In the United States, as a result of the pandemic there are jobs available but there are no employees because they prefer to continue receiving the support of the Federal Government and unemployment insurance of $ 300 a week. Neither can migrants who are at the border willing to fill these vacancies.
They have many explanations. The most frequent is the outward mobilization of the population from poor countries to rich countries, in order to improve their living conditions.
There are also gruesome explanations such as the fact that now the government of Lukashenko of Belarus promotes the reception of migrants from the Middle East without requiring any visa. Its purpose is to expel them towards the border with Poland due to conflicts between both governments. The migrants are stranded at the Polish border and the Belarusian police do not allow the return of the migrants. There are 4,000 people suffering from a cold of -10 degrees and a humidity of 95 percent. The Poles have 12,000 soldiers to prevent their passage.
The Chancellor of Germany has spoken with President Putin of Russia, who is Lukashenko’s supporter, to intercede by reducing migratory pressure. But the Kremlin refused to interfere because it considers it to be a bilateral issue. It is, but also geopolitical and blackmail. Migration is used as a political weapon, just as Erdogan and Mohamed VI did. Lukashenko is a student of theirs to endanger the countries of the European Union.
In the United States, as a result of the pandemic there are jobs available, but there are no employees because they prefer to continue receiving the support of the Federal Government and unemployment insurance of $ 300 a week. Neither can migrants who are at the border willing to fill these vacancies.
Until September of this year, in the United States there were more job offers than job applications in the service sector such as hotels, restaurants, bars, manual jobs. This situation in some states is unacceptable and is causing their business organizations to propose to their legislative representatives immigration reform or government measures to be able to absorb temporary workers. The Government of Canada does this through a temporary foreign worker recruitment program.
There is also experience between Mexico and the United States. Under the Bracero Program in the 40’s of the last century 4.6 million Mexicans were hired for 22 years, around 210,000 workers annually to legally cross the border and work in the United States.
Migration exists in all regions of the world, but it occurs more and on a massive scale in poor countries that have great difficulties in making the qualitative leap towards economic and social development.
But even with the sensitivity of the problem, it is most likely that it will continue to be a regional issue with shared solutions.
Both the United States and Mexico governments have carried out evaluations to propose solutions, especially now that there is a demand for labor within the United States. The question is to overcome internal resistance and bet on cooperation and solidarity.
Economist
Economy and Society
Writer and graduate in economics, graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. From 1984 to 1990 he was Mexico’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark, where he was awarded the Dannebrog order.