Legal Immigration Policies for Low-Skilled Foreign Workers
The near-absence of U.S. legal low-skilled work visas drives unauthorized immigration. Designing a new program raises fiercely contested questions on wages and portability.
The current U.S. legal immigration system includes few visas for low-skilled workers, and employers have relied heavily on an unauthorized workforce in many low-skilled occupations. This issue brief explains the questions that policymakers must grapple with when designing programs for admission of low-skill workers, for temporary as well as permanent entry. The brief focuses in part on the recent agreement by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO regarding admission of future low-skilled workers.
The brief highlights a number of major policy issues related to the requirements for employers, numerical limits, and employment standards. Specifically, the brief emphasizes some rather contentious issues related to inconsistent prevailing wage determinations; recruitment requirements for employers; numerical caps; portability; and violations of labor standards. In addition, the brief finds that one of the key drivers of illegal immigration is the absence of a meaningful year-round employment-based visa for low-skilled workers and notes that at present, the only permanent visa for low-skilled workers is capped at a mere 5,000 annually. Although the creation of a new visa program for low-skilled workers gives rise to a number of difficult questions related to eligibility, duration, and design, the brief finds that the recent agreement between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO puts new momentum behind the debate.
Table of Contents
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Low-Skilled Workers: Limited Channels under Current System
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Current Policies and Flows
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Major Policy Issues for Low-Skilled Work Visas
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A New Future Flow: Visas for Long-Term or Permanent Employment
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Conclusion
About the U.S. Immigration Policy Program
The U.S. Immigration Policy Program provides analysis of U.S. immigration pathways, the impacts of enforcement and other policies, and the characteristics of immigrant populations.
Labor Markets Initiative
This concluded initiative, active from 2009-2013, produced detailed recommendations on ways to make U.S. immigration policy a more effective tool for economic growth.
