The trouble with backlash
With rhetoric reminiscent of the mid-90’s, there is a growing backlash against “illegal” immigration that borders on old-fashion xenophobia - “fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything strange or foreign.” Here are a few excerpts from this recent article that are problematic.
1) Equating speaking Spanish with being illegal, or un-American
- This problem happens everywhere, even at baseball games. In article, Robert Vasquez - an Idaho lawyer running for a seat in Congress - and himself a grandchild of immigrants - complains “Why, should I have to ‘Press 1 for English?” My grandfather used to have a joke that correlates to this attitude. “What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages?” he would ask. “Bilingual” was the correct answer. “And someone who speaks more than 2 languages?” he continued. “Multi-lingual” we would answer. “And someone who only speaks 1 language,” he would conclude, then answer himself - “An American.” This, coming from a ‘depression-era’ man whose own views on race changed significantly in his later years (for the better). It still shocks me that some Americans insist that speaking only English (not just speaking English) is a defining thing of being American.
2) Not differentiate between legal & illegal immigration
- Unfortunately, while the joke is funny, the reality is not. The problem of the rhetoric about illegal immigration is that instead of focusing on the legitimate issues - border security, local impact on social services, global economic policy and the like - the reality is that anti-immigration sentiment quickly becomes anti-immigrant sentiment which is hard, often, to distinguish with anti-Latino sentiment, regardless of immigration status.
Despite the beliefs of some, there is nothing to distinguish an illegal immigrant from a legal immigrant from a citizen. And unless we resort to sewing yellow stars on people’s clothing, this won’t change. Since what separates these groups is documentation the race baiting and racial hostility is a dangerous sidetrack in this discussion that needs to be vigilantly guarded against.
3) Equating immigration with economic problems
- One woman in the article says, “”Taxes have gone up. They’re killing us.” Fortunately, the article also points out that she is a manager at Jack-in-the-Box, not an economics professor nor a political expert. It is important and legitimate to discuss the economic impact that the current state of immigration is having on local governments and social services. However, many undocumented workers - utilizing false social security numbers - are paying into a tax system that they do not collect from.Others have commented more on the economic impact of immigrants in our country. In addition, the positive economic impact of immigration is generally overlooked.
4) Blaming illegal immigrants for seeking a better life
- Ignoring the global economic conditions in other countries, some, as referenced in the article, describe immigration as “unarmed invasion.” While the US is not responsible for the governmental role of other countries, US foreign economic policy does have significant impact on the global migration of workers. But even more than that, others right about the right to migrate and the land of opportunity that we live in.
5) Failing to hold employer’s responsible and accountable for workplace violations
- Despite federal resources for employers to confirm social security numbers of potential employees, few employers do. One employer quoted in this article “says it’s unfair to place the onus on employers as gatekeepers: “An employer has no way of knowing when he gets a document from a worker whether it’s false or real.” In reality, the lack of employer level accountability for immigration is startling.
To state it clearly - I support immigration reform and enforcement of laws. However, I do not support scapegoating of immigrants (read Rudy C’s post), equating legality with morality (ie. what is legal is always good and what is illegal is inherently bad, since there are good laws and bad laws and poorly written laws and poorly enforced laws.) Just because something is legal or illegal doesn’t make it inherently moral or immoral.
UPDATE: I didn’t know this about undocumented worker rights.