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Permanent Guests? Labor Migration, Citizenship and Identity
Guest worker, or temporary migration programs, have existed for decades in the United States, Western Europe, the Persian Gulf, Japan, and elsewhere. During World War II, the U.S., under the Bracero Program, brought agricultural workers from Mexico to fill in temporary labor shortages created by the wartime draft. Even after the Program ended in 1964, the U.S. continued to hire temporary workers as seasonal fruit pickers. Another example of migrant worker flows include Palestinian workers crossing the Green Line daily from the West Bank and Gaza into Israel. Similarly, during the 1960s, and in response to labor needs during the post-war period, Western Europe imported workers from the Mediterranean Basin (North Africa, Southern Italy, Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia) to meet temporary labor shortages. A decade later, with the rise of oil prices in 1973, the oil-rich Persian Gulf States followed
suit and promoted temporary work, as did the oil-producing countries of Nigeria and Venezuela. Japan also imported workers from Korea during the wartime shortages of the 1930s, with the understanding that they would leave once the war terminated. Even today, Japan's declining birthrate and the aging of the Japanese population cause chronic labor shortages, and consequently the need to import labor.
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| John Hammock |
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| Mark Miller |
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Historically, there have been two major trends of temporary migration. Some migrant workers fill the temporary needs in labor force, such as agriculture, as well as construction, where there are seasonal fluctuations in demand. Conversely, other workers fill long-term, but not permanent positions where there is a high demand for labor not yet met by natives
because jobs are poorly paid and undesirable, such as manual factory labor, garbage collection, or mining, or where the natives have not acquired the skills required for a high-tech position. The label "guest worker" generally connotes low social status as well as impermanence. Western Europe, the Persian Gulf, Japan and other host countries sought temporary foreign workers because they viewed labor shortages as "temporary", and they assumed that the post war European and Gulf State birth rate would climb to fill their labor shortages. They also figured that in times of unemployment, the temporary migrants would be the first to go.
By the 1980s, it was clear that Europe no longer had guest workers but permanent settlers or minorities. The countries had made no provisions for the permanent settlement of the workers, whose full social, economic, and political integration had yet to take place. A decade earlier, Western Europe had tried to reduce the influx of migrants. Their liberal policies of allowing family reunification and a broad range of rights led to an unprecedented increase in the immigration and settlement rate, causing a domestic political backlash. Most governments restrict the political rights and social benefits of the temporary migrants. Asia and the Gulf States exclude the migrants' family members, lest they acquire membership in the country.
Each country facing a high population influx, welcomed or not, must face questions about national identity and cultural pluralism. The question of whether and how migrants and their children should be integrated as citizens has become a political, economic and moral issue worldwide. U.S. citizenship is based on both jus solis (right by birth) and jus sanguinis (right by line of descent) or through naturalization. Thus, many working and living in the U.S. for the required five years may become naturalized and become legally
entitled to protections and benefits in accordance with the Fourteenth Amendment. On the other hand, citizenship in Israel, Japan, Germany and the Gulf States is based on jus sanguinis only. They see themselves as nation-states with a common national identity, rather than as countries of immigration, and they do not seek to integrate their workers into that identity. Second generation immigrants may not procure citizenship, as their identity is not assimilated to that of the nation.
Migrant workers have little or no right to social benefits, such as medical care, low-cost housing, or public education. In response to the world-wide increase in the number of migrant workers, the International Labor Organization (ILO) developed the Migration and Population Branch to create global awareness and focus on the treatment of migrants in the context of global labor markets. The Branch also encourages and further challenges host governments to
redefine citizenship and its implications and to re-consider their national identity.
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