University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
The Messenger
Vol. 6, No. 1/1996
Employers could help stop flow of illegals

     The U.S. can stem the flow of illegal immigrants if this
country gets serious about enforcing laws against employers who
knowingly hire them,  Mark J. Miller, UD professor of political
science and international relations, says.
     "In France, where fines are high and the employer must
verify the worker's eligibility to work prior to employment,
they've had a degree of success," he says.
     Miller, who teaches the politics of immigration- both legal
and illegal, has made a 15-year study of the impact of employer
sanctions on illegal immigration in France, Switzerland and
Germany.
     A frequent witness before congressional committees studying
ways to curtail illegal immigration to the U.S., he appeared in
March 1995 before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Immigration,
and he spent part of last December in Washington, D.C.,
testifying before House committees about the results of his
research on European admission policies for temporary foreign
workers, particularly in agriculture.
     Hiring workers who are in this country illegally can affect
legally entitled workers, Miller says. "Employers can develop a
preference for illegal workers. Due to a lack of legal status,
they work hard, scared and cheap, existing at the margins of
society. Lots of employers get rich on the backs of undocumented
workers," he says.
     In recent years, Miller says, the French have had success
with a verification system that employers use before they hire a
new worker. Employers can call the French social security office
and verify a worker's documentation. If the employers knowingly
hire workers whose papers are not in order, they can receive
stiff fines and/or jail terms. "The French government is
reporting a high degree of employer cooperation, and it is
collecting substantial fines from people who are violating the
law," Miller says.
     In spite of tougher laws, high fines and increased
enforcement in the 1980s, illegal immigration appeared to be on
the upswing in France in the 1990s. One reason was that public
prosecutors and judges were reluctant to go after employers. So,
the French government embarked on an extensive education effort
on the economic and social harm caused by the employment of
undocumented workers.
     Despite these efforts, Miller wrote in an article in the
journal, Western European Politics, "There is less optimism today
than there was five years ago that employer sanctions can
significantly curtail illegal immigration, although they do have
a limited deterrent effect."
     The problem with evaluating the efficacy of employer
sanctions, both in France and this country, is that the number of
illegal aliens is unknown, so it's difficult to know whether
illegal alien employment is expanding or contracting, Miller
says. But, he adds, in any country, strong laws and serious
enforcement would keep employers from hiring illegal workers.
     The U.S. initiated employer sanctions in late 1986, but
fines are low and enforcement is lacking, says Miller. He
advocates a verification system, similar to the one used in
France, that would allow an employer to check employment
eligibility before hiring a worker. He says firms in California
are now participating in a pilot project in which the employer
calls an Immigration and Naturalization Service data bank to
verify employment authorization of non-citizens.
     "Since 1986, we've been trying to wean employers from
employing illegal workers. If a firm cannot compete without
offering wages that will attract legal workers, well, maybe that
company should go out of business," Miller says.
     "Change comes slowly to democracies, and we're in a period
of transition-from welcoming immigrants to telling them we can no
longer accommodate those who enter the country illegally," he
says.
                                              -Barbara Garrison