2. 考研
  3. Give the Senate some credit: in shaping the current immigration-reform bill, it has come up with one idea that almost everybody

Give the Senate some credit: in shaping the current immigration-reform bill, it has come up with one idea that almost everybody

admin2015-10-20  62
问题     Give the Senate some credit: in shaping the current immigration-reform bill, it has come up with one idea that almost everybody hates. That’s the plan to create a new class of "guest workers"—immigrants who would be allowed to work in the U.S. for three two-year stretches, at most, provided that they return home for a year after each visit. Conservatives dislike the plan because they believe that the guest workers won’t return home after their visas expire. Liberals dislike it because they believe the program will depress American wages and trap guest workers in a state of serfdom. The only vocal supporters of the provision are businesses that rely heavily on immigrant labor, and they’re presumably just looking out for themselves.
    With the broader concerns about the effects of illegal immigration, the hostility to the new plan is understandable. It’s also misguided. However imperfect, the guest-worker program is better than any politically viable alternative. Opponents of immigration sometimes imply that adding workers to a workforce automatically brings wages down. But immigrants tend to work in different industries than native workers, and have different skills, and so they often end up complementing native workers, rather than competing with them. That can make native workers more productive and therefore better off.
    According to a recent study by the economists Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri, between 1990 and 2004 immigration actually boosted the wages of most American workers; its only negative effect was a small one, on the wages of workers without a high-school diploma. And if by increasing the number of legal guest workers we reduced the number of undocumented workers, the economy would benefit even more.
    Guest workers are also, paradoxically, less likely than illegal immigrants to become permanent residents. The U.S. already has a number of smaller—and less well-designed—temporary-worker programs, and there’s no evidence that workers in those plans routinely overstay their visas. One remarkable study found that after border enforcement was stepped up in 1993 the chances of an illegal immigrant returning to his homeland to stay fell by a third.
    In fact, whatever benefits the guest-worker program brought to the U.S. economy or to particular businesses, the biggest winners would be the workers themselves. Congress, of course, is under no obligation to care about foreign workers. But the program’s costs to American workers are negligible, the gains for the guest workers are enormous, and the U.S. economy will benefit. This is that rare option which is both sensible and politically possible.
In Paragraph 2, the author holds that the guest-worker program will
选项 A、arouse great concerns about illegal immigration.
B、be a sensible way to solve the immigration problems.
C、be hazardous to the improvement of working structure.
D、bring fierce competitions to local laborers.
答案B
解析 观点态度题。根据题目定位到第二段，作者认为临时客工计划是“如今政治上可行的最好方案”。并会与本国工人形成互补，因此B项正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/68zZ777K
0

考研英语一

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)