David Frum On Guestworker "Helot Visas"
03/11/2013
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David Frum in the Daily Beast:

Immigration debates often proceed as if high wages for U.S. workers were a problem to be overcome, rather than a policy goal to be achieved. What else explains the survival of the J visa program?

Initiated as a cultural exchange, it has degenerated into a scheme by which employers import helots to serve hamburgers, gut fish, and pole dance at minimal pay - sometimes no pay at all. When you hear that we need "guest workers," keep in mind that the U.S. already accepts 100,000 guest workers a year.[Let's Talk About the 'Guest Worker' Program, March 11, 2013]

Frum also has column on CNN.com about it: For some employers, 'immigration reform' means cheap labor,  March 11, 2013.

Frum is subject to attacks of good sense on immigration. He gave Alien Nation a good review, back in the day, and there are other examples on record.

However, there are limits. He's writing for mainstream, Democratic outlets, and if he shows too much good sense on immigration he'll get the treatment so many conservative immigration reporters get, which we've called "The Curse of Stein."

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