Mickey Mouse made his movie debut 90 years ago when “Steamboat Willie” was first shown in theaters. But even after nine decades he can still make headlines; and when he does, people remember them.
It was natural, then, that when Disney World replaced about 250 of its IT staff with lower-paid foreign workers about three years ago, there would be headlines and people would remember. And when management forced some of the laid-off Americans to train their replacements or lose their severance pay, there would be more headlines and unpleasant memories.
The replacement workers were brought in under a program in what has become a very complex work visa system, complete with foreign-based outsourcing companies and the temp agency legal “cut outs” that technically are the replacement workers’ employers.
Work visas have been around for quite a while now, and, as a practical matter, even the best designs need maintenance and adjustments with the passage of time. This is no less true of the policies designed to solve economic problems.
The work visa systems and programs began simply enough. They were designed to solve a basic problem in economics; mismatches in the supply and demand of labor in our economy. The first job-specific work visa program for example, was designed to meet a shortage of nurses in our hospitals.
As a general economic concept, work visas make a lot of sense. The U.S. economy in the second half of the 20th century was growing faster and offered more job opportunities than most other countries. It was also growing faster than our higher education system. Foreign schools were graduating students with valuable skills but limited opportunities to put them to good use. It seemed like their supply and our demand were made for each other.
Another area where work visas made sense was seasonal labor, most visibly in agriculture but characteristic of other sectors of the economy as well. The U.S. history of this type of visa program began with the “Braceros” program, which began as a wartime measure in 1942 to counter the manpower shortage due to the military draft. The first braceros came in for that year’s sugar beet harvest in the Northwestern states; the first strike occurred less than a year later, in Burlington.
The braceros program ended operationally in 1951 and was replaced, generally by the work visa system, which, among other things, placed the U.S. government in charge of gatekeeping who came into the country to work and who didn’t.
The legal end of the braceros program in 1964 also marked the beginning of concern about illegal residents. The U.S. government began deporting Mexican workers who had stayed in this country after their seasonal work contract had expired.
The 1960s also marked the beginning of things getting complicated. What started out with a manpower shortage during World War II, has morphed into a system that now boasts 14 different types of work visas — including those for registered nurses and agricultural workers.
The specific type of work visa that the Disney World replacement workers came into this country is called H-1B. Much like its predecessors, it was designed to solve a specific economic problem: the shortage of skilled technology workers. Our high-tech industries’ need for skilled workers had overshot the ability of our higher education institutions to supply them.
With our economy increasingly dependent on higher technology, it was believed that the shortage of workers with specialized skills would slow down our economic growth and have a direct impact on overall employment. Importing non-immigrant tech workers seemed like the answer.
Over the years, the H-1B program has been criticized for its abuses and many other defects, including its threats to national security. Until recently, though, it has avoided a thorough review of its role and effectiveness as economic policy tool.
The Trump administration’s recent moves to place time limits on the work visas issued to spouses and family members of H-1B workers will limit the expansion of the program. And the recent, long-overdue enforcement of existing rules for H1-B applications may put a crimp in the role of outsourcing companies like the ones involved in the Disney World arrangement.
What is still needed is to overcome the legacy of neglect, expediency and mismanagement that has made it difficult to repair the system as it stands. Much of the system is so complicated now that, unlike the Disney World case which is easy to remember, it is difficult to recall the problems they were originally supposed to solve.
What we need is a thorough analysis of the work visa system, with all its programs, examining their direct effects on our economy as well as their indirect effects on education systems and costs to taxpayers and consumers.
James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant.
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