This is a topic that has been on my mind for quite some time, and I’ve been mulling it over quite a bit over the last few days. I’m sure most people are sick of hearing about this issue - it seems like all we hear is “Candidate X wants to give illegal immigrants amnesty!” or, as an episode of South Park aptly observed: “They took our jobs!!!” (For a clip from this hilarious and scarily accurate episode, click here.) Most of us are familiar with the obvious arguments on both sides, such as the famous “taking our jobs” vs. “working jobs we don’t want” discussion most people have, but there are other things aside from the argument that have been on my mind lately (though, I won’t promise not to make an argument here).So, moving onto one of the things that pisses me off the most: social stigma against Mexicans. First of all: since WHEN did “Mexican” become an insult? Living in the south, I can’t recount the amount of times I’ve heard someone use “Mexican” as some sort of slur, and it’s funny considering these people are so willing to convert a nationality into an insult, but the second someone uses “American” in the same way, they’re up in arms about people who hold prejudices and promote stereotypes. However, it should be noted that the terms are used differently - those who use “American” as a slur use it to generalize stupidity, whereas those who use “Mexican” as an insult use it to generalize filthiness, thievery, and exploitation of America. After all, there’s no such thing as a dirty American who steals from stores and exploits things like welfare.
Continuing along that train of thought, I’m wondering how many of those who are so willing to generalize others have access to a world map. Perhaps Miss South Carolina can help them out, but in the meantime, let’s have a little review about the Americas:
Mexico is not part of Latin America or South America - it is part of North America, which *gasp* makes Mexicans Americans! Now, some people find it incredibly easy to misconstrue this little tidbit of information - this doesn’t make them citizens of the United States of America (I emphasize this because people have become prone to thinking that America is only the states) but it does make them Americans - North Americans, to be precise - just like us.
Countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Spain, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, etc. are not in Mexico. Sounds simple, no? Then why is it that people who speak Spanish, or even vaguely look like they come from south of the border get called Mexican? This often gets justified by people who don’t know any better that, “they all look the same”. Oh, okay, well I guess if that’s the case, then people can just start calling Americans “French” and vise versa if they feel like it - I mean, we look the same, right? Point blank: “Mexican” should not be an insult, and unless you’re geographically challenged, you’ll know that Puerto Ricans, for instance, aren’t Mexican (as if the 2,000 mile difference didn’t make if obvious enough).
Then we move onto the subject of immigrants abusing systems like welfare and social security. There is no denial that this does indeed happen. Where you have a system, you will have people who exploit it. However, seeing as there are a pretty good number of US citizens who abuse both of these systems, perhaps we should focus more on, you know, FIXING them. No, they will never be perfect - but it is a completely unfair standard to hold all immigrants to, by saying that because a few of them might not work for the life they want here, that they should all get out. If this kind of attitude holds true, I wonder when we’re going to start kicking our own citizens out for doing the same thing - the idea is simply laughable. In order to justify that an immigrant exploiting welfare is any more wrong than an American doing the same thing, we’d have to prove that being a citizen of the US gives us the right to do so!
Furthermore, what people neglect to mention about social security is that most people who are here illegally have fake SSN’s. This means they’re paying taxes that they don’t get back. You’d have to be a pretty big douche to say that people who are paying money into a system that benefits you (however flawed it may be) are taking away from you, or exploiting the social security system. Instead of bitching a blue streak about that, why don’t we take issue with the people who get larger benefits from the system than they ever paid into it during their working years?
From here, we move into the various laws that are being put in place to target immigrants. We have the SAVE Act (Secure America with Verification and Enforcement): essentially, under this, employers would have to use the electronic verification system on everyone. Is someone really trying to make me shit a brick? The e-verify system is riddled with error, and has a 10% false/positive rate. Aside from the obvious idea that the system can encourage discrimination amongst employers, can you imagine 10% of people living in the US being flagged in that system? Furthermore, if it’s got problems now, imagine what will happen when it becomes more widely used. Then of course, comes education: how the hell can states even think about getting rid of ESOL programs? Let’s just put this in perspective: 88% of Latinos under the age of 18 living in the US are citizens, with another 1% of them becoming citizens through naturalization. This leads us to another ridiculous idea: that we should get rid of a program that benefits citizens. Don’t get me wrong - if you’re going to live somewhere, you should speak the predominant language, whether it is an official or national one, of the country. If I were going to live in Germany, for instance, it would be ridiculous of me not to learn German. But how on earth is this going to happen if we take the necessary tools away?
So what should we do about immigrants? There is no doubt in my mind that we have to do something, but kicking every person who is here illegally out of this country isn’t the solution. It would be horrendous for our economy, for starters (unless US citizens decide to start picking up the jobs they currently don’t want to work), and it simply goes against the basic idea of our country being the land of dreams, corny as that may seem. It’s a rare person who can say with confidence that every last relative of theirs arrived here legally and without question. It’s also a rare person who can actually pass the citizenship tests immigrants have to take in order to become naturalized. Frankly, I’ve never heard of anyone who had time to spare waiting to be admitted anywhere when their family depended on it - perhaps so many people might not be here illegally if it didn’t take so damn long to complete the process.
I can’t give anyone a step-by-step process on how to deal with the so-called “illegal problem”, but I can say this: the racial slurs, the abusive police officers who take it upon themselves to harass immigrants, and the blame placed for our own failures is not helping. We call ourselves “the land of the free, and the home of the brave”, but sometimes I think we forget what this means. Perhaps if we didn’t view our freedom as an exclusive privilege, and owned up to the shortcomings our country does have rather than pawning them off on the most recent immigrant group, we might remember.
Laura
