guest worker

noun

|Updated on: 14 Aug 2018

Definition of guest worker

: a foreign laborer working temporarily in an industrialized usually European country

See guest worker defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of guest worker from the Web

Eastern Shore crab houses, where crustaceans are picked for the meat sold in grocery stores and restaurants, are without about 35 percent of their usual work force after many failed to get necessary guest worker visas.

— scott dance, baltimoresun.com, "Amid crab worker shortage, Maryland officials approve $375,000 to boost marketing — not work force," 20 June 2018
Critics of the guest worker program say such jobs should pay more, in order to atttract more teenagers and American workers who have dropped out of the labor force.

— nick miroff, Washington Post, "DHS to issue 15,000 more guest worker visas amid clamor over labor shortage," 25 May 2018
Others remain guest workers for the long term, returning home every year for weeks or months at a time — and supplying remittances that make up a substantial chunk of Central Asia’s national budgets.

— Washington Post, "Migrant workers the key to Russia’s smooth-running World Cup," 5 July 2018
BrightView is the nation’s largest employer of workers entering the U.S. under the H-2B visa program for legal guest workers for seasonal businesses, the company said.

— annabelle williams, Philly.com, "Plymouth Meeting-based BrightView commercial landscaper debuts shares on the New York Stock Exchange," 28 June 2018
Many who have come here followed a path cut by an older cadre of Greeks in the 1950s, when Germany sought guest workers for mining and construction to rebuild cities after World War II.

— liz alderman, New York Times, "Greece May Be Turning a Corner. Greeks Who Fled Are Staying Put.," 5 June 2018
The tight labor market underscores the need for more seasonal guest workers, and the Labor Department ought to approve more H-2B visas to meet the economic demand this summer.

— the editorial board, WSJ, "The Rising Jobs Tide," 1 June 2018
But sticking points have emerged over how many guest workers should be allowed into the U.S. and whether caps limiting their numbers could be raised in the future, lawmakers said.

— kristina peterson, WSJ, "Republicans Hesitant to Cross Trump on Trade," 9 July 2018
His father picked cantaloupes in California's Central Valley as part of the bracero guest worker program, which, for more than two decades, beginning in the 1940s, allowed Mexican men to work in the United States legally on temporary contracts.

— jill leovy, chicagotribune.com, "A personal perspective on Mexico's mass exodus to the United States," 2 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'guest worker.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.