Immigration Reform Through the World History Lens
May 30, 2008Dear Dorothy Carlson:
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and commenting on my post about the legalization of Los Angeles. Nuestra Senora aims to provide transparency to a political regime that is often times exclusive and discriminatory. To this end, the Los Angeles that I live in is defined by cycles of immigration and forced migration due to financial, political, and social instability that is often initiated or supported by western hegemony.
I feel strongly that this country must amend its immigration policy to put a stop to the xenophobia and false information that have long defined the way this place stigmatizes immigrants of color. These views are evident in your comment and can be directly attributed to the racism and hostility that is ramped in this country, but also its isolationist perspective that focuses solely on domestic problems, like Britney Spears.
You are entitled to your opinions and your history. However, my history has taught me that the immigration policies you refer to privileged white immigrants and polices such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of the late 19th century and the Bracero Program of the 1930’s discriminate against immigrants of color due to preconceived hostility on the part of white policy-makers. Allowing floods of immigrants from Western Europe will not solve today’s problems because the fact is, this world is more complex and the demographic makeup of today’s displaced people do not hail from the UK, but from the birthplace of humanity, Africa, the founding site of astronomy, Latin America, and the culturally diverse regions that compose Asia. I agree that immigration reform is needed, but first we must agree on what constitutes immigrants and respect individuals instead of lambasting them.
The U.S. is not a country of immigrants, as there were native people occupying this region long before the genocidal Christopher Columbus passed his syphilis onto entire civilizations. Many African Americans cannot trace their native countries of origin, not because of lack of interest, but because of a system of slavery that purposefully placed individuals from different regions, dialects, and religions together to force labor efficiency and stagnate the creation of a unitary community. Moreover, today’s immigrants are forced migrants, fleeing harsh conditions and in search of some form of prosperity and dignity. As they come to this country, they are incorporated into a caste system in which their previous histories are forgotten as are any medical or law degrees. They are the U.S. underground labor force, the backbone of our economy. To this end, until true immigration reform is passed, what you blatantly defined as ‘undocumented, baby popping, illegal immigrants’ will be diligent, strong minded, and heterogeneous individuals.
The immigration laws that are in place do not take into account the historical trajectory that has riveted issues of immigration in the US and across Western Europe. It is now that we are witnessing the effects of imperialism, colonization, and domination, as third world countries are ill-equipped to adequately provide for all of its residents. Now, I maintain this is not inadequacy on the part of these countries and for that fact, three continents, but the disenfranchisement that lingers as the colonial powers that be raped the land of its natural resources and continue to do so with plans of privatization.
Now with this history, I ask you to respect the histories of others and acknowledge that your history is relative to an immigration policy that is delinquent because of its discriminatory and exploitative gaze. Can we agree that this country’s wealth was built on the backs of slave laborers, who were raped and pillaged from their native countries to work for free under oppressive conditions and in an unfamiliar climate? With that, please acknowledge that today’s economy is built on the invisible labor force, that is drawing new similarities to the Jim Crow south each day, as low-wages, horrid working conditions, and lack of representation leave individuals who fled disparaging conditions with no where to turn but predatory creditors.
I hope that you, as a third generation descendent of immigrants respect those who kill themselves to keep this country working. Those that lost their farms in their native countries because of free trade and neoliberalism, who are now canning your fruit and freezing your vegetables in factories across the U.S. Those that sew your clothes from Los Angeles to Saipan. Those whose bodies were crushed as the twin towers collapsed because they were working their usual morning shift cleaning the offices and preparing food for the white-collared workers many of whom escaped the tragedy as their work day began just in time for financial gain. Those that mow your lawn, gut your home, and tile your floor for money that is less than the total number of fingers on your right hand.
Legalization for all is something that is not only right, but humane. Millions will continue to come to the U.S., France, England, and Italy. Because billions of people in the third world have limited options and low rates of survival since their precious natural resources are on the stock exchange, their access to nearby bodies of water is limited by western corporations, and their political systems have yet to fully recover from a history of oppression and conflict. So let’s just work it out Dorothy Carlson by taking some time out of our privileged lives to learn a little bit about world history and humanity. Maybe then we can agree on a real history and recognize that the immigration policy that let your Irish ancestors into the U.S. ‘the right way’ is not applicable in today’s time.
Sincerely,
Sonja Diaz
A masked demonstrator parades with a sign that says “Workers of the World Unite!! There are no foreigners in this land. Liberty, equality, fraternity. Justice!!!” in front of undocumented immigrants at the May Day demonstration in Paris. Thousands of workers, among them many undocumented immigrants, took to the streets to commemorate May Day and to demand changes in French law to permit the legalization of undocumented workers.
