America's Immigration "Problem" (PDF) 1989

America's Immigration "Problem" Author(s): Saskia Sassen Source: World Policy Journal , Fall, 1989, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Fall, 1989), pp. 811-832 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40209134 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and...

America's Immigration "Problem" Author(s): Saskia Sassen Source: World Policy Journal , Fall, 1989, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Fall, 1989), pp. 811-832 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40209134 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Duke University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to World Policy Journal This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms AMERICA'S IMMIGRATION "PROBLEM" Saskia Sassen Immigration has traditionally aroused strong passions in the United States. Although Americans like to profess pride in their history as "a nation of immigrants ," each group of arrivals, once established, has fought to keep newcomers out. Over the past two centuries, each new wave of immigrants has encountered strenuous opposition from earlier arrivals, who have insisted that the country was already filled to capacity. (The single excep- tion to this was the South's eagerness to import ever more slaves.) Similar efforts to shut out newcomers persist today. But those who would close the door to immigration are mistaken on two counts: not only do they underestimate the country's capacity to absorb more people, but they also fail to appreciate the political and economic forces that give rise to immigra- tion in the first place. U.S. policymakers and the public alike believe the causes of immigra- tion are self-evident: people who migrate to the United States are driven to do so by poverty, economic stagnation, and overpopulation in their home countries. Since immigration is thought to result from unfavorable socioeco- nomic conditions in other countries, it is assumed to be unrelated to U.S. economic needs or broader international economic conditions. In this con- text, the decision on whether to take in immigrants comes to be seen pri- marily as a humanitarian matter; we admit immigrants by choice and out of generosity, not because we have any economic motive or political respon- sibility to do so. An effective immigration policy, by this reasoning, is one that selectively admits immigrants for such purposes as family reunification and refugee resettlement, while perhaps seeking to deter migration by Saskia Sassen is professor and chair of urban planning in the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning at Columbia University. This article is drawn from her most recent book, The Mobility of Labor and Capital: A Study in International Investment and Labor Flow (New York: Cam- bridge University Press, 1988). This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 812 World Policy Journal promoting direct foreign in migrant-sending countries. Although there are nuances accept the prevailing wisdom ways to regulate it. The onl we should limit immigratio immigration is not severely poverished masses from the agricultural labor at times te charitable, arguing that the world, can afford to be gen oppressed. Advocates of a less of immigration, such as the spirit of entrepreneurship. Not surprisingly, U.S. imm assumptions about the prop two major immigration ref to control immigration thr enter legally and preventing At the same time, the U.S. nomic growth in the migrant- eign investment and export- in the belief that rising eco will deter emigration. Yet U have consistently failed to lim The 1965 amendment to th meant to open up the Unite in a way that would allow t illegal immigration. It sough that was built into earlier im immigrants by setting up a elaborate system of general qu to immediate relatives of U.S. possessing skills in short sup nannies. The 1965 law brought abou but not necessarily the intend should have ensured that th countries that had already se States- that is, primarily fro This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 813 tion after 1965 was primarily the result of an tions from the Caribbean Basin and South a of U.S. policy was particularly evident in of undocumented immigrants entering the of Mexican undocumented immigration incr of new undocumented flows were initiated tries that provided the new legal immigra The outcry over rising illegal immigrati sional proposals that culminated in the 19 Control Act. This law was intended to ratio in particular, to address the problem of i a limited regularization program that ena legalize their status if they can prove cont States since before January 1, 1982, among ot provision of the law seeks to reduce the e undocumented workers through sanctions ingly hire them. The third element is an e designed to ensure a continuing abundant for agriculture. So far, the law's overall effectiveness has million immigrants applied to regularize th number, though less than expected), ther employer sanctions program is resulting in di workers who are in fact U.S. citizens, as w undocumented workers. Meanwhile, illega continued to rise. Congressional efforts to have already begun. In a relatively prom immigration policy, the Senate recently ap higher priority to applicants who satisfy la Though the 54,000-per-year limit placed o be