Exploitation, Scapegoating, and the Illegal Immigration Debate.
This week strict immigration laws, which had been passed in Arizona and Alabama, were challenged before the Supreme Court.
From FOX News to NPR, discussion turned to our nation’s immigration policy, and talking heads were brought in to tout either the necessity of such bills, or the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
While arguing about which political party has the better plan for dealing with immigration, it seemed both sides of the debate continually overlooked an important but uncomfortable fact.
Illegal immigrants are not the root cause of the problem, we are.
Our personal and national economies are dependent on the artificially cheap prices enabled by our exploitation of cheap immigrant labor.
To talk about immigration policy without addressing that elephant in the room is an exercise in missing the point.
We are perfectly happy to benefit from the availability of cheap houses built by illegal labor, artificially affordable food harvested by undocumented workers, and inexpensive meat processed and packaged by those who have snuck across our borders.
Illegal immigrants come here because, on one level, we want them to. We want them to and we provide them the employment opportunities because our system depends on exploiting immigrant labor, much like it depends on exploiting the cheap foreign labor that sews our clothes and builds our electronic devices.
But we don’t like to talk about it, because we are all complicit, and because acknowledging this dark underside to our “free” market would demand we do something besides vote for one of two slightly differentiated political parties – it would demand we live differently.
Of course when the housing market crashes, when the economy struggles, we find it easier to do without the labor of illegal immigrants and use them instead as a convenient scapegoat. We say that they are taking all our jobs, while simultaneously (and paradoxically) calling them lazy drains on our society. We direct our anger and fear towards the least of these, exploiting them politically and sociologically as we have exploited them economically.
With one hand we offer them employment and hope for a better life, while with the other we round them up as criminals and demonize them.
Until the root injustices of that system are challenged, talk of stricter laws or immigration reform seems to me akin to painting the siding of a building with a rotting foundation.
“The liturgy of consumption births in us a desire for a way of life that is destructive to creation itself; moreover, it births in us a desire for a way of life that we can’t feasibly extend to others, creating a system of privilege and exploitation.” – Jamie Smith, Desiring the Kingdom
, pg. 101.
Good morning, Mason:
I rarely jump into politically-charged posts, and you’re about to see why, because I feel like jumping in on this one. It will be something of a rant, and I hope you know that I respect and esteem you and your work–but in my view you have missed the boat on this one, big-time.
Several points (and it will take several before I get to the elephant in the room):
Arizona has not passed “stricter immigration laws,” because a state cannot pass any immigration laws. Only the Congress can do so. The Arizona legislature simply empowered state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal law. The can (and should) be a Supreme Court review about whether this is lawful, or even desirable. But from the outset we should recognize that Arizona did not change any existing law.
If I were an immigrant, documented or otherwise, I would take exception to your characterization of immigrants: “We are perfectly happy to benefit from the availability of cheap houses built by illegal labor, artificially affordable food harvested by undocumented workers, and inexpensive meat processed and packaged by those who have snuck across our borders.” Immigrants are people of all skill-sets and levels of education, each looking for opportunity and a chance to provide for their loved ones. As I read the set-up to your main point, I encounter what seems to me a very patronizing view of highly motivated and capable human beings.
It is true that both businesses and consumers can exploit the poor–but this is built into our selfish human nature. We should also recognize that undocumented works are especially vulnerable to exploitation because they do not have any standing to seek redress in the courts. But neither do most poor people of any kind. This is what the prophets railed against thousands of years ago, and it is still present today. The United States is an exception in one respect, however. It is the one of the few nations in the world to grant due process to all people: citizen, legal immigrant, or illegal immigrant. I believe your concern (with which I agree) is about exploitation of the poor, but the political reading you draw from it regarding immigration in the U.S. leaves me unmoved. In fact, it is possible for someone to be in favor of more active immigration enforcement precisely because it will protect undocumented workers from facing exploitation. Someone could be in favor of more active immigration enforcement because they believe in fairness toward those who have taken the long, difficult road toward legal immigration. Someone could be in favor of more active immigration enforcement by demanding tougher penalties for those who exploit the poor who are here without protection.
