Immigration or slavery?

This article from the Arizona Republic has an interesting bit about some nice white Canadians who might be asked to leave when their visas run out. The immigration issue is particularly hard to talk about and I usually like to avoid it.

I am torn about the issue. On one hand, I live in a neighborhood that is about 50% Hispanic and some are clearly undocumented. As far as I can tell, the ratio of jerk to nice is about like anywhere else.

The problem I have is that we should have a rational policy outlining both what we want and what is realistically possible. I don't think it is healthy for large scale immigration to happen quickly. It causes far too much stress on communities. How do we manage that and still treat the people coming here like human beings who deserve respect?

The really interesting thing in the article for me is the provision in the new immigration bill that makes immigration merit based. I think this is generally a good idea... We should steal the best and brightest from around the world whenever possible, but does that mean that the rest of the immigration will slow down? I don't see how.

Perhaps the scariest thing (this is where my title comes from) is how businesses want immigrants tied to them. I have seen this in action with H1B visas. It is not a good system. I worked with two employees on H1B visas at a previous job. They are what I would call high-end slaves. They are paid below market and made to work longer hours because they do not have options since their employer helped to establish their immigration status.

I cannot imagine how bad it will be for people picking fruit, working construction or processing chickens. The H1B workers are generally doing clerical or technical work. They have a low risk of injury even when they are exploited, but manual labor workers are put in real danger. There is also the problem of no paid time off for people working in kitchens or working with food of any kind. A lot of people get sick because of the poor line cook at Applebee's that doesn't get a sick day...

Tying workers to businesses is a bad idea... How about letting legal workers operate in the labor market like everyone else? Oh, I forgot that would mean businesses could not suppress wages artificially and leave plenty of cash for huge executive compensation packages.

A reader posted this link on H1B visas. This is fascinating and scary stuff. Everyone should take a look...