“Workers Wanted”

Employers play central roles in the social incorporation of immigrant labor but have usually received only scant attention in research literature. From the importation of contract Mexican workers from 1942 to 1964 to the present employment of foreign-born workers in primary and secondary labor markets, employers have played critical functions in recruiting foreign-born labor into the U.S. economy. Directly and indirectly, the U.S. government has supported these functions. The future likely holds a continuation of temporary governmental policies for the recruitment of skilled and unskilled foreign-born labor as well as a continuation of employer attraction to this labor.