You are correct in pointing to the fact that all citizens of democracies are complicit in the injustice of their society. This is true wherever their is actual political freedom because if we are an engaged citizenry, with a real concern for justice should speak up and take action against injustice because it is within their power to do so.
Finally, I think you’ve missed the actual elephant in the room. In my view the elephant in the room is that the freedoms, opportunities, and justice in the United States are so attractive that people all over the world want in. Did you know that each year the U.S. accepts more (legal) immigrants to its shores than any other country in the world? We also turn away more immigrants each year than any country in the world. Add on top of that the millions who try to enter the country apart from any legal standing. The world is quite literally voting with its feet. There is freedom, opportunity and justice here–who wouldn’t want in? The U.S. is by no means perfect. I would never mistake it for God’s Kingdom. We have a long way to go.
I think that in our (proper) drive to make the United States more fair, more justice, and even more open, the proper starting point is to consider the blessings of our freedom and resources.
OK, Thanks for reading this far. Blessings to you!
Ray,
I appreciate your comment. Your clarification about immigration law vs. enforcement policy is well taken (though the end result seems the same), and I certainly apologize for any hint of stereotyping or patronizing towards the immigrant community – I’d hope you know that was not my intent. I agree that immigrents are (of course!) “people of all skill-sets and levels of education, each looking for opportunity and a chance to provide for their loved ones…highly motivated and capable human beings”
That said, those examples were used because, historically, those industries have been particularly guilty of exploiting immigrant labor. Not because of the skills of illegal immigrants, but because they – exactly because of their illegal status, as you point out – are in a position that makes them easier to exploit without repercussion (and with great financial gain).
The housing boom in Arizona employed more than its fair share of undocumented labor, and after Alabama passed new enforcement policies they ended us with their harvests rotting in the field – revealing their long-time dependance on undocumented labor, and leading to a push to loosen those policies from the agricultural industry.
Yes, America promises opportunity and freedom – and in some cases delivers exactly that. Which is why so many people from all over the world do indeed want to come to this nation and make a better life for their children. I appreciate that heritage, and embrace it, but that does not negate the fact that some of that opportunity and freedom is purchased on the backs of those we have exploited (and continue to exploit) both here and abroad.
I did not intend this post to be a partisan rant. Both parties have valid points to make, given the presumptions and language game they are engaged in. My argument here was not actually about whether the Alabama and Arizona policies are unjust (that’s an argument for place and time), my argument was instead that be it strict enforcement or more open immigration reform, nothing will really change until our economic interests are not so diametrically opposed to the political rhetoric of both parties – until we stop depending on the exploitation of people who’s rights and freedoms we claim to cherish.
Grace and peace.
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“There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.” ~Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
The talking on this subject is getting loud, no? It’s in the media, has spilled over to the break rooms and coffee shops. I think this is good, maybe. It gives the believers an opportunity to discuss openly the difference between this kingdom (or Empire as you’ve been saying) and the kingdom to come.
We are all complicit, yes. But what if there were an active complicitness that showed the kingdom to come here on earth? What we engaged in a sort of intentional civil disobedience, hired the undocumented that are already here, the ones that are our neighbors? What if we paid them a fair wage? What if we made sure that their children spoke the language, were educated, were moving toward Christ-likeness?
I reckon in Arizona, that’d mean we would get to go to jail.
Thanks for writing about this. I could go on, but I’ll pause for now.
Mason,
Amen and amen. NAFTA made it very difficult for workers in Mexico and other places in South America to compete. Then we built an economy based on the necessity for low wage workers, yet we are upset that people would immigrate here to take these opportunities. It is a vicious cycle, but I don’t understand how we Americans can be angry at people seeking a better life like most of our families did at some point, especially when our policies made it hard on them.