small, the proposed law would set a acknowledging that immigrants, while on labor force, have accounted for 22 percent of since 1970, and by responding to U.S. Dep impending labor shortages in a variety of Yet even a modified version of the 1986 la fully regulating immigration for one sim is based on a faulty understanding of the cau narrowly on immigrants and on the im policymakers have ignored the broader inte This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 814 World Policy Journal generated or at least encour give rise to migration flows In the 1960s and 1970s, the development of today's glob capital, promoted the develo many Third World countr its own and other countries* vices, and information. The tral military, political, and e this process- contributed b tential emigrants and to the ized and developing countrie for international migration. thought to deter immigrati of export-oriented growth in cisely the opposite effect. The of the newly industrializing the world are simultaneousl immigrants to the United S At the same time, the tran structure of the United Stat zation of production - has e decline of manufacturing and the proportion of temporar opportunities within firms, This "casualization" of the la rising numbers of immigra Third World immigrant workf post-industrial economies.4 U ical and economic forces tha and our own role in creatin tinue to be misguided and f The New Immigration Beginning in the late 1960s, began to change in several im rise in overall annual entry levels increased to 373,000 i 602,000 in 1986. At the sam This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 813 regional composition of migration flows two- thirds of all immigrants entering the By 1985, Europe's share of annual entries the actual numbers of European immigran in I960 to 63,000 in 1985. Today, the vast United States originate in Asia, Latin Asians make up the fastest growing group From 25,000 entries in I960, annual leve 236,000 in 1980 and to 264,700 in 1985. W somewhat by the flow of Southeast Asian math of the Vietnam War, refugees acco of the overall rise in Asian immigration. In Korea, and Taiwan, not the refugee-send Cambodia, that have been the largest Asi in 1982, when total Asian entries reache only 72,000 were Vietnamese, a level t In the 1980s, the Asian immigration beg nations such as Singapore, Malaysia, and ously been sources of emigration to the The increase in Hispanic and West India as dramatic, has nevertheless been signi Latin America and the Caribbean rose in showed a decline in the early 1970s before r Total entries of Hispanics (South and Cen reached about 170,000 for the period 149,000 from 1970 to 1974, and rose to 3 of West Indians reached 351,000 during declined to 318,000 from 1970 to 1975, to 1985. (By contrast, there was no com Asian immigrants in the 1970s.) The top 10 immigrant-sending countrie the Caribbean Basin, or Asia. Between 1 than half a million entries annually, was by admitted immigrants, followed by the Korea with 225,000, China (defined as People's Republic) with 160,400, India 108,400. With the single exception of It more than 100,000 immigrants each yea Basin or in Asia. Other important sourc regions were the United Kingdom, West This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 816 World Policy Journal about 80,000 each during th the 600,000 entries were fr the Caribbean Basin, and o It is important to note that to consist predominantly of increasingly becoming a wo began as middle-class migrat tion of poorer strata as well true of South Korean migratio numbers of undocumented i as of Filipino migration. Another feature of the new of female immigrants. Duri all immigrants from the Ph grants, 53 percent of Chine Colombians, 53 percent of H Hong Kong. Even in the wel migration flow from Mexico immigrants.5 While most female immigran a small but growing number appear to indicate that an in independently, in some cases Women represented 45.6 per 1972 to 1979 under the prefer in short supply.6 Moreover, admitted under the nonpref the spaces that become availa used.7 The new immigration is fur dency to cluster in a few ke immigration waves, of cours and Illinois attracted the ma are more ports of entry, a a far-flung distribution of j geographical scattering of i New %rk receive almost hal fourth go to New Jersey, I Moreover, the new immigra itan areas, such as New %rk, This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 817 and Miami. According to the 1980 census, born residents of the United States lived by contrast, these cities contained less th born population in 1980. About 40 percen 10 largest U.S. cities, which together acco the total U.S. population. In these cities, im ably higher proportion of the population lation as a whole. Thus, while immigrants of the U.S. population, by 1987 they mad tion of New York City and 15 percent of and Chicago. The Inadequacy of Classical Explanations The main features of the new immigration - in particular, the growing prominence of certain Asian and Caribbean Basin countries as sources of immigrants and the rapid rise in the proportion of female immigrants- cannot be adequately explained under the prevailing assumptions of why migration occurs. Even a cursory review of emigration patterns reveals that there is no systematic relationship between emigration and what conven- tional wisdom holds to be the principal