ON JANUARY 17th the Trump administration said it was removing Haiti, Belize and Samoa from the list of countries whose residents are eligible for seasonal visas, usually used by farms. This came six days after Donald Trump reportedly complained about the number of immigrants arriving from “shithole” countries (the Department for Homeland Security’s justification for the move was more nuanced). The suspended programmes are small: just 65 Haitian temporary agricultural workers arrived in 2016. That is partly because farms that use the visas must convince the government that there are no American workers to fill their job openings. But despite the tiny impact of such programmes, for the individuals involved, such policy decisions are utterly life changing. That is because the personal financial benefit of moving from a poor country to a rich one is vast.
The debate over whether or not low-skilled immigration benefits America’s existing residents is well-rehearsed. Economists sympathetic to immigration say that workers from...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2mLQ4eS
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