Yesterday, we watched a documentary about immigration in government class--something current, from CNN. It featured a rather aggressively Latina reporter following the stories of four people, two illegal immigrants, and two...people who don't like illegal immigrants.
Now, there is a valid argument to be made here; there are valid reasons on both sides. Immigration drives down wages which, although bad for the Americans doing similar jobs, is good for the employers and good for the consumers who want to pay less. Undocumented immigrants do, heaven forbid, get sick and go to hospitals (often as a last resort), and send their children to American schools, presenting a strain on sacred taxpayer dollars. But really, can we neglect to help sick people or educate children because, as is argued, they are not our problem?
Regardless. It was quite a documentary, if only because the anti-immigration side seemed so...unbalanced. Admittedly, we are Californians, and in our class I'd reckon about 75% are illegal or were illegal or their parents were, and everyone else is pretty much okay with that. But still, these xenophobic maniacs on television, wearing shirts that say "Viva la Migra!" and screaming things like "This is my country! You are criminals!" seem utterly insane.
By contrast, the undocumented workers who they profiled (first names only) were timid, polite, desperate, hardworking--but unapologetic about how they got here. America holds the potential for a better life, they said, so we take the gamble and come here.
No matter what your point of view on immigration in general, when you look at the individual cases, everyone (who is sane) sees desperate, hardworking people. Mostly good people. People who do hard jobs for far too long and send their children to school for something better.
Those who scream for deportation and felony charges can do so conscience-free because they have distanced themselves, thrown up a border between them and these human beings. They have split the world into American and non-American, and we know which of those is better, which one gets rights and liberties, which one gets human dignity. That same us vs. them mentality has been going strong throughout history, excusing slavery and racism and Japanese internment camps and hate crimes against Arabic citizens.
Any immigration policy we decide on needs to remember two things: (1) that undocumented workers are here illegally, but nevertheless work hard and perform vital functions in society; and (2) they are human beings.
We should never forget, in our fervor to protect our borders or our culture or whatever, that these aren't invaders or enemies or the nebulous them. They're just people. And need to be treated as such.
