Employer cost incentives quietly converted temporary guest workers into permanent residents

Evidence

Problems arose, however, when corporate needs undermined the program’s original intention. Because it cost more to train new workers every two years than to keep them as long as needed, employers pressed the government to allow the extension of contracts. By the mid-1960s, regional practices and court decisions resulted in the right of workers to change employers and for many the right to an extended residency. Family reunions contributed to the growth of the foreign population, despite the stoppage of the labor recruitment program in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 200

Categorization

• QUESTION: A nice case of a policy design being subverted by economic logic — worth connecting to how intended temporary programs drift permanent against the designers’ stated goals.
• XREF: connects to: The 1973 oil crisis accidentally turned temporary guestworkers into settled communities — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3863

Broader Connections

• The 1973 oil crisis accidentally turned temporary guestworkers into settled communities #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3863