Immigration

[pasithea]

So.. I was going to do some quiz about which candidate fits your ideals best and then I hit the second question in it and it stopped being fun:

(from http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460 )

Immigration: What is your position on immigration in the United States?
Build a fence along the border. I am opposed to granting legal status to illegal immigrants.
Tighten security first, but I also believe we should provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already here.
I favor stiff fines for employers who hire illegal immigrants, a security fence along the border, and a denial of citizenship to children born here of parents who are in the U.S. illegally. I oppose any form of amnesty.
I favor a guest worker program, while tightening border security.

All of these positions are anti-immigrant. I don't care for any of them.

That made me realize something rather obvious. Immigration laws in general
are crap. They should be gotten rid of entirely and worldwide. They exist ONLY for power and not for people.

If people want to move somewhere else where they're happier and get better pay, let them. If they're qualified, they'll get the job. Will it 'ruin the job market' there?

Temporarily, maybe. But what happens to the sweatshop in the country they lived in that was exploiting their poverty? All its workers are gone. Close up and move? To where? If everyone is free to escape to a better situation, ultimately, the only one who suffers are the bad situations.

If everyone everywhere is making the same kind of pay for the same kind of work, they all still have basic needs and things they want. The pay balance will shift first but the price balance has to shift as well. There will still be people who are paid better because their skills are more in demand but on the whole, wealth ends up much more evenly distributed.

I'm good enough at my job that I think I could keep it if there were no borders and I'm not afraid of ''THEM'. I'd gamble my job security for a shot at ending poverty worldwide. How about you?

HEY REDNECK AMERICA! HOW ABOUT YOU? ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH? WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? IS IT JUST THAT YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH? You talk tough shit but these hispanic, indian, and chinese dudes scare the shit out of you, don't they? You're just a lazy coward aren't you? What? No? Then put your money where your mouth is. I double-dog dare you, you bunch of wusses! :)

Comments

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

anyhow. Here's my scores on that quiz. They're skewed due to some of the questions not matching any of my views at all but the results are basically right.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

A cogent analysis. One of my profs called it "transnational flow of labor" (to distinguish from "transnational flow of capital") and pretty much came to the same conclusion.

One caveat -- bad situations that one can walk away from, have a tendency to get much worse because all the skilled, competent people who care have fled for new lives in America or Europe. :) Or California or New York. :))

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Dennis Kucinich
Score: 60
Agree
Immigration
Taxes
Stem-Cell Research
Health Care
Abortion
Social Security
Line-Item Veto
Energy
Marriage
Death Penalty
Disagree
Iraq

[paka.livejournal.com]

Eh. Hysteria. I mean, it's the same thing as when the Irish, then the Italians and Jews and Chinese, were big threats to America. I don't know if all immigration laws are crap, but I do know that anti-immigration stuff has always been tinged with really ugly prejudice. And like any big ticket social items, it's a distraction from the big important issues of who's making out like gangbusters, and what's any social thing going to cost us.

Like the border fence and security thing. Someone gets paid for that, who's it going to be? I can bet that rather than expand government jobs, it's all going into non-bid contracts.

My main reason for thinking this border fence thing is bullshit is that it hampers animals and birds. Sorry, guys, but compared to those indigenous species we're illegal newcomers to this continent. I think the right of creatures to migrate and move territories regardless of national boundaries is something that of course nobody bloody thinks about.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Hey, I got an idea: let's convince the Republicans that Mexicans are using advanced technology to turn themselves into birds and fly into the USA, and then watch 'em go nuts!

[plucky.livejournal.com]

Now trust me, I'm Puerto Rican, Czech, Irish and English. The main issue I have about illegal immigration has nothing to do with work and taxes and crime per se. A culture is comprised of a given population that shares a significant amount of commonly agreed upon cultural traits. When someone immigrate legally into a country, the very nature of the act is declaring that they wish to adopt those same traits and perpetuate them with their offspring. When someone illegially immigrates to another area, they are escaping from another area into this one. The very nature of illegally entering another country means that they choose to ignore the first signpost in integrating into a new culture, following the law (mind you we may not follow all of our own laws as citizens but we agree to the justice system over all). They are only saying that they don't agree with their own government but not declaring that they don't agree with the culture. For example, all of the Mexican flags that were flown during the protests and entire schools in SW catering to spanish speaking cultures. When they state that they want a better life in the US, they are not saying that they want to be Americans.

As an aside, I would favor a guest worker program tied to credit towards citizenship. Only a limited form of amnesty, linked with application for a guest worker visa and ACTIVELY working towards citizenship. Illegals, those who make no effort to either bolster our businesses through legal status nor work towards citizenship or criminals should be forced to leave. With a guest worker system tied to limited amnesty, people who immigrate here can also have a voice that protects them from unscrupulous business practices.