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Final ThoughtsI definitely have a more enlightened understanding of the modern migration issues that many countries must deal with. I'm a white kid from a white neighborhood so my understanding was quite ignorant I admit. There are far-reaching forces involved that drive individuals to take action to improve their lot in life. Often actions taken by abstract, powerful entities far away from their homes, even in bygone decades, are having ramifications on how people go about finding a better life for themselves and their families. Increasingly migration is a person's best hope for a stable life. If your an American that opposes the movement of immigrants across our southern border this one point should help temper your temper. It's the fact that no other country has advocated open markets and benefited from them more than the USA. An example is NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement did send manufacturing jobs to Mexico. The wages were low but comparable to other existing jobs in the region if not a little better. Yet as these powerful corporations were able to enter the Mexican market, existing enterprises were run out of business displacing many Mexican workers. Furthermore, a multi-national can widely ignore environmental rules in Mexico causing an environmental catastrophe a just few hours south of here across the border, right now today and every day thereafter without a solution in sight. So the US (corporations) advocates and benefit from globalization and as a consequence some see as negative, we have a large movement of labor that is adjusting to these global changes in their lives. Don't blame the immigrants! Blame the policy makers if you don't like what you see. Finally I'd like to say that I no longer fear immigration from the south. I don't fear these people will take jobs from me or any citizen I know. Furthermore I don't think they have any more propensity to engage in illicit behavior than any other person in their situation and at similar SES. I don't think they will abuse public services and I don't think I'll every be competing with an illegal immigrant for any job I pursue. I do fear our governments policies that blocks these people from a legitimate means of obtaining legal status to work in this country that forces these people underground. I don't think forcing people underground, possibly dealing with coyote smuggling and acquiring false identities, makes this country more secure. It makes this country less secure. We need policies that enable workers to cross our southern frontier to match themselves with a job in a legitimate fashion so that we can have better knowledge of who is crossing our borders. Terrorism is a real threat and we need to address the issue intelligently not emotionally. |
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