International Organization for Migration (IOM)

farm workers also complain that employers do not comply with the provisions of
H-2A visa and provide for sub-standard housing.
Recent initiatives to ensure immigration enforcement as well as attempts by US
consulate offices in Mexico to advocate legal immigration has prompted growers
to apply for H2-A visas to hire farm workers. As a result, the average number of
H-2A visas issued annually during the period 2006–2010 was 55,000, three times
the average annual visas issued during the period 1996–1999. However, even with
the recent increase, almost 90 per cent of foreign-born farmers in the country
are undocumented (Martin, 2011), as are a large number of unskilled workers in
occupations such as landscaping, construction, and hotel and restaurant industries.
The annual quota for seasonal non-agriculture workers under the H2B category is
66,000, which is a small proportion of the actual number of new migrants that lowskilled
occupations absorb every year.
To sum up, while family unification is the primary logo of US immigration
policy, since 1990 there has been a steady change in policy to allow third-country
nationals on non-immigrant temporary visas to meet the economy’s needs for highly
skilled workers. Over the past two decades, annual inflows under non-immigrant
temporary work visas have been greater than inflows via the traditional channels for
immigration. Thus economic factors have steadily gained more importance in the
US labour migration policy. However, little attention has been paid to the economy’s
needs for less-skilled workers, except for easing or tightening border controls to
allow or restrict inflows of workers without documents.
2. Patterns of access, use, and perception of labour
market information
2.1. Demand side (employers) issues
Trends in recruitment of migrant workers
Most non-immigrant visas for temporary workers are sponsored by US employers
and issued for short-term stays generally varying from four months to three years,
with the possibility for further extension in many cases. In 1996 approximately
400,000 new visas were issued to temporary workers. By 2007, the number had
more than doubled to reach close to one million. It fell somewhat during the
great recession, but by 2011, close to 800,000 new visas were issued to temporary
workers and trainees including intra-company transfers and exchange visitors. This
unprecedented growth in temporary legal migrant labour is a clear sign that the US
labour policy acknowledges the significance of migrant labour in the economy and
that in general US employers are well aware of the legal procedures to recruit thirdcountry
nationals.
Perhaps the most important source of information about procedures and channels
for short-term non-immigrant visas is the USCIS website. In addition, a plethora
of immigration lawyers across the country has websites detailing information
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