Re: population and environment

At 04:33 AM 06/17/2000 -0400, Andrew Wayne Austin wrote:

>
>I don't know how many, but a lot of Mexican workers who are in the United
>States illegally did not first come to the US illegally. They are
>designated guest workers who have overstayed their contracts. I listened
>to an interesting House debate some years back were Republicans were
>trying to figure out a way to get guest workers to go back to Mexico. They
>thought about holding a portion of their money back until they get on the
>bus home. Some congressmen suggested 10 percent. Others said that was not
>high enough, maybe 25 percent was better. One thing they all agreed on:
>their constituents depend on that Mexican labor, so there was no thought
>of restricting the use of guest workers. I cannot remember what he said,
>only that it made me laugh, but a Democrat after listening to the debate
>for little while stepped in and interjected a comment on how incredibly
>stupid the whole discussion was.
>


I'm not sure the conversation is as silly as the Democrat thought.  I have
heard of such practices being used to keep migrant labor moving around.  I
can't be completely certain of how accurate my source on this is (it was a
fictional account of the migration of "Okies"--impoverished rural
Southerners and Midwesterners given the nickname as short for
"Oklahoma"--to California during the Depression), but the growers in
California may have used similar practices to keep the "Okies" from
settling down in particular areas and thus becoming a force in local 
politics.
--
Jeffrey L. Beatty
Doctoral Student
Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University
2140 Derby Hall
154 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210

(o) 614/292-2880
(h) 614/688-0567

Email:  Beatty.4@osu.edu
______________________________________________________   
'_Sapere aude_'--'have courage to use your own reason'
--this is the motto of Enlightenment--Immanuel Kant,
"What Is Enlightenment?"