The Guest Worker Program is a program that has been proposed many times, including by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration, as a way to permit U.S. employers to sponsor non-U.S. citizens as laborers for approximately three years, to be deported afterwards if they have not yet obtained a green card.
Over 1,000,000 guest workers reside in the U.S. The largest program, the H-1B visa, has 650,000 workers in the U.S., and the second-largest, the L-1 visa, has 350,000. Many other United States visas exist for guest workers as well, including the H-2A visa, which allows farmers to bring in an unlimited number of agricultural guest workers.
The United States ran a Mexican guest-worker program in the period 1942–1964, known as the Bracero Program.
An article in The New Republic criticized a guest worker program by equating the visiting workers to second-class citizens who would never be able to gain citizenship and would have fewer residential rights than American citizens.
Famous quotes containing the words guest, worker and/or program:
“When mother’s relatives visited,
delicacies were cooked.
When father’s guest arrrived,
mother swelled and had a fit.”
—Punjabi proverb, trans. by Gurinder Singh Mann.
“Treat your child-care worker as you want your boss to treat you—with respect, professionalism, adherence to policies and prompt payments.”
—Candyce H. Stapen (20th century)
“O Jesse had a wife, a mourner all her life
And the children they were brave,
But the dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
He laid Jesse James in his grave.”
—Administration in the State of Miss, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)