causes of emigration- namely overpopulation, poverty, and economic stagnation. Population pressures certainly signal the possibility of increased emigra- tion. Yet such pressures- whether measured by population growth or popu- lation density- are not in themselves particularly helpful in predicting which countries will have major outflows of emigrants, since some coun- tries with rapidly growing populations experience little emigration (many Central African countries fall into this category), while other countries with much lower population growth rates (such as South Korea), or rela- tively low density (such as the Dominican Republic), are major sources of migrants. Nor does poverty in itself seem to be a very reliable explanatory vari- able. Not all countries with severe poverty experience extensive emigra- tion, and not all migrant-sending countries are poor, as the cases of South Korea and Taiwan illustrate. The utility of poverty in explaining migra- tion is further called into question by the fact that large-scale migration flows from most Asian and Caribbean Basin countries started only in the 1960s, despite the fact that many of these countries had long suffered from poverty. The presumed relationship between economic stagnation and emigra- This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 818 World Policy Journal tion is similarly problemati nomic opportunities in less d of gross national product (G to emigrate. But the overa a time when most countries growth. Annual GNP grow 9 percent for most of the lea of the key emigration countr countries that did not expe the most obvious example. highest in the world durin with the fastest growing l This is not to say that ove tion do not create pressure But it is clear that the com conditions is overly simpli tions are not sufficient by th Other intervening factors ne to transform these conditi Take, for example, the cas first glance, the high levels o to offer support for the ar nomic stagnation cause mig conditions were present in b of emigrants began. What, In the case of the Dominic linkages with the United St of Santo Domingo by U.S. victory of the left-wing p tion not only resulted in t the United States but also refugees who emigrated to Dominican refugees in th family linkages between th sequently further consolid agriculture and manufactur began to increase soon therea from 1955 to 1959 to 58, developments that appear t This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem11 819 scale emigration were the establishment ties with the United States and the intro investment. Haiti, on the other hand, was not subjected vention, but the establishment of linkag the introduction of direct foreign investm larly important role in producing emigra been desperately poor, massive migration in the early 1970s. In this case, the key n process appears to have been the adoption growth policy by President Jean-Claude D was opened to foreign investment in expo scale development of commercial agriculture, as the key partner in this new strategy. The new modes of production was obtained th of small landholders and subsistence farmers tional occupational structure, in conjunct repression and the emergence of close po the United States, coincided with the ons to the United States. In both cases, then, the establishment o nomic linkages with the United States se in creating conditions that allowed the em tion.9 Such linkages also played a key role Asians to the United States. In the period United States actively sought to promote e east Asia as a way of stabilizing the regio troops were stationed in Korea, the Philip U.S. business and military interests create those Asian countries that were later to e to the United States. The massive increase the same period, particularly in South Kor reinforced these trends. In other words, in most of the countries flows to the United States, it is possible and linkages with the United States that poverty, or unemployment, induce emigratio of these linkages vary from country to expanding U.S. political and economic invo countries emerges. This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  820 World Policy Journal A key element in this patte ment in production for expo tries quintupled between 19 key countries in the Caribbean tion channeled the deve into cially the manufacturing of tiles, and footwear. Industri labor intensive (this is, of cou in low-wage countries). The one reason why several of t have been major recipients o rapid employment growth, According to traditional un combination of economic tre or at least to keep it at relat have been particularly strong investment, since such inves and clerical as well as produc Yet it is precisely such coun countries of Southeast Asia, immigrants. How, then, does f ment in export industries, e ular, how is it that foreign growth and high emigration The Internationalization of Production To understand why large-scale migrations have originated in countries with high levels of job creation due to foreign investment in production for export, it is necessary to examine the impact of such investment on the economic and labor structure of developing countries. Perhaps the single most important effect of foreign investment in export production is the uprooting of people from traditional modes of existence. It has long been recognized that the development of commercial agricul- ture