Author’s note: I am attempting to examine American Immigration and the Global Society out of both the passion I have for the subject but also because I was just hired as a Political Director for and Advocacy Organization that deals with issues affecting working people. This exercise is mental preparation, if you will, during my last 10 days of unemployment. Must be in tip-top intellectual shape for my new gig!
There is something I need to write about, its been weighing on mind for some time now and the issue seems to be culminating to what could potentially be disastrous for our society. This is immigration and multiculturalism.
America, is in not doubt, a dark time. We have an economy that is arguably as bad as during the Great Depression, people are feeling very insecure, there is much civil unrest and divide among Americans. Historically, in times of bad economy and civil unrest, fear grips hold and people can be motivated to do unsavory things. More detrimental is that people set their eyes on who is responsible, often finding ethnic and racial scapegoats to blame on the current state of the economy. The most infamous example was The Great Depression in Germany following the World War 1. Record unemployment rates, staggering inflation rates and a failed financial system lead way to the rise of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler. Hitler was able to utilize the fear, paranoia and unrest of a crippled German public to blame all the country’s woes on the Jews. A German public that was largely organized out of fear for their own survival sat by and accepted atrocities to millions of Jews and other ethnic minorities. The current American state is not nearly that extreme but there are similarities.
I am going to try to discuss the positives and negatives surrounding immigration, our economic situation, our political situation and America’s standing in a Globalized World. This is much more academic a post than anything I’ve written in the past, so I hope you can bear with me and maybe we can have some good discussion.
Part I: Immigration in Politics- Past, Present and Future
America is a nation and society made of immigrants. Almost every American can trace back their roots to when and why thier ancestors, or themselves, arrived on our shores. Some came looking for land, some for religious freedom, other for better economic opportunities and some out of force. No matter why we first arrived, our different ethnic and historical backgrounds make America the unique culture that it is. Historically, each wave of immigration was met with a good deal of resistance. The fear of a changing society has often gripped our nation in its very short history. The historical period of my ancestors arrival was one of great anti-immigrant sentiment. My family mostly arrived from Germany and Hungary in the turn of the 20th Century. This was a great time of immigration for ethnic Catholic and Jews. Irish, Italian, German, Polish immigrants came in droves to the US escaping bad economic or food situations looking for success in America’s budding industrial society. They lived in ethnic slums and consumed a great deal more alcohol than the Protestants that made up most of our nation. Worried naturalized men and women formed Abolitionist groups hoping to abolish the consumption of alcohol. Women were given the right to the vote largely because the Abolitionist movement needed the votes of women to amend our Constitution. Abolition was also greatly championed by the Republican Party and many Catholic and Jewish immigrants registered Democrat in response. The Constitution was changed to abolish alcohol and Catholic and Jewish voters still tend to be overwhelmingly Democratic to this very day. We all know that Abolition was appealed in the Constitution just a decade later. Further, an overwhelming Democratic registration of those immigrant populations lead to Democratic power over much of the last decade. Those immigrant populations also lead to the American Labor movement which gave millions of Americans a middle class lifestyle unseen before. Which gets to my next point.
People don’t think clearly when they are overcome with fear. Currently we are experiencing the same sort of irrationality directed towards immigration. I can’t turn on the news, read the Opinion section of The New York Times, Politco, blogs on the left and right without reading about immigration. Whether it is threatening to repeal the 14th Amendment, discussing whether the 1st Amendment really applies to religions that are not Jewish or Christian, organized Qur’an burnings, protests, arrests of Mexicans because they might be here illegally, shouts of “They are taking our jobs!” I can’t help but to feel uneasy and worried. People are upset and rightfully so. We have an extremely insecure economic system that may take years to recover. Instead of looking deep inside of ourselves and examining the myriad of reasons we got to this point, we are pointing fingers at the newest arrivals to our Melting Pot society. I don’t believe this is a natural position most Americans would take however. This is most certainly a concerted effort of an Authoritarian Right of our society, one that is controlled and only caters to the production of wealth for the very elite. They are using an extremely effective PR and spin machine which much outweighs the organization on the Left to take the very delicate emotions of Americans and turn them towards certain enemies in order to control them. Anger at immigrants is being turned into voter turnout which will (potentially) turn into a very different makeup of our Legislative branch. Unfortunately those being controlled by fear of “the enemy” will not have their problems solved by a callous Republican Party that will only serve their interests in creating more wealth for the wealthy. Mexicans and Muslims are being used merely us an enemy for the poor so that wealth can be created for the wealthy. This scars both the minority parties being discriminated against but the majority parties that are being taken advantage of. This is also an incredibly short-sighted political approach.
According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center by the year 2050:
•Nearly one in five Americans will have been born outside the USA vs. one in eight in 2005. Sometime between 2020 and 2025, the percentage of foreign-born will surpass the historic peak reached a century ago during the last big immigration wave. New immigrants and their children and grandchildren born in the USA will account for 82% of the population increase from 2005 to 2050.
•Whites who are not Hispanic, now two-thirds of the population, will become a minority when their share drops to 47%. They made up 85% of the population in 1960.
•Hispanics, already the largest minority group, will more than double their share of the population to 29%.
•Blacks will remain 13% of the population. Asians will go to 9% from 5%.
So we can see fear is being used for relatively short-term gains. The use of immigrant populations for political gain will not only guarantee that they will join the ranks of your political foe but will solidify their political affiliation for decades to come. With a declining white population and in increase in the population of Hispanics and Asians we can see Republicans will soon be a minority Party and will remain that way for many decades. Much like the last century, fear over immigration will most certainly lead to the success of those populations.
Tomorrow I will be discussing the economic advantages of American immigration and how I believe that an open immigration policy can lead to greater economic success for all Americans and in the short term can infuse our government with much needed capitol during our period of economic recovery.
