immigrants (Figure 9) and experiences a significant rebound in labor market quality in 1992 and 1993 (Figure 8).
The improvement in immigrant quality between 1988 and 1993 is due to several factors: The predicted educational attainment of adjustments increases, immigration policy favors more highly-skilled immigrants by increasing the amount of employment and diversity preferences, and immigrants from all regions of origin improve in labor market quality.
Between 1987 and 1993, immigrants from all major regions of the world improve in labor market quality.
Recent trends in the skill composition of legal U.S. immigrants
The AFL's silence "was a big step backward for immigrant rights in labor" says Blue, who has been organizing predominantly Filipino airport screeners at San Francisco International Airport.
Before 9/11, progressives in labor and immigrant rights faced the danger that President Bush would succeed in turning the "legalization" agenda into an exploitive new guestworker program.
In fact, some of the most progressive voices in labor, such as the Laborers' O'Sullivan, are strident in their patriotic rhetoric.
For war and workers? Julie Quiroz-Martinez finds labor unions and grassroots organizers struggling to define immigrant rights post-9/11. (A New Era)
In addition, the direct, focused supervision of the program by the DOL, with its expertise in labor protection would effectively protect the domestic workforce from potential abuses or adverse impacts of the H-1B program.
This consolidation of supervision of the H-1B visa program in a single agency with extensive experience in labor practices would help balance the growing labor needs of industry against the desire for adequate employment protection for H-1B workers.(173) Consolidation would require strengthening DOL's supervisory and policing powers and increasing funding for effective supervision.(174) Additional funding for the H-1B program supervision could derive from additional income taxes levied on H-1B workers.(175) This structural reform would provide incentives to potential H-1B employers to not abuse,(176) while reaping significant benefits from the program and maintaining their competitiveness in the global market.
American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998: balancing economic and labor interests under the new H-1B visa program
Last year a movement to change the AFL-CIO position on immigration began
in labor's activist base.
Labor's About-Face