Construction workers in Glenwood Landing, New York in May 2020. America’s construction industry has seen the largest relative increase in job postings since 2019 and relies on immigrant workers.
“Foreign-born workers have been significant contributors to the U.S. economy for centuries.”
— Southern Poverty Law Center
GIVEN the NMI’s long-standing small local population, workforce has always been a key issue here. As the islands’ administrator before World War II, Japan brought in tens of thousands of workers to the NMI and other Micronesian islands to build an impressively self-sufficient and thriving agriculture-based economy. At one point, author and scholar Francis X. Hezel noted, about 80% of the total labor force in the islands was Japanese or Okinawan. During the American administration, the hiring of nonresident — mostly construction — workers continued. When the local economy started to grow rapidly in the mid-1980s, the very young Commonwealth government allowed the hiring of thousands of workers for the newly opened hotels, restaurants, stores, garment factories and other businesses that, as a whole, provided hundreds of millions of local revenue. Those were the days when CNMI elected officials expanded and/or created government programs and services — not to mention government offices and jobs — that many folks would soon take for granted. These included generous medical referral services, several scholarship programs, residential homesteads, subsidized utility services, affordable loans and a government retirement system inspired by Santa Claus, among many other taxpayer-funded “giveaways.”
But in 1998, the tourism-based local economy took a huge hit during the Asian currency crisis, which was followed by the exit of the garment industry in the early 2000s. The local economy never recovered until around 2012. By 2017, with the continued arrival of more tourists from a brand new market (China), and with the entry of a new major casino investor, it seemed like happy days were truly here again despite the federalized minimum wage and immigration rules. But then Yutu happened in Oct. 2018. Worse, in March 2020, global Covid-19 restrictions all but shut down the economy.
Regardless of the state of the economy, the independent and nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office is required by the NMI U.S. Workforce Act of 2018 or the CW law to report every two years on the ratio between U.S. workers and foreign workers in the CNMI. Recently, GAO issued its third report in response to the federal law’s provision. Among other things, GAO pointed out a fact curiously left out in most of the discussions regarding the CW-1 program: that it provides “for an orderly transition from CNMI immigration system to the U.S. immigration system.” In other words, when the CW program ends on Dec. 31, 2029 — that is, when or if Congress decides not to renew it, again — the Commonwealth must, from then on, hire foreign workers through the existing federal process. It is not true that there will no longer be guest workers in the CNMI after 2029 (again, assuming that Congress doesn’t renew the CW-1 program — or replace it with a similar program with a new name). They just have to be hired through other visa processes.
In its latest report, GAO said the U.S. portion of the workforce ratio increased in 2022 compared to 2018. GAO said there were workers it could not categorize as either U.S. or foreign, but the U.S worker share of the ratio was still high: between 53% and 66% in 2018, and between 71% and 74% in 2022.
Some say that this “proves” that the NMI U.S. Workforce Act “works.” Which is like attributing sunrise to the crowing of a rooster. As GAO itself acknowledged, the number of workers is down because the local economy has shrunk. Moreover, the CNMI “is still at risk of a severe economic crisis and has limited prospects for recovery due to various factors. For example, its tourism industry is struggling, and its largest casino remains closed and unlikely to reopen soon. Tourism, the main driver of the economy, experienced a small increase in 2022 compared with 2020 but has not returned to pre-2017 levels, prior to the typhoon and the pandemic. The number of annual visitors remained below 100,000 in 2022 compared with nearly 700,000 in 2017.”
No one also mentions that current U.S. workers in the CNMI include former CWs who are now green-card holders, and their children who were born here and have joined the workforce.
Quoting CNMI officials, GAO also mentioned that “various factors make it difficult for CNMI to attract and retain U.S. workers. Specifically, they said the types of workers CNMI needs for its economy are generally in low supply in CNMI and in high demand in the rest of the U.S. For example, CNMI has a high demand for healthcare personnel and skilled construction workers. These types of workers are also in high demand in many other places, according to agency officials. Furthermore, officials said CNMI is generally not in a competitive position to attract these workers given its remote location, relatively low wages, and high cost of living. In addition, other U.S. locations tend to have greater access to healthcare and higher education for workers and their families. These factors, along with costly airfare to and among the islands, may contribute to challenges in recruiting and retaining U.S. workers in CNMI.”
Another thing that many of us tend to forget when discussing this issue: hiring foreign workers is not unique to the CNMI. See the history of the U.S., for example. See also Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Guam, Palau, the FSM, the Marshalls, American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, other Western European countries, Israel, other Middle East countries, etc. etc.
CNMI officials who talked to GAO should have mentioned that the U.S. workers here, like their counterparts in the states and other territories, are free to choose which career to pursue — and where to pursue it. They have plenty options, which is another fact that many of us seldom mention.
For their part, politicians and government officials, here and everywhere, continue to cling to the belief — that is repeatedly and relentlessly repudiated by reality — that simply by passing laws, they can make people do what government says is good for them.
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