Correspondents' Correspondence Guest Workers
LAND, THOMAS
Correspondents' correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Guest Workers Brussels—The problem of guest workers from...
...July 16, July 30, August 13 No issue August 27 Biweekly publication resumes September 3 Our offices will be closed August ^August 17 jobs...
...prevent illegal immigration...
...If anything, by 1985 the guest population will be even larger...
...This would mean making available certain labor-intensive activities to the labor-exporting countries, pursuing an active employment policy centered on training and retraining programs, and making undesirable jobs more rewarding...
...That, however, is not what happened...
...Specifically, the European Commission—with the support of France, West Germany and Britain, the three dominant EC members as well as the biggest employers of foreign labor?has put forth a set of proposals for a common foreign labor policy...
...For the immigrants—engaged in the heaviest, dirtiest and lowest paid work, spurned by the natives—enjoy relative job security...
...The guest workers, he reminded the European Community "keep our production going and power our standard of living...
...Henk Vredeling, vice president of the EC in charge of employment and social affairs, is overseeing the negotiations between the Commission and member governments...
...One would be a policy of bringing jobs to the workers (as recommended by the 1976 World Employment Conference...
...Thomas Land...
...In Belgium, nearly half the country's coal is mined by outsiders...
...Although recruitment of workers from outside Western Europe was discontinued by some countries even before the beginning of the last recession in 1973, the migrants now number over 6 million, 13 million including dependents...
...Dependents are likely to continue to join fathers and husbands, local restrictions notwithstanding, and the birth rate among the foreigners is often much higher than that of the natives...
...The second option would be to assist in the social and economic integration of foreign workers—giving them the same rights as those enjoyed by the natives, and accepting them as citizens...
...Eight out of every 10 laborers on French construction sites are usually North Africans or other foreigners...
...Correspondents' correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Guest Workers Brussels—The problem of guest workers from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the poorer parts of its own continent has long plagued the European Community (EC...
...The recommendations he has put forward would recognize the need to insure equality of treatment for all workers living in the Community...
...The companies say they have tried to attract Italians, but have failed—despite a huge unemployment rate that has led 2 million Italians to emigrate in search of work elsewhere...
...But now, the member nations may may be on their way to doing something about it...
...In urging the adoption of these proposals, Vredeling has warned against official intolerance of foreigners in this time of rising unemployment...
...An authoritative recent study published by the United Nations' International Labor Organization (ILO) noted that, if it wanted to resolve the problem, Western Europe had only two options...
...Few of the migrants on the payrolls of West Germany's street cleaning departments were Fired during the latest slump there...
...And in the iron foundries and metal works of Reggio Emilia in Italy, more than 200 Egyptians have taken Summer Schedule Publication dates...
...Modest and limited, these recommendations could nevertheless prove a first step in turning the Continent into a melting pot for millions of guest workers and their families...
...The Commission's proposals would put Europe on this course...
...Nor are there any signs that the picture will change...
...provide for the trade and professional training of their families...
...and evolve a common approach to setting future immigration policies should new needs arise...
...In the boom years of the '50s and '60s, EC governments assumed that foreigners would come to work for a few years, make some money, then return home...
Vol. 62 • July 1979 • No. 14
