Immigration

I'm so sad today. The Senate voted 54 to 46 against allowing the immigration bill to move to a final vote. The House wasn't in favor of the bill anyway.

You know that I teach English to immigrants. Josh used to say that I got along better with people from other countries than with Americans. He's probably right. I did marry a Canadian after all.

I was once asked by a friend, "Doesn't it make you mad that people come over here without speaking English?" This was actually asked in the context of my job. People don't get it. Not at all. Where do I begin to explain?

Do I really need to say that refugees are people who come here when their country is at war? They might have come home from work to find that the rest of their family has fled, no idea of where they went or how to find them. Or maybe they weren't that lucky, and came home to find their door kicked in, their family dead inside. Time to head for the refugee camp. They might have to walk, since there's no gas or vehicles left today with all the people who have already gone ahead. Oh wait, there is one, but the driver wants me to pay him more money than I have in my wallet and the bank is being guarded by the wrong people, so no luck there. Many people get out; many people just don't. Did you want them to enroll in an English class before leaving? Did you want them to stay in the refugee camp for five years studying English first? Who's going to pay for the teacher? Oh, and the food? Do you really imagine that you wouldn't want to accept refugees into your country?

Some people believe that it costs Americans too much money to allow refugees to come to our country. It is true that they are eligible for public housing, welfare, free K-12 and adult basic education. It is not true, nor has it ever been true, that they receive a free car or that they don't have to pay taxes. It is true that refugees are off of public assistance faster than Americans. It is true that once they are off, they tend to stay off, unlike Americans.

The bill that died today was mostly about illegal immigrants. Many, but not all, of them Mexicans. As the result of their own government's failure to develop their economy as well as our government's bullying practices, there aren't many jobs south of the border. I don't mean not very many good jobs. I really mean not very many jobs. I really mean that kids hang out at the dump looking for their one meal for the day. I really mean that women are forced to swallow birth control pills on their way through the door into work. I hear you say that Mexico should outlaw that practice. Mexican lawmakers have to face the fact that the company could decide to just move the factory to China tomorrow. If it was your decision, would you have the balls?

It isn't in our power to fix the Mexican government or to stop wars around the world. It is damn well within our power to allow people to come in to our country with a visa and some dignity and let them clean our damn offices.

It is truly complex. Please don't find yourself saying, "Well if only they would do this or that it would fix the whole thing." I refuse to believe you are that ignorant. Any of you.

What is clear to me is that there is serious and significant suffering very close to home and, eureka!, we truly need cheap labor in our country. We actually don't have enough of it. Did you know that a process has just been approved to send chicken to China for processing? Chickens being flown to China, hacked up and frozen, then sent back here for us to buy because it's cheaper than doing it here, even with oil at 70 bucks a barrel. Wouldn't you rather that money stay here? It will go overseas because we don't have enough cheap labor here. Did I say that before? Should I say it again, because the American public and our legislators don't get it yet?

More fallacies. It is true, to a small degree, that immigrants "take American jobs." But if someone with no education and no English can do your job just as well as you can, may I suggest you try to get more education and a better job? They aren't quite all gone yet. Overall, it is much more the case that we need more low-skilled workers; depending on who you listen to, there is quite literally a shortage (Bush and the White House being one of the holders of that position). Without these workers, no one cleans offices at night or hotel rooms in the morning; no one makes bagels in a 95 degree factory; no one cuts up frozen chicken with frostbitten fingers for 12 hours a day. You'd never stay in a hotel again, it'd be either intolerably filthy or prohibitively expensive. It's not entirely an overstatement to suggest that without illegal immigrants, the US economy would be decimated.

For the most part, immigrants perform jobs that Americans don't want to do for low wages. Immigrants often live in crowded conditions in order to live on their wages (one student told me that his dwelling had half as many beds as people; half the people worked nights and slept days). The money they still manage to send home is actually a significant portion of the economy of some countries.

And it keeps the kids fed. Why isn't that enough?

Which would you prefer? Would you like immigrants to come here to get paid for cutting your chicken so that they can use their wages to feed their children? Would you like to just send your own money to their countries to feed their children while the parents sit at home wishing they could work? Or would you like them all to starve? After all, they aren't American. Why should we care?

That's what it comes down to for me. If you don't think illegal immigrants should be here, then what is your next choice? A world in which there are enough jobs in every country? Hey, mine too. I meant your next feasible choice. When you say that you want "them" to go back to where they came from, you need to understand that means you want "them" to go home and die, whether of hunger or genocide, so that you don't have to deal with "them."

Tell me when to stop. Did you know that many illegal immigrants pay more taxes than you do? Because they use fake social security numbers, illegals can never receive a tax return or collect social security, even though their checks are docked just like yours. The amount paid in by illegal immigrants honestly helps to keep social security afloat. Illegal immigrants also revitalize urban neighborhoods with new businesses. These are people who want to feed their families. They did not come here to make a fuss and they really don't want to get kicked out.

On Monday I was teaching about camels. Two young men were telling me that a wife costs 25 camels. They wanted me to clarify, in America wives are free, right? Well, I said, here a wife gets to choose her own husband. The husband who wins is the husband who does half of the cooking, and cleaning, and laundry. He changes dirty diapers. Is that free?, I asked. No, they didn't think that was free. They preferred the camel arrangement.

You don't have to like all of the immigrants who come. You don't have to agree with their ideas...or mine. But they are willing to learn. They are willing to change. The ones I meet daily very much want to learn English and be part of our culture, enriching it with their own. I would invite any of you to participate in a class of mine as a volunteer. It doesn't even have to be mine; any Adult Basic Education center near you would be happy to have volunteers.

For over 200 years, this country has desired that exchange as well, and thrived on it more than any other in the world. It might be my deepest and most desperate hope for my country that that one fact is still true.