Abstract
Employer demand for less-skilled foreign workers admitted on temporary worker visas has increased considerably in recent years. Issuances of H-2A visas for agricultural workers and J-1 visas for exchange visitors have soared, and the cap for H-2B visas for nonagricultural workers is reached well before the end of the issuance period. This article examines the rise in employer demand for these programs, focusing on the roles of improved economic conditions, tougher immigration enforcement, and the drop in the number of less-skilled workers, including unauthorized immigrants. Economic conditions appear to be the most important determinant of employer demand. The upward trend in employer usage of the programs suggests that they can be a viable alternative to hiring unauthorized workers, and even more so if restructured appropriately.
- © 2020 Russell Sage Foundation. Orrenius, Pia M., and Madeline Zavodny. 2020. “Help Wanted: Employer Demand for Less-Skilled Temporary Foreign Worker Visas in an Era of Declining Unauthorized Immigration.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 6(3): 45–67. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2020.6.3.03. The views expressed here are solely those of the authors and do not reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System. Direct correspondence to: Pia M. Orrenius at pia.orrenius{at}dal.frb.org, Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2200 N. Pearl St., Dallas, TX 75201, United States; and Madeline Zavodny at m.zavodny{at}unf.edu, Department of Economics, Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32224, United States.
Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.