Since no guest workers should be on island without jobs. the 4.5% suggests a serious problem in the CNMI. The 14.2% local unemployment suggests that either guest workers are taking jobs from local residents. or the wage rates or types of occupation are not adequate to attract local workers. The Covenant established a unique system in the CNMI under which the local government controlled immigration and minimum wage levels and also had the benefit of duty and quota free entry of manufactured goods under the provisions of General Note 3(a) of the Harmonized Tariff Schedules. The Section by Section analysis of the Committee Report on the Covenant provides in part: Section 503.-This section deals with certain laws of the United States which are not now applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands and provides that they will remain inapplicable except in the manner and to the extent that they are made applicable by specific legislation enacted after the termination of the Trusteeship. These laws are: The Immigration and Naturalization Laws (subsection (a)). The reason this provision is included is to cope with the problems which unrestricted immigration may impose upon small island communities. Congress Is aware of those problems .... It may well be that these problems will have been solved by the time of the termination of the Trusteeship Agreement and that the Immigration and Nationality Act containing adequate protective provisions can then be introduced to the Northern Mariana Islands ... The same consideration applies to the introduction of the Minimum Wage Laws. (Subsection (c). Congress realizes that the special conditions prevailing in the various territories require different treatment ...
Keywords matched
Immigration Naturalization immigration