OPINION & EDITORIAL
Scapegoating immigrants
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Also by Chris Dols:
- Scapegoating immigrants (April 15, 2005)
- Protest far from treasonous (April 20, 2005)
- Socialism needed for egalitarianism (April 28, 2005)
- Help for hurricane victims stuck in Iraq (September 15, 2005)
- Flaws in Beckstrom argument again (October 14, 2005)
Related Stories:
- Illegal immigrants not welcome (September 14, 2007)
- Sensenbrenner wrong on immigration (March 27, 2006)
- Immigration debate truly cultural, not economic (November 16, 2007)
- Bigotry: America's shameful pastime (August 31, 2007)
- Immigration argument flawed (April 14, 2006)
by Chris Dols
Friday, April 15, 2005
The debate surrounding immigration is terribly depressing. Conservatives are laden with bigotry and the liberal “opposition” is really bad at actually opposing the right.
The right scapegoats immigrants with such slogans as “protect our jobs” while refusing to place blame where it belongs. Corporate America — with the help of the IMF and NAFTA — is to blame for the creation of a large, landless and poor class of Latinos who see work in the United States as their families’ only escape from hopeless poverty. Likewise, those in Congress who favor the criminalization of such immigration prefer to target the poor immigrants. Hypocritically, they rarely go after the big bosses that take advantage of such immigrants’ willingness to work so hard for so little. These employers should be held to the few labor laws that still exist in this country, such as the right of workers to organize a union and receive a minimum wage.
The position advocated by mainstream liberal groups is strategically bankrupt. By accepting the “protect our borders” terms of the debate (which had been shaped by the right before the Sept. 11 attacks, but has escalated since) is to miss the point. By even conceding that immigration is a problem is to misunderstand the issue. Immigration is not the problem: scapegoating immigrants and the refusal to protect their human rights is the problem. Border control isn’t bad because it’s weak; it’s bad because it exists at all. Politicians deflect blame off of their total incapacity to represent poor Americans onto poor immigrants. One set of victims is pit against another.
The Central American Free Trade Agreement is being taken for a test run in congress this week. The Bush Administration looks to be feeling out the opposition in congressional committees. Don’t expect substantial opposition from the Democrats.
While many Democrats aren’t as actively anti-immigrant as Republicans, both parties accept the same framework. They put immigrant rights and the rights of third-world nations to shape their own laws free from outside pressure on the backburner while enshrining free trade (a.k.a., the right of American businesses to dictate other nations’ labor and environmental laws).
Thus Bill Clinton led the charge of neo-liberalism that continues to impoverish Latin America today. Those who give the most lip service to immigrant rights have an opportunity to call out the business interests that cause such poverty in the global South. Thus, opposing CAFTA means protecting the sovereignty of third-world nations as well as the human rights of those who suffer its consequences — including immigrants to the United States.
Unemployment doesn’t exist because of immigrants “taking our jobs.” Unemployment exists because capitalism needs it to threaten the job security of those with jobs. The immigrant underclass in this country plays a similar role to the unemployed in that their willingness to work cheaply helps employers bargain against their workers. The same people who have an interest in maintaining the presence of undocumented workers to work in low-wage jobs have an interest in vilifying those workers. Though the resources and needs exist to give jobs to everyone, such planning would undermine the profit motive. Instead, immigrants are forced play the scapegoat.
Yet, to play such a role, immigrants must continue to cross the border. This is the contradiction that fuels the far-right border patrollers who are currently policing the Mexico border in Arizona. They call themselves Minutemen, and their support from white supremacists shouldn’t be seen as a peripheral. The bigotry of these vigilantes is the logical conclusion of the scapegoat campaign against immigrants that has been a staple of U.S. history. A little background, interestingly, sheds some light on these border patrollers’ racist legacy.
The mainstream press attributes the Minutemen’s namesake to the soldiers who resisted the British in the Revolutionary War. In reality, today’s Minutemen are the 21st-century continuation of the Minute Companies, Texas Rangers and other colonizers of the 19th-century annexation of more than half of Mexico (what is now California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada once was part of Mexico). The Minute Companies were volunteer militias who, with the backing of Congress, drove Mexican peasants off what is now western Texas and New Mexico by land confiscation, murder and torture. After gaining widespread infamy for their use of such tactics, Congress withdrew its support from the companies and the responsibilities of border patrol were passed on to the Rangers, an equally condemnable yet more disciplined representative of American expansion interests.
The United States doesn’t have the same needs that it had during the colonization of Mexico, so today’s Minutemen are met with disfavor in the White House. But don’t expect anyone to act against these militias until workers (legally documented and otherwise) mount a campaign in defense of immigrant rights. Today’s Minutemen come out of the tradition of America’s illegal and violent land grab.
