Number of foreign workers on Guam is highest in 27 years

A milestone has been reached in the number of temporary foreign workers here. The Governor's Office announced there are now 3,000 H2-b skilled laborers on-island, the most since 1995.

It's the highest total of H-2 workers in 27 years, and in making the announcement, the administration said its expected to go even higher. Guam is just entering the peak of military construction, and there's also been an increase in private sector building, both commercial and residential.

Guam Contractors Association president James Martinez told KUAM News, "We're anticipating probably about 5,000 to 8,000 total H2-b workers probably in the next 3 to 5 years."

He says making it all possible was the exemption in the National Defense Authorization Act that opened the door for foreign workers for military-related work, and an amendment that extended it further to allow them on certain civilian projects.

"We don't have the population base to be able to have all local workers on a lot of these projects so we need to rely on H2-b program, foreign workers, to supplement our local workers with this," he continued.

But with the massive influx of thousands of foreign workers, the challenge is where will they live? Martinez says the government needs to step in and make rezoning requirements easier, for example. He detailed, "Hopefully, we'll ease that requirements so that these contractors can build these workforce housing that's going to provide a safe place where these people to stay in and also protect the general public, I guess, from any harm that they may cause. I'm not saying they're going to cause any trouble, but whenever it gets a big population and they're all concentrated in an area, there's bound to be some challenges and problems."

Martinez says the construction industry is very cyclical in nature, and the economy will benefit from it. We haven't hit the peak of the boom he says...but we're climbing.