Thoughts about Immigration and Guest Workers From: Mike Ryan

Below I have shared 2 short letters about immigration and guest workers from Mike Ryan, Libertarian Candidate for US House Texas Congressional District 10. Mike and I have become friends while running for the US House. I enjoy our discussions even though we do not agree on every subject. On immigration we are very close. Mike is uniquelt qualified to speak on this since he has a one generation connection to immigration of his family.

I do not. My immigrant ancestors were mainly French trappers in the Canadian wilderness, thier indian wives,  Scottish traders in the North East and German Immigrant who became coal miners in Pennsylvania. My links to their lives were lost as my family migrated throughout the early US.

My thoughts on immigration. - by: Mike Ryan

My grandparents came here legally about 110 years ago and I have the Ellis island certificates to prove it. They came her with hopes and dreams like everyone else, but also with a great respect for American values. They very much wanted the American dream.

As I have said many times before, we need to look to history for many answers for modern problems. As a logical engineer, I always ask myself and others, “Why not do what has worked in the past? If it worked then, it will probably work now.”

In order to be admitted, they had to do three things. 1. Pass a health check – if you were sick, you were sent back. No one was allowed to be a burden on the taxpayers. 2. Have  a USA sponsor who was financially responsible for you. Again, not a burden on the taxpayers. 3. Sign a form stating you would not take any welfare. Yet again, not a burden on the taxpayers. After that you were free to go, best of luck to you.

 Of course, it went without saying – if you committed a crime you were gone. I cannot believe that if either side of my family, Italian or Irish, had a relative who was a criminal that they would tolerate that behavior. It was hard enough as it was – anyone who did that would tarnish the family name and make it harder for the rest of the Irish or Italian community to get ahead. As newly arrived immigrants, there was much struggle to gain a foothold and achieve legitimacy. No one wanted a bad apple to ruin it for the rest of them.

They told me there were signs on building that said, “Irish need not apply.” And also, “Italians need not apply.” Our family had to look out for each other and help each other whenever possible. I could go on and tell you how poor they were, but there were so many others in the same circumstance.

Some members of my family had to go back and forth a few times before they could establish themselves. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? If they got a job, they paid taxes like everyone else, no big deal. They were glad to be here.

My Italian grandfather even forbid my grandmother from speaking Italian in the home. He said the children need to learn English and adapt to America as quickly as possible. That was how he hoped they would succeed. They all had to work under the existing system and learn to play by the rules to get ahead. There was no “accommodation” requested or expected. They all wanted to prove that they could succeed just like others before them and they wanted that pride of accomplishment.

I could go on, but the parallel to today’s issues is exactly appropriate. We used to have an open system but ZERO welfare. Yes, it was hard but also efficient and it produced an incredible generation as a result.

Today’s immigration system is a mess because we combined too many conflicting values into one catch all system. We should separate immigration from welfare and also separate it from temporary worker systems. My only change or minimum addition to the older system would be to add a background check requirement for filtering out criminals and terrorists because of modern problems.

My thoughts on guest worker program. - By: Mike Ryan

There was no guest worker program at that time, it was just a free-for-all job market. This was before the Great Depression so things were much simpler. But we do have an historical example of what works to consider duplicating.
The USA and its allies fought a great many battles during WW2 and many German cities were bombed. The city of Heidelberg was one of the few that was not bombed during the war. I also recently visited the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in the same region which was also spared. Approximately 7 to 11 plus million Germans were killed during the war, amounting to about 8.5% or more of the population. However, if you carefully study the math, the number of males killed was about 46% of the population. That is an astounding number.
How does a country recover when it is bombed into rubble and almost 50% of the male population of reproductive age is gone? Easy answer – import them from elsewhere. Germany had no choice but to open up its society to other workers. Buildings, streets, infrastructure, military and industry all needed to be rebuilt at the exact same time. If you ever hoped to someday own a Mercedes or a BMW automobile, those firms have the answer. They came up with a system to employ many Turkish workers and others from the Baltic regions. That is one reason why Germany has 6 weeks of vacation every summer – so these guest workers can go back home to their families! If you have ever seen or heard an advertisement for these cars, you will remember the famous phrase “German engineering”. Well, it does not say “German built or German assembled.” The workers are not German!
What also happens here is that these workers pay taxes and their employers offer company healthcare as part of the package. They are not a burden on society. They do not get voting rights, but if their families emigrate legally, then it is possible in the future. But that is a separate system.
Today’s immigration system is a mess because we combined too many conflicting values into one catch all system. We should separate immigration from welfare and also separate it from temporary worker systems. If the USA were to implement a gust worker program and issue a “blue card” instead of a green card, then we might be able to solve certain economic issues. They would never be eligible for citizenship and voting rights. However, such a system would also have to include employer mandated responsibilities of providing healthcare and collecting taxes on these workers so as to not be a burden on society.
The common theme throughout these successful programs is that new people introduced to a society should not be a burden on existing taxpayers. That is the only economically sustainable method.