THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

GUEST WORKER PROGRAMS NEVER WORK | 2005-05-28

I was working on a brick plant in Germany in 1959. There was a huge worker shortage in the booming German economy, so they decided to start the original "guest worker" program. The idea was that they would allow workers from "poor" countries to come in and work until the post-war boom ended, then send them home.

As soon as GERMAN workers started to be unemployed, they would just send the guest workers (Gastarbeiter) home.

I was eighteen years old. I told them, "Once they get here, you'll NEVER get rid of them." I was told I was too young to understand the subtleties of the brilliant European Mind. I was a provincial racist from the South.

And so on and so forth.

That was back when I was also saying that after schools were integrated whites would drop to the level of blacks. Drug addiction and illegitimacy, largely black problems at the time, would skyrocket among whites.

I said school standards would collapse.

I said schools would become violent.

I was told I was a provincial racist. I did not understand the subtle brilliance of the Academic Mind.

Germany never got rid of its guest workers. White drug addiction is as high as black rates were in 1954, and black rates are now even worse. School standards have collapsed. Schools now routinely have to run weapons checks.

So Bill O'Reilly and all the conservatives agree that what is needed in America to take care of Mexican immigration is a Guest Worker Plan.