records, health insurance, etc. is possible today, as are banking transfers, which makes it possible to create a temporary worker system. And, it’s not rocket science (just some programming science) to set up a payroll system where a percentage of the workers’ check is also deposited in an interest bearing account at Banamex or Banco Azteca or Santandar or wherever.

Where I see the bigegest problem is in regulating the hiring agencies.  In theory, if Kelly is doing a bad job, workers will opt for Manpower (word will get around), but without clear labor standards (and a way of enforcing standards both in the host country and in the United States), just selling this as a “private business solution” doesn’t sound promising.

I won’t reject the idea out of hand, but color me skeptical until I see the details.