The Case for Open Borders

by John Washington

One example that disturbingly captures the destabilizing nature of guest worker programs is the backwards and bizarre disruption of the tomato industries between Italy and Ghana. One-third of Italian farmworkers are now migrant workers, most of them recruited through the caporalato, or “gangmaster” system, under which, Harsha Walia explains in Border and Rule, “their wages are often withheld, they are coerced to take performance-enhancing drugs, and they experience routine violence by employers and labor brokers.” Moreover, they often live in segregated clusters of shacks outside of towns where they have limited or no access to running water, electricity, or health care. Many of those recruited to toil on Italian farms are poor Africans. In Ghana, which has become one of the world’s largest importers of tomato paste, the tomato industry—once a staple of employment and producer of a key ingredient of Ghanian cuisine—has vanished. Many of the out-of-work Ghanian farmers are now harvesting tomatoes in Italy, then sending them back to their home country.

Another good example that it is the very rich who benefit from open borders. Who is losing in this instance? 1. The Ghanian tomato industry. 2. The previous Italians working here who had the protection of worker rights.