International Labor. Positive and Negative Sides
Businesses can greatly benefit from globalization and usage of international labor force. However, there are pros and cons to using international labor.
Many businesses internationalize for economical reasons – they are looking for better conditions for their operations. Modern technologies made it possible and very easy to conduct business all over the world. The use of satellites, e-mails, faxes and the Internet makes workers all over the world very accessible. Many companies move abroad because of cheap labor force. One of the examples is India – the country offers high concentration of computer skills and low cost of labor. Many companies outsource their operations to various Indian cities.
According to the Commerce Department, the United States will need 1 million new information-technology workers over the next decade. Already, 300,000 job vacancies exist in this field. Farmers are also complaining of worker shortages in low-paying agricultural jobs. The Unites States currently limits the number of workers who can enter the country on temporary work visas, however, this number might be raised to fill labor deficiencies in both high- and low-paying jobs.
Many members of the business community say that they cannot find enough multilingual and technically trained workers in their country to help keep the nation competitive in the global economy. Therefore, they support recruiting highly educated and trained foreign workers to fill this void. In U.S., proponents of increasing the number of visas for agricultural workers also think that foreign laborers would fill a hole in the labor market, not take jobs from Americans. They argue that many farms and food processing industries already employ illegal immigrants because of the tight U.S. labor market. Advocates say that more temporary work visas would encourage farmers to hire legal workers, thereby decreasing the flow of illegal immigrants across American border.
Many corporations hire the best professionals from all over the world. The easiest way to create a global company is through the means of the Internet. Google is one of the best examples. The company is famous all over the world. It adjusts its service engine and other products to the needs of many markets and cooperates with many local companies. Google has its employees in various corners of the world which helps to adjust the service for the local users.
There are also drawbacks and numerous opponents of using foreign workforce. Critics in U.S. and Europe say that jobs are being lost to both legal and illegal workers. They argue that foreign information-technology workers are not necessarily better skilled but are more willing to accept less pay and are less likely to challenge poor working conditions because they depend on their sponsor company for their legal right to remain in the country. Some opponents say that the ability of employers to import workers depresses wages in both high-tech and the agricultural industries.
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