Description

Guest Workers and the New Transnationalism: Possibilities and Realities in an Age of Repression

Guest worker programs have traditionally earned the ire of immigration activists. However, the increasingly transnational reality of many immigrants’ lives and the changing political climate regarding immigration have led some activists to consider the key elements that might make such programs acceptable. Pastor and Alva analyze guest worker issues and report on a series of conversations with activists who stress the importance of freeing guest workers from ties to specific employers or industries, allowing guest workers the right to follow a path to permanent residence, and securing adequate rights for guest workers and their families. The authors suggest that the plan emerging from George W. Bush falls short on these counts, but that adequate alternatives could be designed.

guest workers, immigration, Mexico, activism, transnational

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, Nos. 1-2 (2004): 92-112