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Introduction
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US congress Opposition to mode four expansion access
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Labor unions
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Migrant rights groups
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Coalition of service industries
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Major employers of H-1B workers
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Conclusion
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Works Cited
Introduction
For the immigration policy to be addressed effectively the number of Immigrants in the United States has to be considered as one important issue. The know how on the total number of immigrants will be instrumental in creation of the immigration policy. It is estimated that the number of immigrants in the United States is approximately forty million.
Most of the immigrants are from Latin America and the Caribbean Islands who make up about forty percent of the total number of the immigrants. Thirty six percent of the total number comes from Asia while the number of migrants from Europe has dropped down considerably forming only thirteen percent. The government and other non government movements have played an important role in making of amendments on the United States foreign policy.
Some of the roles played by the organizations will be discussed below. A battle has been known to brew between the United States government and the developing countries over the immigration issue. Some of the developing countries are requesting the US government to extend their VISA programs for temporary professional workers.
According to the global trade body agreement on trade in services, a countrys government can control the supply of goods and services by foreigners; this type of service is known as mode 4. Powerful US organizations have taken sides with the developing countries governments to lobby for the expansion of the mode four accesses. On the other hand many immigrant and non immigrant groups and even congressional republicans are also lobbying for the expansion of the mode four accesses.
US congress Opposition to mode four expansion access
The main hindrance to the mode 4 concession is the United States congress. Congress lawmakers feel like trade negotiators should not interfere with the countrys immigration policy. The congress uses its power given by the constitution to establish a decree of neutralization.
The Supreme Court has even made the matter more concrete; in its own view congress has all the rights to formulate policies in relation to immigration.
A good example is the incidence of Robert Zoelick which occurred in the year 2003. Robert Zoelick was the US top trade negotiator at that time; the congress managed to convince him not to make any concessions that would require amendments in the Immigration policy. In the year 2005 the congress members went ahead in devising tactics to block trade officials negotiating trade matters. The bill that was passed by the house representatives bared trade representatives from using the state fund in negotiating matters related to immigration (Gania, 221).
Labor unions
The US labor movement opposes the mode 4 accesses by criticizing the expansion of the temporary visa program; the labor movement considers it as a total flaw. In the year 1990 the Government started a program named H-1B visa program that had the main aim of tackling the problem of labor shortage by allowing the entry of skilled workers who had college degrees into the country. Many IT professionals from various countries benefited from this program.
However as time went by a number of US IT graduates could not find jobs because of the high competition in the IT labor market that had been created by the increase in number of IT foreign professionals. The IT industry had to shed more than 400, 0000 workers from their jobs so as to create job vacancies; the incident occurred between the year 2001 and 2004.
The labor unions argue that employers have taken the advantage of the H-1B program to displace US workers and even exploit foreign workers. They even argue that employers use the visa programs to abuse foreign workers. In the year 2003 the labor unions criticized the idea of a free trade agreement of US with both Chile and Singapore.
The agreement would have allowed 6800 Chilean and Singapore skilled workers entry in to the United States. The Labor union objected this by claiming that it was illogical for the government to admit the foreign workers while most of the citizens were facing massive layouts and stagnant payments. As a result of the Labor Union pressure new visas for the Chileans and Singaporeans exist as quest worker quotas (Hoffsletter, 310).
Migrant rights groups
Migrant groups criticize the idea of discussing the issue of immigrants in the world trade union meetings since it reduces foreign worker to a low level that they are seen as commodities to be imported and exported. The migrant groups developed a statement on the mode 4 based on the fact that immigration policy should view immigrants as human beings and address the issue of their human rights.
Such a statement is meant to rouse suspicions on the US worker temporary program and call for a more transparent policy of creating migration policy. The statement also emphasizes the inclusion of international labor organizations and the united nations in immigration decisions (Delaet, 115).
Other advocators for reduced migration include the federation for American immigration reform (FAIR). FAIR criticizes the Mode 4 because they think that in future the American government will be incapable of restricting the H-1B programs. For example if the US government lay off many works due to an economic recession it would be difficult to respond by reducing the number of visas it issues to foreign individuals.
FAIR also says that visas provision promotes the process of outsourcing since foreign employees who visit the US to work in certain companies are trained on the companies operations and when they return to their home countries they facilitate outsourcing contracts with the company. The organization also feels like by discussing the immigration issue in the world trade organization meetings the other countries challenge the United States immigration decrees (Edmoston, 43).
As there are people and organizations who criticize the Mode 4 there is the existence of others who support it an example of some of organizations that support it are shown below.
Coalition of service industries
This movement is the leading advocate for the mode 4 accesses in the US. The coalition of service industries (CSI) is an organization that is made up of 43 corporations and business entities. The CSI argues that increasing the number of H-1B visa will not lead to making alterations in the immigration policy because they are only meant for temporary access in to the country. The CSI main aim is to expand global market opportunities for its members.
Its members have moved all around the world to encourage developing countries to make determined orders in service negotiations. In the year 2005 the group gave a joined statement with the India national associations of software and service companies (NASSCOM) that gave out their mutual goals of fully liberalizing the information technology services (Delaet, 153).
Major employers of H-1B workers
Some major employers like Microsoft do not favor the increase in the number of H-1B visas but they support the idea of giving permanent residency for H-1B workers. The other companies that support the idea include Oracle, Intel, and IBM (Gania, 226).
Conclusion
The US government and other non governmental institutions have been involved in major tussles regarding the issue of the immigration policy. The US congress, migrant rights groups, and labor unions do not support the idea of government sponsored programs like H-1B which are meant to increase the number of immigrants in to the country by offering them temporary visas.
This is because they do not see the need of increasing the number of job seekers in to the country while the country suffers from the problem of massive job lay offs. On the other hand organizations such as the coalition of service industries (CSI) support the idea of increasing the number of H-1B visas so as to increase the number of foreign workers in the country and also enhance the business processes such as service provision.
Other organizations such as major employers of H-1B workers do not support the increase in number of immigrant workers but call for the provision of permanent visas to immigrant workers already in the country. According to my own view the number of H-1B visas should be increased because I dont think such a move will be a violation against human rights since an person has his own rights of deciding on whether he would like to migrate or not.
Works Cited
Hoffsletter, R, US immigration policy , published by Duke University press (1984), pp 304-310.
Delaet, D, US immigration policy in the age of rights Greenwood publishing group (2000), pp 115-153.
Edmoston, B, Statistics of US immigration , National academic press (1996), pp 34-52.
Gania, E, US immigration step by step , sphinx publishers (2004), 220-226.
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