Mending and Patching

The tide of the times was not something a few pawns could shake. Nor was importing cheap foreign labor so simple. Aside from the capitalists, everyone else opposed it.

There was no other reason—only profit.

A massive influx of cheap foreign labor would not only undermine the domestic wage system, but also affect public security. With their vital interests harmed, people would naturally oppose it.

On this issue, the Vienna Government had always stood firm. It had made the distinction between primary and secondary matters perfectly clear.

It could not disregard the foundations of the nation for the sake of capitalist interests. Aside from highly skilled talent, Austria did not welcome ordinary migrant workers.

From the national perspective, when domestic citizens earned income, the money remained circulating within the country. After foreign workers received their wages, aside from what they needed for living expenses, most of the rest flowed out of the country.

An outflow of wealth was certainly detrimental to national development. Unless there was a genuine labor shortage that had to be filled by foreign workers, no government would welcome them.

Austria's labor shortage was merely a temporary shortfall caused by the war. As long as the capitalists stopped expanding blindly, the problem would cease to exist.

Workers openly brought in were different from those who sneaked in to work under the table. The latter were illegally employed and could be deported at any time; the former had signed contracts and were legally employed, so they certainly could not be treated so harshly.

If foreign laborers were introduced in large numbers, then once a postwar economic crisis broke out, domestic employment and the wage system would be smashed to pieces by the impact. The resulting vicious cycle would further worsen the crisis.

The government had tried every possible