Desperate for Workers but Dead Set Against Migrant Labor: The West Virginia Dilemma - WSJ

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FRANKLIN, W.Va.—Not many places need warm bodies more than this picturesque town in the Appalachian Mountains. There are so many elderly people and so few workers to take care of them that some old folks have died before getting off the wait list for home visits by health aides.

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There is little evidence that many recent immigrants—either those who entered the country legally or those who didn’t—have had any inclination to go to West Virginia, the only state with fewer residents than it had in 1940. The portion of its population that is foreign-born is 1.8%, the lowest of any state. Local business groups representing manufacturers, bankers, real-estate agents, builders and auto dealers are lobbying against the proposed worker-screening legislation, which they say would deter needed workers and create burdensome and duplicative requirements.

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Local historians said the state has long been wary of outsiders, not just from other countries but from other states. “West Virginians don’t want immigration—of any kind,” said Stephen Smoot, editor of the Pendleton Times newspaper. There is even antipathy toward “come-heres” from nearby metropolitan areas who move in and look down their noses at locals, Smoot said. Voters picked “Wild and Wonderful” as the state official slogan in 2007. Wildlife officials have reintroduced elk, locally extinct for more than a century. For many residents who fish, hunt or simply seek solitude in the hills and hollows, fewer humans is a plus.

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Nonetheless, in West Virginia as in much of the country, the border and migration are potent political issues. Nationally, more respondents to The Wall Street Journal’s February poll cited immigration and border security than any other issue as their most important concern in this fall’s election. Former President Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee, has made it a central part of his campaign. Trump carried 69% of West Virginia’s votes in 2020, his second-highest share of any state, after Wyoming.

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Elected officials have tried almost everything they can think of to shore up the workforce, except encourage immigration. Justice signed into law last year what he said was the biggest income-tax cut in West Virginia history, advertised as, among other things, a way to attract workers and business. The legislature, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 31-3 in the Senate and 89-11 in the House of Delegates, has weighed tightening requirements on unemployment benefits in hopes of nudging some of the unemployed back to work. The state also relaxed qualification standards for public-school teachers, expedited permitting for major projects and floated measures to draw retired veterans.

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