On the current immigration brouhaha

[thatcrazycajun]

Anyone with even an iota of intelligence knows what all this fuss and bother over illegal immigration is really about. This is not about Croatians, Asians or Kenyans sneaking in through JFK Airport customs, or Canadians, Indians and Maoris overstaying their visas; this is not really about border security or economic inequity. This is about race; more specifically, this is about Hispanics, Latinos, "Spics": the one and only race everyone thinks of -- including Hispanics themselves -- when the words "illegal," "immigration" and "alien" are used in public policy debate. This is the angry white men striking again, galvanized by fear of a brown planet -- or at least a brown U.S.A. "The damned wetbacks are pouring in from Mexico and taking over," goes the bigoted nagging voice in their heads. Why do you think so many Latinos and Latinas walked off their jobs this week to mass in the streets and make a ruckus over the proposed new bill? Why do you think those crowds did not include terribly many Asians, Europeans or Africans? They know what this is really about. How many of the rest of us do? Illegal Hispanic immigrants are the new "niggers" of American society, the abstract boogiemen that Republican politicians and right-wing activist groups can use to gin up money and votes and conservative pundits and radio hosts to juice their ratings and book sales. It's also the latest convenient diversion from this Congress' utter failure of leadership on the really important issues of our day. The heirs of Strom Thurmond, Lester Maddox and George Wallace are with us yet...and sadly, they stride the halls of Congress.

Comments

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Bullshit.

Illegal immigrants and legal ones are racially identical, and yet I've never heard of anyone involved with the push to crack down on former objecting in the least to the latter. This is about border security. It's also about people who, by the manner of their entry into the country show exactly how much respect they have for our laws, and how much intent they have on keeping them later. And in the case of the LA demonstration it's about people who are hostile to the USA and its laws, and wish to return southern California to Mexican rule.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Actually no.
It's about hypocrisy.
Many illegals doing the work that many American refuse to do.
Then they are thrown back. Or if they are allowed to stay they do so without the benefits of living here.
That is Bull Shit.
I lived in California for a time and saw this sort of thing first hand.
But, from a mass-media standpoint, you might want to rent the film "El Norte".

[billroper]

Having watched some similar arguments raging around the H1-B visas, I think it may be fair to say:

It isn't that illegal immigrants / H1-B workers are performing work that Americans refuse to do. It's that Americans refuse to do it for the amount of money that the employers are willing to pay. If you dry up the sources of cheap labor, we could then find out what the market clearing rate is for that job for American citizens.

Assuming, of course, that it isn't possible to outsource it to India.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

And the hue and cry from employers who would have to pay market value for people's work would be spectacular.
Why, it might even result in people over here being payed the sort of wages they are in many European countries.

[billroper]

Oh, they already complain about the limits on the H1-B visas. I just find it fascinating that, with as many IT workers as have been unemployed in the U.S. for the last few years, we still seem to need to import them.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Minimum wage in Great Britan is five pounds tenish.
After you do the conversion rate, you come up with roughly ten dollars and some change.
This wage purchases health care and many of the "creature comforts" that our average minimum wage doesn't even come close to.