The hiring of foreign workers to provide cheap labor for a new, revolutionary technology is nothing new. Consider the following quotes from an article about procuring workers for 19th century railroads:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-cprr/Labor Shortage
In early 1865 the Central Pacific had work enough for 4,000 men. Yet contractor Charles Crocker barely managed to hold onto 800 laborers at any given time. Most of the early workers were Irish immigrants. Railroad work was hard, and management was chaotic, leading to a high attrition rate. The Central Pacific management puzzled over how it could attract and retain a work force up to the enormous task. In keeping with prejudices of the day, some Central Pacific officials believed that Irishmen were inclined to spend their wages on liquor, and that the Chinese were also unreliable. Yet, due to the critical shortage, Crocker suggested that reconsideration be given to hiring Chinese.
Of course there was no "labor shortage", only a shortage of workers willing to do hard work at the wages being offered. If there was a labor shortage, it would have been because over 1 million men died in the Civil War -- fought so that wealthy Southern landowners could own slaves (their business model).
Notice how one ethnic group is pitted against another, with one group being praised and another group stereotyped as having a poor work ethic:
Impressive Workers
Strobridge's attitude changed when a group of Irish laborers agitated over wages. Crocker told Strobridge to recruit some Chinese in their place. Instantly, the Irishmen abandoned their dispute. Sensing at least that fear of competition might motivate his men, Strobridge grudgingly agreed to hire 50 Chinese men as wagon-fillers. Their work ethic impressed him, and he hired more Chinese workers for more difficult tasks. Soon, labor recruiters were scouring California, and Crocker hired companies to advertise the work in China. The number of Chinese workers on CP payrolls began increasing by the shipload. Several thousand Chinese men had signed on by the end of that year; the number rose to a high of 12,000 in 1868, comprising at least 80% of the Central Pacific workforce. "Wherever we put them, we found them good," Crocker recalled, "and they worked themselves into our favor to such an extent that if we found we were in a hurry for a job of work, it was better to put Chinese on at once."
Of course, the Irish too were imported to meet the needs of businesses needing cheap labor:
Irish immigration had greatly increased beginning in the 1820s due to the need for labor in canal building, lumbering, and civil construction works in the Northeast.[16] The large Erie Canal project was one such example where Irishmen were many of the laborers. Small but tight communities developed in growing cities such as Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Providence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_American#Mid-19th_century_and_later