tends to displace subsistence farmers, creating a supply of rural wage laborers and giving rise to mass migrations to cities. In recent years, the large-scale development of export-oriented manufacturing in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean Basin has come to have a similar effect (though through different mechanisms); it has uprooted people and created an urban reserve of wage laborers. In both export agriculture and export This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 821 industry, the disruption of traditional w introduction of modern modes of productio forming people into migrant workers a In export manufacturing, the catalyst f work structures is the massive recruitm the new industrial zones. Most of the m of the sort that employs a high proportion ized countries as well: electronics assem tiles, apparel, and toys. The exodus of you typically begins when factory representativ in their villages and rural schools; event tinuous migration streams reduces or elimi ment.10 The most obvious reason for the is the firms' desire to reduce labor cost tions as well: young women in patriarch employers as obedient and disciplined wor precision work and to submit themselve not be tolerated in the highly developed This mobilization of large numbers of highly disruptive effect on traditional, o rural areas, women fulfill important fun for family consumption or for sale in l and rural households depend on a variet tionally performed by women, ranging weaving, basket making, and various other ties are undermined by the departure of trial zones. One of the most serious - and ironic - tion of the new proletariat has been to i and thus contribute to male unemploym from the increased supply of female wo men to find work in the new industrial of young women also reduces the opport in many rural areas, where women are survival. Moreover, in some of the poore countries, export-led production employ to replace more diversified forms of eco to the internal market and typically em employment growth figures recorded by m This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 822 World Policy Journal tries in recent years have o lead to unemployment for so For men and women alike, a living and the ascendance wage labor increasingly a on opportunities in the rural are sible, for workers to retur the job search. This is a par in the new industrial zones of employment. After three microscopes, these workers t eyesight. In order to keep wa begins to fail, firms continua healthier, and more compli 1970s and early 1980s, man of older export manufactu governments had been exh Lanka, where labor was eve to the formation of a pool such as the Philippines, Sou Caribbean Basin. People upro left unemployed and unemp or move production to othe tion, especially if an export-l domestic market-oriented But the role played by for of large-scale emigration fl traditional work structures eign investment in product of economic, cultural, and id tries. These linkages tend to p and indirectly. Workers act managers, secretaries, or as of westernization and be m the foreign capital; they ar goods and services for peop workers, already oriented t in their daily experience o offshore plant or office and This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 823 itself is subjectively reduced. It is not h might come to regard emigration as a s In addition to the direct impact on wo linkages created by direct foreign investme nizing effect on the less developed count ical" effect in promoting emigration should emigration an option not just for those i sector but for the wider population as w of people than those directly or indirec plants and offices become candidates for actually employed in foreign plants, off the ones most likely to make use of the While foreign investment, along with o tural links, helps to explain how migrat numbers of individuals in some develop explain why the United States has been o nation for migrants.14 After all, Japan, and Great Britain all have substantial developing countries. The evidence seems plex and indirect relationship between fo the national origin of the foreign capital th less than the type of production it goes production) and the other linkages that rec established with capital-sending countri foreign investment in export production mately promoted migration to the Unite had a greater number of other linkag the time and was presumably seen as immigration. It is in this context that the 1965 liber law and the unfading image of the Unite acquire significance. The conviction amon United States offers unlimited opportun prospects, at least relative to other countri "emigration" almost identical with "emig has tended to create a self-reinforcing States. As new bridges for migrants are c conjunction with political and military a existence of economic opportunities in new migrations create additional bridges This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  824 World Policy Journal States and migrant-sending future emigration to the Uni eign investment that created Although the United State for migrants, the recent ex the future holds. As Japan and the major foreign inve combination of migration- in motion: the creation of lin for potential emigrants, and thing that would-be emigr Though fragmentary, the ev the past few years in the num Typically, these workers ente officially permitted