Saturday, April 29, 2006
Immigration Divide
A recent poll indicated that there is a deep partisan split among the following issues: immigration, the war in Iraq, and the economy. Republicans and Democrats were asked to rank these issues in order of importance. Immigration was rated the most important issue by fifty percent of Republicans, but only by five percent of Democrats. Now, if you haven’t figured it out yet from reading this blog, I will confess that I am a Democrat and a Liberal. However, I seem to be close to the main stream of Democrats, since I also rank immigration rather far down on my list of issues that get me stirred up.
The publicized comments of many Republicans about immigration include rounding up the illegal immigrants, sending them back to Mexico, and building an impenetrable fence along the border with Mexico. That is, if you say “illegal immigrant” to one of these Republicans, he immediately has a vision of a dark-complexioned man who speaks only bad Spanish and who brings poverty and crime to the neighborhood in which he lives.
Not all Republicans think this way. President Bush and others think about meat packing plants in Nebraska or farms in California in which most employees are (illegal) immigrants who are willing to work for low wages, don’t join unions, work hard, and don’t cause any trouble. In other words, they are ideal employees.
Prejudice against strangers is not new, especially if the strangers have dark skins and speak a strange language. I once had a phone conversation with another Democrat (at least she said she was a Democrat) who was appalled at the change in her neighborhood. Armenians had moved in. Their children did not speak English. They were dark complexioned. The lady missed the good old days when the children were fair skinned, spoke English, and had parents who had immigrated to California from Iowa or Ireland.
Republicans seem to be divided into two camps. Both groups share the prejudice against foreigners who don’t speak English and who don’t look like Western Europeans. One group wants them eradicated, sent back to where they came from, and prevented from coming back. The other group sees these same foreigners as a source of cheap, capable, compliant labor.
To his credit, the President also wants to provide these hard-working, under-paid foreigners a path to citizenship. I applaud him for that.
What about the illegal immigrants who have light skins and who speak English, even though it is a second language? For example, there seems to be no sentiment in support of rounding up all the Filipinos who are here on expired visas. Many of them have jobs taking care of elderly and partially disabled Americans. Neither is there any support for erecting a wall in the Pacific Ocean to keep others out. A Filipina who helps take care of my wife points out that it is much easier for Mexicans than for Filipinos to enter the United States. All the Mexicans have to do is walk. Filipinos have to have enough money for airplane tickets. Thus, on the average, they are much better educated than the Mexicans and other Central Americans who sneak in illegally.
Immigration is a very divisive issue for Republicans. At present it isn’t for Democrats. However African-Americans, are becoming restive about Central Americans who seem to be replacing native Blacks in many low-paying jobs. African-Americans have been the most loyal members of the Democratic coalition, with 95 percent of them voting for the Party’s candidates. Republicans may try to exploit this dissatisfaction, this perception that brown-skinned Central Americans are underbidding Black Americans for the low-paying grunt work in our society. If they succeed, or even if they try and don’t quite succeed, immigration will become a divisive issue for both Parties.
The publicized comments of many Republicans about immigration include rounding up the illegal immigrants, sending them back to Mexico, and building an impenetrable fence along the border with Mexico. That is, if you say “illegal immigrant” to one of these Republicans, he immediately has a vision of a dark-complexioned man who speaks only bad Spanish and who brings poverty and crime to the neighborhood in which he lives.
Not all Republicans think this way. President Bush and others think about meat packing plants in Nebraska or farms in California in which most employees are (illegal) immigrants who are willing to work for low wages, don’t join unions, work hard, and don’t cause any trouble. In other words, they are ideal employees.
Prejudice against strangers is not new, especially if the strangers have dark skins and speak a strange language. I once had a phone conversation with another Democrat (at least she said she was a Democrat) who was appalled at the change in her neighborhood. Armenians had moved in. Their children did not speak English. They were dark complexioned. The lady missed the good old days when the children were fair skinned, spoke English, and had parents who had immigrated to California from Iowa or Ireland.
Republicans seem to be divided into two camps. Both groups share the prejudice against foreigners who don’t speak English and who don’t look like Western Europeans. One group wants them eradicated, sent back to where they came from, and prevented from coming back. The other group sees these same foreigners as a source of cheap, capable, compliant labor.
To his credit, the President also wants to provide these hard-working, under-paid foreigners a path to citizenship. I applaud him for that.
What about the illegal immigrants who have light skins and who speak English, even though it is a second language? For example, there seems to be no sentiment in support of rounding up all the Filipinos who are here on expired visas. Many of them have jobs taking care of elderly and partially disabled Americans. Neither is there any support for erecting a wall in the Pacific Ocean to keep others out. A Filipina who helps take care of my wife points out that it is much easier for Mexicans than for Filipinos to enter the United States. All the Mexicans have to do is walk. Filipinos have to have enough money for airplane tickets. Thus, on the average, they are much better educated than the Mexicans and other Central Americans who sneak in illegally.
Immigration is a very divisive issue for Republicans. At present it isn’t for Democrats. However African-Americans, are becoming restive about Central Americans who seem to be replacing native Blacks in many low-paying jobs. African-Americans have been the most loyal members of the Democratic coalition, with 95 percent of them voting for the Party’s candidates. Republicans may try to exploit this dissatisfaction, this perception that brown-skinned Central Americans are underbidding Black Americans for the low-paying grunt work in our society. If they succeed, or even if they try and don’t quite succeed, immigration will become a divisive issue for both Parties.
