Issue Brief: Legal Immigration Policies For Low-Skilled Foreign Workers

Migration Policy Institute, April 2013

The current US legal immigration system includes few visas for low-skilled workers, and employers have relied heavily on an unauthorized workforce in many low-skilled occupations. The issue of “future flow” of legal workers at the low-skilled level — its size, wage and labor protections, and conditions for temporary or permanent residency has been a major point of debate as bipartisan Senate and House groups craft separate immigration reform proposals. In particular, it has been the focus of lengthy talks between labor unions and the US Chamber of Commerce, resulting initially in a shared statement of principles and later an accord for a new visa category (named the W visa). This issue brief explains the questions that policymakers must grapple with when designing programs for admission of low-skill workers, for temporary as well as permanent entry. It focuses on visas for nonagricultural work; agricultural employment is the subject of a separate issue brief.

Read the issue brief here…

Event: “Trilateral Border Issue Symposium,” March 18-19, ASU

With border security front and center in national debate, a symposium co-hosted by ASU intends to link that issue to mutual economic security among the United States, Canada and Mexico – the largest trading bloc in the world – and how both issues impact Arizona’s business community. The March 18-19 event is being organized by ASU’s North American Center for Transborder Studies (NACTS) at the university’s Downtown Phoenix campus and the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel.

“Trilateral Border Issue Symposium” will provide a forum for scholars, practitioners, business organizations and government officials from all three countries to examine and evaluate cross-border trade challenges facing Arizona business owners. By comparing and contrasting a wide range of activities on the U.S. northern and southern borders, participants from places including Mexico City, Ottawa and Washington, D.C., should come away with greater insight into solving border problems both north and south, said Rick Van Schoik, NACTS director.

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Pemex to Sell $2 Billion of 10-Year Bonds in U.S.

Bloomberg, 1/27/2009

Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, plans to sell $2 billion of 10-year notes in the U.S., a person familiar with the offering said.

Emerging-market issuers are returning to debt markets after the global financial crisis cut off access to credit last year. Mexico’s government was the first, selling $2 billion of 10-year bonds on Dec. 18. Last week, Codelco, Chile’s state-owned copper producer, raised $600 million to refinance debt in its biggest dollar bond offering and first since 2006.

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