On this Easter Sunday, I am enjoying the bright sun and light breezes that grace Austin, Texas today. I am also, still thinking about immigration. Today on Foreign Exchange, Fareed Zakaria spoke with Omer Taspinar from The Brookings Institute and Jose Carrenco of the Mexican paper, El Universal, comparing the European Immigration "problem" with that of the United States. It was an interesting discussion, but one that I felt may have missed some important points.
First of all, Carrenco blamed much of the current situation in this country, while almost simultaneously pointing out that 50% of those illegal immigrants in this country are not Mexican, on increased security at the Mexican-U.S. border. His contention is that seasonal workers who once went back and forth, realized that it was becoming too hard to do that and decided to stay here. Then, of course, they missed their families and brought them over here, too.
Omer Taspinar was asked to discuss Europe's situation as compared to that of the United States. He spoke of the "guest worker" situation in Germany and how surprised the Germans, who recruited "guest workers" from Turkey to rebuild after World War II, were that the "guests" didn't go home. But he said that strong trade with Turkey meant that Turks in Germany were able to maintain employment and contrasted them with the other Muslim immigrants in other European countries--the Pakistanis in Britain, for example. He linked Pakistan's limited trade offerings with Pakistani unemployment in Britain.
Interesting, but what about the fact that compared to Pakistan, Turkey is a more westernized, modernized state, and thus there is less of cultural gap between the those immigrants in Germany and those who have immigrated to places like Britain. The whole "guest" situation, I think is what got Europe into trouble. The thought that the immigrants weren't really going to stick around and if they were just ignored they would somehow disappear, to me is what has led to a lot of the problems. Had the French made more of an effort to integrate the vast numbers of immigrants into their society, I don't think we would have seen such high unemployment and other issues leading to the riots we recently witnessed. Offering a path to eventual citizenship, to me, gives people a chance and a reason to get on board the train and assimilate and grow with the country. Does Europe have the answer with its guest worker model? I don't think so. Immigrants need a way to work towards permanent status as quickly as possible.
In this global world, people are mobile. To me, immigration is a blessing, because the laziest of the world sit on their butts. It takes some get-up-and-go, some real tenacity and courage to leave everything you know and strike out to a country where you don't even speak the language. I think the most revealing portion of the panel discussion on this morning's Foreign Exchange was when Jose Carrenco spoke about how the Mexican government is waking up to the fact that if they don't do more to give energetic, ambitious young people a reason to stay, they'll lose too many of them to the North. In my mind, immigrants raise the bar. They don't lower it.
Meanwhile, I also caught the rebroadcast of Washington Week in Review with Gwen Ifill. It was pointed out that it was strange that the polls seem to show how that many Americans seemed to share the same views with George W. Bush on the immigration issue facing the country, but at the same time gave the president low marks on the issue. Strange??? I don't think so. Think about it. He came into office in 2001 talking about U.S.-Mexican relations and proposing all types of measures to help out the immigrant population. Since then, we haven't heard a peep out of the White House on the issue, until Bush allowed it to be co-opted by the extreme right of the party causing it to blow up in his face. It is one thing to have a view on an important issue, but as President of the United States, you're supposed to actually do something about it. Give me a break. In a way (I never thought I'd say this), we have to thank the extremists, particularly, Rep. Sensenbrenner, for opening up this can of worms.
Thanks, too, to the voices of compassion and reason in the Senate: Senators McCain, Kennedy, Hagel and Martinez. Thanks to those who have taken to the streets to raise awareness and to keep it in the public eye during this recess. May our Congress get back to this and stay with it until we have a reasonable, workable solution to the immigration situation in this country.
Maybe, they should try streamlining the legal process of coming here, while they're at it. If it weren't so costly, unorganized and complicated, and if it didn't take often more than a decade to come legally, maybe we wouldn't have such a problem of illegals and we would actually know who was here! Just a thought.
Okay, so it is Easter, and you know that I have special place in my heart for those "illegals" who were brought here as minors or still are minors. They did not choose to come here, but they are here, and they are learning English and trying to pass state tests and graduate even though they will be cut of from almost all financial aid to continue their educations past high school. With this is mind, I will start off my list of interesting, historical immigration quotes with one from a very well-known historical figure, Jesus Christ:
"Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." Mark 10:14
"The conclusion has never changed: the worst sort of people come here for the worst sort of reasons and put upon those of us who have conveniently forgotten where we came from and how we got here." --Anna Quidlen, journalist and author, 1994.
"We set this nation up...to vindicate the rights of man. We did not name any differences between one race and another. We opened our gates to all the world and said: 'Let all men who want to be free come to us and they will be welcome.'"--Woodrow Wilson, US president 1914.
"America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts." --James Madison, US president and founding father, 1787.
"Our ancestors... possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice has placed them." --Thomas Jefferson, US president and founding father, 1774.
"There is nothing less to our credit than our neglect of the foreigner and his children, unless it be the arrogance most of us betray when we set out to "americanize" him. --Charles Horton Cooley, sociologist, 1902.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me;
I lift up my lamp beside the golden door."
--Emma Lazarus, poet 1886.
Happy Easter.
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