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| Also listed in: Female political bloggers |
Immigration is one of the few issues I haven't posted about. But if anyone cares what this Ohio stay-home mom thinks (so what if my kids don't live with me anymore...I'm still a mom and I'm not going anywhere!), here goes: I'm not sure.
My ambivalence about the immigration issue stems from an incident yesterday. We had a legitimate contractor (Better Business Bureau member, Angie's List, etc.) quote a roofing job. After measuring and giving us an estimate, he says, more or less, "I will send a Mexican crew, unless you object. If you don't want them [he later softened to 'Latinos'], our in-house crew will do the roofing job. The workmanship is the same, but the Mexicans are faster."
At first I was taken aback by this racial Smoking/No Smoking kind of choice. Keep in mind, though, that he had already presented his quote for the job. If we say, no, we don't want those Spanish-speaking, possibly illegal immigrants working on our house, it only cuts into the contractor's profits. He's giving us a choice, and it's obvious that racial and immigration issues come up a lot in the roofing biz. I appreciate the guy's honesty -- and whatever labor he chooses to use is his business...I guess.
Based on personal observation from my little 90-degree corner of the world, illegal immigrants aren't taking away jobs from Americans (or if they are, they're not very good jobs). Here in central Ohio, Hispanics work in agribusiness, garden centers, child care, restaurants, roofing, dry-walling and other trades. I have no idea of the immigration status of these hard-working people, but if you live in Ohio and don't speak English, I gotta wonder. Don't ask, don't tell.
If I lived in Texas and half the students in my kids' school were illegal immigrants I'm sure I'd feel differently, but for now, it doesn't seem like these people are taking anything away from me and my family.
My community is pretty much a failure diversity-wise, but we do have a fairly large population of Asian-Americans (something like 10% of the high school students are of Asian descent). Many of them are recent immigrants and have their fair share of hassles too. For example, one Taiwanese mother had to leave her high-school son in the care of non-family members because her visa required her to return to China for a period.
In the police report logs in the local newspapers I've notice an increasing number of citations for driving without a license are being written for names like Juan and Pedro. I confess to bigotry here -- I don't want to share the road with people who don't have licenses. I understand anyone with questionable immigrant status can't get a license. They would if they could. But still, unlicensed drivers really worry me. That's the crux of the immigration issue, as far as I'm concerned.
Personally, I'm not aware of any illegal immigrant crime in my neighborhood. (If there are illegals, they're hard at work.) Columbus has its fair share of big drug busts, though, and not all of these are just passing through on the interstates.
I don't agree with border-state candidate John McCain on much of anything, but he is right that deportation is not a viable punishment option for anything but the worst criminals. It's just not practical.
It's a testament to America's wonderfulness that so many people want to live here. And, yeah, we ARE a nation of immigrants. It's getting a little crowded, though. I'm not sure what to think.
First of all, on the subject of immigants who live inside of the United States. It is incorrect to just limit that identification to one group of people. There are legal and illegal occupants from all over the world in this country.
To limit that reality into one group of people only indicates that they are ones who are breaking the law.
Secondly, an employer taking advantage of a vulernable sector of the labor force is not a new trend in American labor relations. It is an on going fact. Even for native born citizens who do not have access to other employment venues. Who should ultimately be held responsible for creating those conditions. The man or woman is employed or the employer?
Only one group of people were cited in this discussion. What about the illegals from Europe, Africa and North America? If we are going to purge the nation then we need to do so completely. Of course that would also mean that for many people who are here it would be openly signing their demise. But what's genocide really mean as long as our nation is solely compromised of native born only people.
While there are still Americans balking at the idea of second languages being used and different groups of people entering the land. Business does not handle itself in that manner. Habla Espanol is up and working. So let's not illusion ourselves about the presence of immigrants in this nation.
The time has come to devise a sane and rational policy that deals with people who are not native born Americans. A policy that deals with all different aspects of this issue. From granting legal status to removing those individuals who have criminal backgrounds in their respective homelands. The political situation in their respective homelands also need to be taken into consideration.
There has not been an administration from either party that has properly dealt with this issue. Now that we approaching the time when national policy is going to be a mandate, we need to look at the reality picture. Not just the view of one group.
Living near to OSU, we probably have more recent immigrants and international visitors than the norm for Ohio. I've noticed fewer men wearing turbans since 9/11 -- that's a gross generalization, but I do think the U.S. has cracked down on student visas for Middle Easterners. On the other hand, there are many girls wearing head scarves in high schools.
Another hot-button aspect of the immigration issue is use of birth control. The U.S. population growth has nearly stabilized at a birthrate of 2.1 children per couple. Almost all the extra 0.1 growth is due to births by recent immigrants, mainly from Catholic-dominated nations who do not believe in using birth control. That's a bit of a problem for the rest of us and our kids. (I will document these stats sometime in a future post when I'm feeling frisky.)
Still, we don't seem to have a good name for people from India in the U.S. "Indian-American" is too much like "American Indian" and to call someone "Asian" is so nebulous, it's meaningless.
The "Macaca" slur was a new one on me.
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Surely we can do better for our Asian Indian American friends.