time. City began in the same way.) illegal workers in Japan per tion to restaurant work. Al with the largest national co Bangladesh, the Philippines Japan now has substantial dir in offshore assembly plants.1 in its homogeneity and kep unprepared for this develop to remain a primary destin the rise of other global eco and unexpected migration The New Labor Demand in the United States At first glance, both the heavy influx of immigrants into the United States over the past two decades and their clustering in urban areas would appear to defy economic logic. Why would an increasing number of immigrants come to this country at a time of high overall unemployment and sharp losses of manufacturing and goods-handling jobs? And why would they settle predominantly in the largest U.S. cities, when many of these were in severe decline as centers of light manufacturing and other industries that traditionally employed immigrants? The liberalization of immigra- tion legislation after 1965 and the prior existence of immigrant commu- nities in major urban centers no doubt played some role in attracting This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 825 immigrants from the older, primarily Euro the most important reason for the contin the new migrant groups has been the rap low-wage jobs in the United States and the cas associated with the new growth industries, Thus, any analysis of the new immigrati examination of the changes in labor deman one might argue that while the internatio contributed to the initiation of labor migrati continuation at high and ever-increasing economic restructuring in the United State to explain the concentration of most of the n The increase in low-wage jobs in the Uni of the same international economic process ment and manufacturing jobs to low-wage tion has moved overseas, the traditional U.S. m and been partly replaced by a downgraded is characterized by a growing supply of poorl production jobs. At the same time, the rap has created vast numbers of low-wage job publicized increase in highly paid investm consulting jobs). Both of these new growth se in major cities such as New Yotk and Los their economic importance further enhanc for the management and servicing of the lost jobs to overseas factories, New Yotk an managing and servicing the global networ These trends have brought about a grow occupational structure since the late 1970s in the number of middle-income blue- an been a modest increase in the number o managerial jobs and a vast expansion in Between 1963 and 1973, nine out of 10 new jo earnings group, while the number of high 1973, by contrast, only one in two new job category. If one takes into consideration t seasonal and part-time workers, then the labor force becomes even more pronounced jobs increased from 15 percent in 1955 to This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 826 World Policy Journal part-time workers made up cent of these 50 million wo These changes have been r an increasing polarization of weekly wages, which rose s in 1973, stagnated during th decline was accompanied by the distribution of earning accelerated in the 1980s.19 House Ways and Means Com bottom fifth of the popul personal income, while the to As mentioned above, one i has been the downgraded m economy was created by th ganization of the work pro tracting out production and and industrial homework (all and preventing them from technological transformatio the skill levels required for machines and computers; a dustries that employ large Somewhat surprisingly, th industrial production jobs industries- from the most the garment and electronics little in common, both hav wage jobs requiring few ski tional production processes Moreover, both have contri as is evident from the decli technology growth such as Lo More important than the d of new low-wage jobs, howev traditional manufacturing, middle-income jobs, the majo well paid or very poorly paid range. The growth industri retail trade, and business se This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 827 jobs, weak unions, if any, and a high prop workers. Sales clerks, waitresses, secretar growth occupations. The Bureau of Labor in real earnings in these industries since In addition to employing low-wage worke vice sector also creates low-wage jobs indir workers to service the lifestyles and con growing high-income professional and m tion of these high-income workers in ma residential and commercial gentrification, wh for legions of low-wage service workers - restaurant workers, preparers of specialty an errand runners, apartment cleaners, chil fact that many of these jobs are "off the boo sion of an informal economy in several m reasons, immigrants are more likely than these jobs: these jobs are poorly paid, off generally require few skills and little knowle involve undesirable evening or weekend sh of the informal economy facilitates the entr into these jobs.24 Whether in the service sector or the dow the new low-paying jobs attract large numbe even immigrants who are highly educate in the United States tend to gravitate tow economy. The growing absorption of educa to the growth of clerical and technical job increased casualization of the labor mark Thus, while the redeployment of manufa tries has helped promote emigration from tion of servicing and management functions conditions for the absorption of the imm Angeles, Miami, and