Millions of Mexicans are descendents of those driven off that land. This, of course, puts the right in a difficult position. If they want to criminalize the encroachment of political borders, than they will have to start with the reparations due to Mexican-Americans for over a century of human rights offenses and deportations of the original inhabitants of today’s Southwest region. The opposite of scapegoating is solidarity. We must show solidarity with immigrants, because they are the victims of American policy, and only cowards blame the victim.
Chris Dols (cdols@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in civil engineering and is a member of the International Socialist Organization.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 2:31am):
Quick comment: This guy is messed up. I would write a correction to his nonsense, but it would take all day and would be longer that his "article" (apology to serious and thinking journalists and op-ed writers needed here.)
Madison always amazes me. The craziest beliefs and ideas are frequently mainstream, despite the (very) low intellect and weak arguments of their proponents.
The article is absolute nonsense!
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 4:21am):
"The opposite of scapegoating is solidarity."
WTF? No it isn't!
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 6:03am):
Wow, so your solution is solidarity and reparations. Nice to see the paper supports all views, even those not grounded in reality.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 7:16am):
Corporate America is the cause of poverty in Latin America? That is really rich.
Chris, I hope if you somehow manage to graduate with your degree in engineering that you make a pledge to donate your time in the name of humanity, rather than accepting wages for your work.
Better yet, head down to Cuba and see how good they have it in the workers paradise, free from the shackles of trade with the US.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 7:41am):
Worse than the complete lack of cohesion in this argument is the way he talks down to everyone. Or perhaps I'm naive in thinking that people know that much of the west was once part of Mexico. Anything that can be learned from an Antonio Banderas movie should be pretty common knowledge. And if you don't like Antonio Banderas, at least watch for Catherine Zeta-Jones (or see the connection between city names like Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento and the spanish language).
Plus, scapegoat is a noun. You can't scapegoat anything. You can BE a scapegoat, you can BECOME a scapegoat. You'd think a copy editor would have caught that.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 8:14am):
It's a noun and a transitive verb, doofus.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 8:51am):
Why does the Herald allow its pages to be tarnished with this crap?
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 8:56am):
I can't believe that the right is so schizophrenic with regards to immigration. Its like the racism and xenophobia is running headlong into the desire for cheap, powerless workers and indentured servants to take care of the brats and clean the toilet. Bush now opposes passports at the border because it would "slow things down"? Don't want illegals to have driver's licenses then vote democrat? Crazy.
Personally, I think that closed borders with a liberal, legal immigration policy is the answer. We keep hearing that illegals take the jobs that nobody wants. Is that because they pay less than poverty wages, have no benefits and are incredibly dangerous because no governemnt oversight is provided? Force these industries to clean up their acts, pay a living wage, provide at least some benefits and make the meat packing plants and strawberry fields less likely to maim or kill, people from this country will come running.
But prices will go up!!! Waaahhh. Wages go up, business costs go up, but spending goes up too. The people who would benefit from higher wages at the low end of the scale are not savers, they are spenders. They live paycheck to paycheck now. That extra $250 a check that would go to thousands and thousands of workers isnt going into an IRA, its going to be injected right back into the economy. Contrast this with the millionaire business owner or corporate officer who has bought everything he needs and is hoarding everything beyond that dollar amount. I'm no economist but I have heard of economic efficiency. Hoarding doesn't help anyone. This same argument could go for raising the minimum (and by extension all low) wages.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 9:01am):
Hey Chris,
Worst Article ever! Congrats! Every week, despite a vicious onslaught from bh readers, you stand up and scream out your bullshit! Do you back down in the face of logic and reason? NO WAY! Do you drop your belief in socialism just because it has never, and will never work... Fucking ever! HELL NO! Bravo Mr. Dols. Keep up the good work cause your goin' places! Keep fightin' the fight Christopher "che" Dols, so I can continue to laugh at you. Seriously, your life's pursuit is a fucking joke! I hope you get hit by a truck.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 9:01am):
The Mexican government supports the La Reconquesta.
"The Mexican army is escorting those attempting to cross over the U.S. border illegally -- including known drug-runners -- to areas not patrolled by the Minuteman Project near Naco, Ariz., say Border Patrol sources and other officials including a U.S. congressman."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43754
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 9:05am):
"Millions of Mexicans are descendents of those driven off that land."
What about Hungary? I mean who lived there before the Huns took over? Shouldn't the get the land back?
I'm sure that the Anglo-Saxons would like to get there land back from the Normans, but then they did steal it from the Britons.
