Immigration Reform And Control Act And The Hospitality Industry

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of November 1986, was designed to eliminate the attraction posed by jobs in the United States to potential illegal immigrants through employer participation. The hospitality industry, along with agriculture, has been one of the industries that have traditionally depended on foreigners as a source of labor due to its low starting wages which have typically repelled native-born labor. This research investigates the human resource implications of the Act through a supply of and demand for low-skilled labor analysis, implications for labor union activity in the industry, and further recommends employer strategies to cope with the effects of the Act.

As a result of the 1986 Act, regions that tend to attract many illegal aliens will experience wage increases and this wage effect will spread throughout the country. However, wage rate increases will begin to attract more native as well as legal immigrants who were hitherto repelled by the low wages, and this will partially offset the labor shortage. These newcomers, some of whom are displaced workers from traditional manufacturing industries will present ideal targets for the unions who see the service sector as the new frontier and answer to their declining membership. An employee-driven approach to human resource management together with a strategic perspective to human resource planning is more crucial now than ever to improve employee tenure. Reduction in hours of operation, scaling down corporate expansion plans, and support of a minimum wage hike are recommended.