I was wrong. My first paycheck was about $150 light. But without an official work permit, I couldn't turn to any authorities to help me. They would have discovered that I didn't have the proper paperwork and would probably have forced me to stop working altogether.
Like many firms in the U.S., this small store took advantage of foreign laborers. I later found out that other foreign students working at the store had also discovered chunks of money missing from their checks on payday-hours of time we had spent shelving beans and rice were mysteriously unaccounted for.
Thousands of people have this problem right now. The Farmworker Justice Fund, a national advocacy group for migrant farmworkers, estimates that of the 1.8 million agricultural workers in this country, about half are undocumented. Most are from Mexico. Many don't risk reporting abuse or exploitation to the government because the government might send them home.
A new kind of work permit, one that is not necessarily connected to citizenship, would help solve this problem. However, liberals tend to believe that any work permit that doesn't lead to citizenship is exploitative, while conservatives often assert that increasing the number of legal workers, even without providing for citizenship, will take jobs away from U.S. citizens.
Neither of these positions makes sense for the new globalization-induced model of immigration: We are living in a world where people move easily across borders in response to labor demands, often choosing to work in one place while establishing a permanent residence in another.
Saskia Sassen, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago who recently visited Amherst, explained, "We know that many Mexicans, when given a chance to vote with their feet, go back home to live and come back over to work."
For example, says Sassen, when a 1986 immigration law granted amnesty to undocumented workers who had been in the country since 1982, many returned immediately to Mexico, only returning to the U.S. temporarily to work. Like many immigrants from all around the world, Mexicans often feel that they have socially richer and more dignified lives in their home country than in the U.S., she said.
Yet, under current immigration laws, these migrant workers are often unprotected. Several government representatives have recognized the need for immigration reform, most notably Congressman Howard Berman of California and Senator Bob Graham of Florida. A new idea, proposed by Senator Phil Gramm from Texas, suggests the adoption of a "guest worker program" that would grant immigrants temporary work permits. His proposal, which has yet to be officially introduced to the Senate, requires employers to pay minimum wage as well as provide emergency medical care for noncitizen workers.
While a guest worker program would, in theory, address the needs of workers who choose to live in Mexico but work in the U.S., Gramm's proposal still doesn't offer enough protections. Under his proposal, guest workers are not eligible for welfare benefits, health care, social security or even paid sick leave.
While worker benefits often lead to less overall employment because they force employers to pay more per worker, a minimum amount of benefits are necessary to prevent exploitation. Under current laws, giving workers "immigration status," which sets them on the road to possible citizenship, is the only way to ensure that workers are fairly protected. Yet, a well-designed and well-run guest worker program that gives workers many of the same protections that "immigration status" currently does without providing citizenship could make room for the increasing number of people who want to come to the United States only to work. Moreover, such a program could benefit native citizens, as well.
When immigrant workers are illegal, Sassen says that U.S. workers are at an "intense disadvantage" because employers will prefer to hire immigrant workers, to whom they can pay lower wages, over U.S. workers. On the other hand, if immigrant workers have permits, then employers are forced to pay them at least the minimum wage, making U.S. workers and immigrant workers equally attractive.
Adopting a guest worker program would be a step closer to a new conception of immigration and citizenship that is better suited for our new globalized world. Otherwise, workers return not to their country but to their illegal status in the new country, rendering them almost completely bereft of any government support if they need it.
And they often do, just as I did in England. I was lucky-I had two uncles nearby, who were ready to help me when I asked. But not everyone has family resources to fall back on when the government fails them.