Interestingly enough, an article appeared in my newsreader yesterday which is closely related to what we’re discussing in the Kitchen this week. Called What’s So Unfair About Trade?, it takes a look at how international economics affect immigration to the U.S. I’d highly encourage you to take the time to read the article… but I also recognize that many of you won’t, so I’ll summarize some of the points here:
The author, David Schmidt, points out that the immigration debate rarely touches on the causes of immigration. He notes:
Immigrants are treated as if they had materialized out of nowhere. Indeed, the dehumanizing term “alien” may be strangely appropriate for the way many native-born citizens view people who come from other countries—immigrants are discussed as if they dropped out of the sky. All that’s missing is the flying saucer.
He then goes on to discuss three myths in the immigration discussion:
- The myth of the American biosphere—This is the idea that this country is some sort of isolated, fenced-off environment that immigrants enter from a place totally removed from ours. The myth acts as if immigrants first became a part of the U.S. economic system when they crossed the border. It ignores any effects that U.S. politics have outside of the physical limits of this country.
- The “Their Country” sucks myth (sorry… that’s Schmidt’s term, not mine)—This is the rather ethnocentric idea that immigrants are damaging “our” economy because “they” can’t get things together back home. Other countries are considered corrupt, dysfunctional and backwards. Another article that was brought to my attention yesterday (with more profanity than I care to read… you have been warned) is called 10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America. The author notes:
If there’s one constant in my travels over the past three years, it has been that almost every place I’ve visited (especially in Asia and South America) is much nicer and safer than I expected it to be. Singapore is pristine. Hong Kong makes Manhattan look like a suburb. My neighborhood in Colombia is nicer than the one I lived in in Boston (and cheaper).
As Americans, we have this naïve assumption that people all over the world are struggling and way behind us. They’re not. Sweden and South Korea have more advanced high speed internet networks. Japan has the most advanced trains and transportation systems. Norwegians make more money. The biggest and most advanced plane in the world is flown out of Singapore. The tallest buildings in the world are now in Dubai and Shanghai.
Schmidt’s point is that we need to understand that “developed” nations bear some responsibility for conditions in other countries. Like yesterday’s post tried to point out, we can’t just have an “I got mine, tough luck for you” attitude.
- The myth of amnesty—To my mind, this was Schmidt’s weakest argument, though that may be changed in future articles in this series. He basically says “Immigration is just, therefore it’s not a crime, therefore amnesty can’t exist.” I’d like to hear further reasoning on that one.
Still, I like the idea of looking at the causes of immigration and beginning that search by looking in the mirror. If you didn’t read the article I recommended yesterday, now would be a good time to do so. The days of isolationism ended a century ago. We’re in a global economy. Immigrant-sending countries and immigrant-receiving countries are two sides of the same coin.
We’ll talk more about that next week. I’d like to hear some reactions to Schmidt’s ideas.
Several experiences over the last few days have reminded me of some terrible injustices, both past and present. Last week, Carolina and I visited the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home, and were reminded to what degree the prosperity of the United States came at the expense of the Native Americans and African slaves.
