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  3. Give the Senate some credit: in shaping the current immigration-reform bill, it has come up with one idea that almost everybody

Give the Senate some credit: in shaping the current immigration-reform bill, it has come up with one idea that almost everybody

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问题     Give the Senate some credit: in shaping the current immigration-reform bill, it has come up with one idea that almost everybody hates. That’s the plan to create a new class of "guest workers"—immigrants who would be allowed to work in the U.S. for three two-year stretches, at most, provided that they return home for a year after each visit. Conservatives dislike the plan because they believe that the guest workers won’t return home after their visas expire. Liberals dislike it because they believe the program will depress American wages and trap guest workers in a state of serfdom. The only vocal supporters of the provision are businesses that rely heavily on immigrant labor, and they’re presumably just looking out for themselves.
    With the broader concerns about the effects of illegal immigration, the hostility to the new plan is understandable. It’s also misguided. However imperfect, the guest-worker program is better than any politically viable alternative. Opponents of immigration sometimes imply that adding workers to a workforce automatically brings wages down. But immigrants tend to work in different industries than native workers, and have different skills, and so they often end up complementing native workers, rather than competing with them. That can make native workers more productive and therefore better off.
    According to a recent study by the economists Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri, between 1990 and 2004 immigration actually boosted the wages of most American workers; its only negative effect was a small one, on the wages of workers without a high-school diploma. And if by increasing the number of legal guest workers we reduced the number of undocumented workers, the economy would benefit even more.
    Guest workers are also, paradoxically, less likely than illegal immigrants to become permanent residents. The U.S. already has a number of smaller—and less well-designed—temporary-worker programs, and there’s no evidence that workers in those plans routinely overstay their visas. One remarkable study found that after border enforcement was stepped up in 1993 the chances of an illegal immigrant returning to his homeland to stay fell by a third.
    In fact, whatever benefits the guest-worker program brought to the U.S. economy or to particular businesses, the biggest winners would be the workers themselves. Congress, of course, is under no obligation to care about foreign workers. But the program’s costs to American workers are negligible, the gains for the guest workers are enormous, and the U.S. economy will benefit. This is that rare option which is both sensible and politically possible.
Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri point out that immigration
选项 A、is immune from negative effects.
B、has lead to economic prosperity and social stability.
C、has enhanced wages of most American workers.
D、will root out illegal documentation of workers.
答案C
解析 观点态度题。根据人名定位到第三段，可知吉安马可·欧塔维诺和乔凡尼.佩里所做的研究表明移民实际上使本国工人的薪资上涨，只对少数没有高中文凭的美国人的收入产生轻微的负面影响，因此C项正确。A项“不会产生负面影响”表达太绝对，且与事实不符；B项“导致经济繁荣和社会稳定”在文中未提及；D项“将会彻底根除工人的非法入境”是对原文意思的夸大理解。
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