Houston. The same set emigration from several rapidly industria ously promoted immigration into the Un The fact that it is the major growth sec and services, rather than the declining se are the primary generators of low-wage j such jobs will probably continue to expan This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 828 World Policy Journal As long as it does so, the i is likely to continue as wel Toward a Workable Immig The Achilles' heel of U.S. im viewing immigration as an national processes. It should forces are at work behind t world and the influx of imm and the public at large pers roots lie o in the inadequacy rather than as a by-produc As a result, they fail to rec on immigration policy- san immigrants, stepped-up bo The 1986 immigration law tion policy, has not only f harm both to our own soci employer sanctions progra wage workers by further res immigrants who do not qu such sanctions and a regula of undocumented workers wi underclass that is legally expanded guest-worker progr agricultural workers to im Moreover, this guest-worke of new linkages with the c having the unintended effe the bounds of the program A workable U.S. immigrati that the United States, as a investment, bears a certain international labor migration war refugeesserve a might Few people would argue th result of overpopulation or may in fact have suffered fr This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 829 nized that U.S. military activities were to creating the refugee flows. When the Un refugees special rights to settle here, it w bility, at least indirectly. A similar ackno labor migrations. When drafting laws in most areas of foreig ally make an effort to weigh the differing d ious actors and take into account such com zation of production and international flo Why, then, is it not possible to factor in designing of immigration policy? To be su special problems in this regard, since the other international processes is not readily But the overly simplistic approach most p now has greatly hindered the fashioning o tion policy. The precise features of such a through further study and debate. But on tion policy will continue to be counterpr responsibility for the formation of intern the shoulders of the immigrants themsel Notes 1 Earlier agreements barred Chinese labor imm immigration (1907), and culminated in the 1924 N first general immigration law in that it brought to tions and controls that had been established over a of inadmissible aliens, deportation laws, literacy r tion law ended these restrictions. In this sense it w effort to end various forms of discrimination in th against minorities and women. 2 About 1.8 million aliens applied under the main 1.2 million applied under special legalization pr majority applying under the main program are e status, it is now becoming evident that a growing p the second requirement of the procedure, that of 3 Several clauses are attached to the bill, ranging f visa allowance to the granting of 4,800 visas each y at least 10 U.S. workers. The bill also expands two sionals who are outstanding artists and individua by U.S. workers. This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  830 World Policy Journal 4 Detailed documentation of these is based. See Saskia Sassen, The M Investment and Labor Flow (New 5 A similar trend is taking place in and J.S. Passel, Estimates of Illega (Washington, DC: Bureau of the 6 Marion F. Houstoun, et al., "Fema Since 1930: A First Look," Internat p. 945. 7 Nonpreference classes result from undersubscription of preference classes. Non- preference entries became unavailable in 1978, but recent lawsuits opened up admissions in this class again beginning in 1985. 8 Abstracts of Keports of the Immigration Commission, U.b. senate, 61st Congress, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1911), p. 105. 9 See also Labor Migration Under Capitalism: The Puerto Rican Experience, a study by the history task force of the Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos (New Yotk: Monthly Review Press, 1979); Alejandro Portes and John Walton, Labor, Class and the Interna- tional System, (New York: Academic Press, 1981). 10 See, for example, Norma Diamond, "Women and Industry in Taiwan," Modern China, Vol. 5, No. 3 (July 1979), pp. 317-340. In her research in Taiwan, one of the most devel- oped of the Asian countries, Diamond found that women were actively sought out by factory representatives who went to the rural sectors to recruit them. About 75 percent of the female industrial workforce in Taiwan is between 15 and 24 years of age. See also Helen I. Safa, "Runaway Shops and Female Employment: The Search for Cheap Labor," Signs, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Winter 1981), pp. 418-433. 11 See E. Boserup, Women's Role in Economic Development (New \brk: St. Martin's Press, 1970); also E. Boulding, Women: The Fifth World, Foreign Policy Association Headline Series No. 248, (Washington, DC: February 1980). 12 In a detailed examination of the employment impact of export-led industrialization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) found that, in general, this type of development eliminates more jobs than it creates because of its dis- ruptive effect on the national manufacturing sector, especially in the less developed coun- tries of the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. World Industry Since I960: Progress and Prospects (Vienna: UNIDO, 1979). 