Tackling the Complexity of Immigration ...

This is a vexing question to me, perhaps

because of the enormous hostility a sizable

number of Americans seem to have about

immigrants (again) despite the *fact* that

everyone in the Western hemisphere is

descended from folks who came here from Asia,

Africa or Europe a very long time ago to fairly

recently. The current buzzword that seems to

inflame folks the most is "illegal." "They" did not

come here with the US government's permission

(ignoring completely that that government's

"permssion" is granted both grudgingly and very

sparingly, primarily focused now on "quality

workers" as opposed to whoever wants to come

here).

Current estimates number this population of

"illegals" at approximately twelve million people,

4% of our total population. I suspect 90% of

them are what the immigration people call

"economic refugees," a category we now deny

entry to, although prior to 1921, I suspect that

95% of the so-called "legal" immigrants to the

US (some twenty million from 1890-1920) were

in fact refugees of this category. They heard and

believed America was "the land of opportunity,"

and for most, over time, this was actually true.

This was also true for those who Congress chose

to allow to come here in the 1970s to 1990s as

political upheaval tore their countries apart -

Cambodia, Vietnam and the USSR - although

many of them could claim to be both political

and economic refugees. But, the word "illegal"

taints these twelve million primarily Hispanic

immigrants, because they fled absolute misery

and poverty to share in "the American dream"

that some would vigorously deny them solely

because they entered the US without legal

sanction (which our quota system would have

denied them legal entry anyway).

I agree that a percentage of these folks have

behaved criminally since they came here, and

I do not know what that percentage is. I also

know that "illegals" can well be a strain on

health and education systems. I would contend,

however, that if we had a more accessible

health care system in this country, not only

might some of these folks get care at

reasonable cost, but so might the 45-47 million

"legal" residents who are cut off from that care

for lack of insurance. Education benefits the

society as a whole regardless of the status of

who gets it.

We say we need workers of all types. Yet more

and more jobs are outsourced, more and more

jobs are downsized or moved to other countries

(such as in the manufacturing area), and then

these individuals are accused of "competing for

American jobs" because a chunk of Americans

now have no other place to go in the labor market

but downwards, where "illegals" have "traditionally"

filled a niche since the 1920s - harvesting, maid and

cleaning services, janitorial work, landscaping and

various kinds of food service (at the least, I'm sure

there are other categories). Now, some Americans

are desperate enough to take those jobs and resent

both the below minimum wage pay and the lousy

working conditions these illegals gladly endure

because it's so much more than the $1-2 a day they

would earn a day in Mexico, Haiti, El Salvador,

Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Cuba and further

south.

But, all manner of draconian ideas have been and

are being thrown about in terms of dealing with

"border security" and "keeping those people out" -

English only laws, virtual and real walls (although

I hear the proposed 135 mile wall to be built in

Texas is bitterly opposed by a majority of Texans),

deportation of all twelve million "illegals," fines and

felony records for those caught here without our

permission, severe jails sentences and fines for

employers daring to hire "undocumented workers,"

and now, I heard this morning from an eyewitness,

some 8,000 "illegals" are incarcerated in Texas in

"detention camps," barely one step above the

concentration camps of both Boer and Nazi times.

As I've said before, what has happened to America's

welcoming of those who wanted to come here? As

an immigrant historian, I know that since 1840, there

have been several streaks of "nativism" in our past

history, where multi-generation Americans were

abusive of, and hostile to, one wave of immigrants or

another. Germans, Italians, Jews, eastern Europeans,

Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Vietnamese, Koreans,

and Cambodians in the past, and Hispanics today,

have taken a fair amount of heat for being "different"

(and generally "poor").

However, I would contend that over the roughly

400 years of European, black, Asian and "brown"

immigration to this country, the same pattern,

roughly, has occurred in all cases - the first

generation comes, learns English poorly (if at all),

yet works hard, pays whatever taxes they can,

and pushes both education and work upon their

children. Their children, the second generation, are

generally bilingual, become citizens (maybe their

parents do go for citizenship, many do not), pay

taxes and work. Their children become fully

assimilated, the "home language" often no longer

spoken, and they also work, although often infected

with the same "comfortability malaise" that most

Americans have - aspiring for all the toys and goodies

that most of middle class America has, which the prior

two generations may have eschewed in favor of

education and a home.

Every prior "wave" of individuals who have come here

have assimilated, with only two having taken longer,

and that because of generally rotten treatment by the

white majority - blacks and Indians. The latter group

still struggles with lower life spans, more disease and

poverty, and more alcoholism, than the mainstream.

But, there is upward mobility still for any individual who

is willing to work hard to achieve a better life, although

it can be harder today than in prior times.

America is no longer a welcoming place. These people

can be absorbed as well as their predecessors were,

whatever terms we impose for that to occur will be

met by tens of thousands of them save for one condition

I believe to be ludicrous and unreasonable  (I think) -

going back to where they came from and begging

admission to come in. We have shown since the 1882

Chinese Exclusion Act, the two quota immigration laws

of 1921 and 1924 that folks from elsewhere are not

desired by lily white America, whose population

convienently forgets where they came from decades

or centuries ago.

Perhaps 9/11 turned the spigot of American compassion

off, although I think this hostility about those from

elsewhere has been with us for at least 170 years in a

very pronounced way.  Our society has been greatly

enriched by every other influx that has come here. Yes,

each group has had criminals - the Irish gangs of the

Civil War period and after, the Italian mafia of 1890 to

the 1930s, the Russian mafia of the 1980s and 1990s,

the drug runners and gangs from Central and South

America from the 1970s to the present have been an

unwelcome part of the immigration story. But, these,

I would contend, have always been a minority. These

current immigrants are like all others who have come

here before them - seeking decent employment, a plot

of land they can call their own, educational opportunities

for their children; in short, coming here to better

themselves as did everyone else who came here.

I find the rhetoric over the pending immigration bill to be

rather sad, and amazinly exclsionary. That so many are

willing to be punishing, negative, and hostile is staggering

to me! I personally believe that this bill will not pass.

I wish something would, because I suspect the partial "

solutions" that will probably emerge if the bill fails will

probably be primarily for punishment and enforcement,

not for welcoming, guest workers, or a "path to citizenship."

I also believe that this wall idea, as I believe also about

the wall in the West Bank, is stupid, counter productive

and anti-American (or at least anti-American ideals, which

I think most Americans have lost sight of). But, I know

security *is* a concern, although why primarily only the

southern border mystifies me - if we don't want anybody

coming here, why not "Fortress America?" (sorry for the

sarcasm) I think, in the long run, America will regret that

it turned away from these folks, for the most part I believe

they would be as enriching to our society as has been the

long trail of all those who came before them regardless of

"status" or the problems they may engendered in the short

term. In the end result, America has become a richer place

for those who came here from wherever they came.  VMS

17 June, 2007