Immigration
I swore I wouldn't write about this as I came in this morning. Hearing about the hateful Virginia ordinance that lets police officers question people about their immigration status, the woman spewing hatred about "THESE" immigrants who come expecting government handouts, as opposed to her ancestors (who I'm sure were welcomed with open arms by Americans of the time).
Then I read this article in the NYTimes (unfortunately not open to the public, you need Times Select, but now would be a great time for your free 14-day trial), which made me feel like at least not all people are succumbing to fear. A few points I found particularly illuminating:
"It's no wonder some people compare immigrant workers to locusts, bacteria or an occupying army. If you could find a 250-year-old American to discuss this, he or she would tell you how familiar this all sounds. Identical arguments were once made about Chinese laborers, Japanese-Americans, Roman Catholics, the Irish, Italians, and the original unloved - though fully documented - outsiders, African-Americans. Let's not even talk about American Indians."
"Minneapolis and St. Paul's mayors and police chiefs have spoken out against a proposal by the Minnesota governor to enlist local police officers in immigration enforcement - and they are speaking for many other mayors and police chiefs who feel the same way...Checking up on immigrants, he insisted, would take his officers away from tracking down serious criminals, including sex offenders."
"Illegal immigrants are already a hidden population. Turning local cops against them will drive them further into the shadows. This will hinder investigations - witnesses will vanish, and criminals, uncaught and unpunished, will flourish."
"Immigrants - legal and illegal - fill a vital niche in the American economy. They make up 12 percent of the United States population but 14 percent of its workers, according to the Congressional Budget Office."
"Tearing the approximately one third of those workers who are illegal away from their livelihoods and families would be ruinous to the economy, particularly the agricultural and tourism industries in states like California."
"Throw away the arguments that immigrants are tax leeches. On the contrary. They pay more in taxes than they consume in services...the average immigrant pays nearly $1,800 more in taxes than he or she costs in benefits, even when you factor in the cost of public education for his or her children."
Note: I realize that I am a biased party, as my husband is among that 1/3 of immigrants who are illegal. If I said my feelings on the matter weren't affected by that, I'd be a liar. I can't deny the fear I feel when he's late coming home from work, or the frustration I feel not being able to get him health insurance or begin to plan a family, or the utter sadness I feel seeing his mom cry every time they talk on MSN, the only contact they've had for over five years.
Apart from the personal level, though, I work with illegals every day. I see families torn apart, I see the struggle to make it no matter what, and while there are those who take advantage of the system, the majority are just trying to do here what they could not do in their home country - raise and support a family, maintain a basic quality of living, and more than anything, work as hard and as long as they possibly can, no matter how badly they're exploited. As the author of the above article stated, our immigration system is broken, but the solution does not lie kicking out all the illegals, building a fence around the entire country, closing our eyes, blocking out our ears, and singing 'la la la' until they all just go away.
All that said, I don't have a fully articulated alternative solution. But I do know that isolationism and xenophobia are not the way to go.
Then I read this article in the NYTimes (unfortunately not open to the public, you need Times Select, but now would be a great time for your free 14-day trial), which made me feel like at least not all people are succumbing to fear. A few points I found particularly illuminating:
"It's no wonder some people compare immigrant workers to locusts, bacteria or an occupying army. If you could find a 250-year-old American to discuss this, he or she would tell you how familiar this all sounds. Identical arguments were once made about Chinese laborers, Japanese-Americans, Roman Catholics, the Irish, Italians, and the original unloved - though fully documented - outsiders, African-Americans. Let's not even talk about American Indians."
"Minneapolis and St. Paul's mayors and police chiefs have spoken out against a proposal by the Minnesota governor to enlist local police officers in immigration enforcement - and they are speaking for many other mayors and police chiefs who feel the same way...Checking up on immigrants, he insisted, would take his officers away from tracking down serious criminals, including sex offenders."
"Illegal immigrants are already a hidden population. Turning local cops against them will drive them further into the shadows. This will hinder investigations - witnesses will vanish, and criminals, uncaught and unpunished, will flourish."
"Immigrants - legal and illegal - fill a vital niche in the American economy. They make up 12 percent of the United States population but 14 percent of its workers, according to the Congressional Budget Office."
"Tearing the approximately one third of those workers who are illegal away from their livelihoods and families would be ruinous to the economy, particularly the agricultural and tourism industries in states like California."
"Throw away the arguments that immigrants are tax leeches. On the contrary. They pay more in taxes than they consume in services...the average immigrant pays nearly $1,800 more in taxes than he or she costs in benefits, even when you factor in the cost of public education for his or her children."
Note: I realize that I am a biased party, as my husband is among that 1/3 of immigrants who are illegal. If I said my feelings on the matter weren't affected by that, I'd be a liar. I can't deny the fear I feel when he's late coming home from work, or the frustration I feel not being able to get him health insurance or begin to plan a family, or the utter sadness I feel seeing his mom cry every time they talk on MSN, the only contact they've had for over five years.
Apart from the personal level, though, I work with illegals every day. I see families torn apart, I see the struggle to make it no matter what, and while there are those who take advantage of the system, the majority are just trying to do here what they could not do in their home country - raise and support a family, maintain a basic quality of living, and more than anything, work as hard and as long as they possibly can, no matter how badly they're exploited. As the author of the above article stated, our immigration system is broken, but the solution does not lie kicking out all the illegals, building a fence around the entire country, closing our eyes, blocking out our ears, and singing 'la la la' until they all just go away.
All that said, I don't have a fully articulated alternative solution. But I do know that isolationism and xenophobia are not the way to go.