13 See June Nash and Maria Patricia Fernandez Kelly, Women and Men in the Interna- tional Division of Labor (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1983). See also the film, The Global Assembly Line, by Lorraine Gray. 14 Though inadequate, the available evidence on global international migration com- piled by the United Nations {Demographic Yearbook, 1985; World Population Prospects, 1987) shows that the United States receives about 19 percent of global emigration (perma- nent settlement- excludes unofficial refugee flows between countries). It receives 27 per- cent of total Asian emigration, but 81.5 percent of all Korean emigration and almost 100 percent of emigration from the Philippines. It receives 70 percent of Caribbean emigra- tion, but almost 100 percent of emigration from the Dominican Republic and Jamaica and 62 percent from Haiti. And it receives 19.5 percent of all emigration from Central America, but 52 percent of emigration from El Salvador, the country with the greatest U.S. involvement in that region. 15 Saskia Sassen, The Global City: New York London Tokyo (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, forthcoming). I spent many hours speaking with illegal immigrants in Tokyo in an attempt to learn how they decided to migrate to Japan, given its reputation as a closed society. It is impossible to do justice to their answers here, but the main points This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms America's Immigration "Problem" 831 were as follows: first, they were individuals who ha lized into migrant labor; second, Japan's growing with the availability of information about Japan as and made Japan emerge in their minds as an option tion here is, to what extent are we witnessing the em tunity" to the United States? 16 See ibid, for a discussion of how such tendenc ating in major cities in Japan. This is an important incorporation of new illegal immigration to Japan 17 Paul Blumberg, Inequality in an Age of Decline 1980), pp. 67 and 79; W.V. Deutermann, Jr. and Workers: A Growing Part of the Labor Force," M 1978). 18 Bennett Harrison and Barry Bluestone, The G 1988). Even the U.S. government, in an effort to cu aged the use of part-time and temporary workers i a growing trend toward subcontracting out such maintenance, warehousing, and data processing. U tract Out: Potential for Reducing Federal Costs Printing Office, June 1987). 19 It should be noted that notwithstanding an inc an increase in transfer payments, family income di become more unequal. Blumberg found that fa increased by 33 percent from 1948 to 1958 and b grew by only 9 percent from 1968 to 1978. M throughout the postwar period but stagnated aft 20 Linda Bell and Richard Freeman, "The Facts Ab in the U.S.," Proceedings (Industrial Relations Res zation for Economic Cooperation and Developmen OECD, 1985), pp. 90-91. Several analysts maintain earnings distribution is a function of demographic tion of women in the labor force and the large num boom" generation. Both of these categories of work adult males. See Robert Z. Lawrence, "Sectoral Shi Brookings Review, Fall 1984. However, when Har the data while controlling for various demographic economy (another category with a prevalence of l demographic variables did not adequately account earnings distribution. Rather, they found that w young workers, white adult men, and so on, the inequality. They also found that the growth of the of the increase in inequality, but that most of the res within industries. (See their appendix table A.2 for and regional factors.) The authors explain the incre bution in terms of the restructuring of wages an 21 See various articles on this topic in Nash and 22 The decline of mass production as the central fo to services as the leading economic sector have co set of social and economic arrangements. In the pos according to a dynamic that transmitted the benefi industries to more peripheral sectors of the econom This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  832 World Policy Journal stability and increases in producti included suppliers and subcontrac there were still firms and worke number was probably small in th and the wage-setting power of l tance of this combination of proc rise in wages can be seen in the co trends of the past two decades. theon, 1989) on the meaning of 23 See Robert G. Sheets, Stephen tries on Underemployment in M Co., 1987). An overall measure of be found in this study, which is t on the creation of low-wage job authors found that from 1970 to on the growth of what they de below poverty-level wages in the tribution resulted from what the estate, business services, legal ser vices) such that a 1 percent incre in a 0.37 percent increase in fu increase in distributive services r industry had the highest effect such that a 1 percent increase in such jobs. 24 Sassen (fn. 15). 25 For example, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 25 percent of both male and female immigrants entering between 1985 and 1987 reported managerial and professional occupations, and about 48 percent reported being operators (a broad category of jobs ranging from assembly line workers to elevator operators), laborers, or farmworkers. This content downloaded from 76.175.173.107 on Mon, 10 May 2021 12:13:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms