General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Far Too Many Businesses Would Embrace Slavery [View all]MineralMan
(146,413 posts)under the threat of being returned to their home country. Also, the "company store" sort of economy can put them into debt that they cannot pay off, leading to additional coercion. Often, in many countries, those immigrants do not have the same rights as citizens, making the problem even worse.
I'm afraid we're in danger of something similar happening here. The old bracero program in California that brought Mexican workers to pick crops was rife with corruption and wage-robbing schemes. That program ended in the 1960s, but I've seen similar programs proposed much more recently. The problem is that labor contractors are used to avoid dealing with individual workers, so the corruption creeps in, and there's not enough oversight to stop it. I grew up in a citrus-growing town in California in the 1950s and 60s, and saw that happening myself as a child.