2006-05-26
legalized slavery?
I'm curious as to how my American friends feel about the new "guest worker" legislation that was passed by your government today, with regards to Central Americans. Do you think that this is a legitimately fair step? Or do you think that the Bush administration has succeeded in re-legalizing slavery? What do you think?
From what I know about guest worker programs in other countries, I'm worried about how it will be monitored in the States. How will they be able to make sure that people coming in to "earn their citizenship" aren't being exploited? How long will it take to earn citizenship?
In other countries, people from the host country go down and recruit workers for their factories. The guest workers pay a recruiting fee by borrowing a ton of money, because the money that they are promised to earn in the host country will be worth it. But often when they get to the factory the manager confiscates their passports and doesn't issue them the guest passes they're supposed to have, meaning that if they leave the factory grounds they will be arrested and deported. They have no way to prove that they are actually allowed to be in that country, and when they don't get paid, and are mistreated and forced to work 100 hours a week, they have no one to complain to because they have zero rights in that country, i.e. they're slaves.
The U.S. is big. There are lots of crooked people everywhere in the world, trying to make a buck. Considering that there are already sweatshops there [and here too, for sure], won't this make it easier for them? I don't know. Maybe not, but it seems pretty possible.
pansycline at 11:10 a.m.