You going to call for reparations from Spain? They really made out like bandits - ships packed to the brim with gold and silver stolen from Mexico.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 9:11am):
The "immigrants" needs to translated to "ILLEGAL immigrants" for this article to make any sense at all, but then its support for breaking the law would be more apparent.
At least he didn't use the term "undocumented immigrants", when I hear that I wonder if bank robbers should be called "undocumented undepositors".
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 9:14am):
Dols, please, I am begging you, PLEASE TAKE AN ECONOMICS COURSE!!! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!
There is too much here to deal with here, butyour assessment of free trade is all wrong, you don't understand incentives, NAFTA, the causes of latin american poverty (hint: Corrupt political systems, lack of a strong rule of law), Unemployment, etc. This is maybe the stupidest thing I've ever read:
Unemployment exists because capitalism needs it to threaten the job security of those with jobs.
I mean, it's so stupid that it's difficult to argue against. When did capitlaism decide this? Capitalism doesn't decide anything. Unemployment exists because 1. SOme people change jobs, and 2. Some people are not worth employing. This is not to say that they are worthles people, however, due to minimum wage laws, someone who is not at least as productive as the min wage will not find employment because no one will employ someone who costs them money. This is the reason that France boasts the worlds most productive work hours as measured in productivity per hour, and at the same time boasts a mid-teens unemployment rate (16% or so most of the time). The ONLY EMPLOY PRODUCTIVE WORKERS, and consequentially, their productivity per worker is high. THey let those with less productive skills languish in poverty.
You would see us all languish in poverty, and it is your ideas and plans that impoverish the immigrants that you pretend to care about.
Republicans are overly xenophobic, and opening up borders/granting an amnesty is a good idea. You are correct that immigrants do not cost americans jobs. You are just right for the wrong reasons.
You want to help developing countries? Embrace free trade (it allows poor countries to use their poverty to their advantage. It helps them grow). Embrace democratization, and the overthrow of tyrants. Embrace a strong rule of law (no bribes, no corruption, = robust business. It is the reason that Scandinavian countries propser in spite of their socilistic tendencies. That, and their homogenous populations and abundant natural resources.
Enough!
Back to work.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 9:27am):
Chris, the problem is that this country can only hold so many people. Every country has that problem! There are only so many jobs, so much housing, so many goddamn parking spaces, for cryin' out loud!
Instead of bitching at Americans, liberal and conservative, for attempting to control the overpopulation problem, you should be bitching at foreign governments for not fixing what's wrong with their own economies. That way, people won't coming flocking to the US. All those other countries have been around much longer than the US, and they just love to criticize us for the issues we have here at home, but when are they gonna pull their thumbs out of their asses and deal with their own?
While you're pissing off at conservatives for scapegoating, their are a lot of liberals who feel the same way. New York City was the main point of entry for all immigrants coming from Europe, which is why New York City is so friggin' crowded! And that's not even counting the number of natural-born Americans who keep trying to squeeze their way into the place from parts all around!
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 10:36am):
"Chris, the problem is that this country can only hold so many people. Every country has that problem! There are only so many jobs, so much housing, so many goddamn parking spaces, for cryin' out loud!"
Not only that, liberals, of all people, fail to realize that when the economy goes bad, it's migrant workers who are only interested in earning a few American bucks working here for a few months out of the year, not attaining US citizenship, who get targeted, not immigrants. I'm talking about seasonal workers that we can do without, especially in a recession. In a recession, Americans get laid off and need to find another job that, unfortunately, some migrant worker is doing. While it may be no fun having to clean motel rooms and flip hamburgers after making a ton of money as a software engineer for ten years, you need to survive until the economy picks up again.
If someone immigrates to this country legally, I say "Welcome to America!" But to the seasonal migrant workers and illegal aliens, I say "Sorry. Closed until further notice."
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 10:51am):
Chris were you bored when you decided to write this? Do you have any idea how many undocumented workers there are in this country? Did you know that at least a dozen of them might be using your Social Security Number to get a job somewhere? Did you know that you'd be the last to find out about it? Did you know that if they don't pay US income taxes on the money they earn from the job they got with your SSN, YOU will be liable for paying those taxes. That's right, pal, the IRS and the Social Security Administration would not only already know, but they can't/won't do anything about it. Why?, Because they don't know where to begin! Who made the money, you or an identity thief?
That's why I'm all in favor of increasing the Border Patrol down there. Too bad if it don't suit ya, but I prefer to pay taxes on what I earned, not on what some asshole who sneaked in from another country earned with my SSN. I'm not sympathetic to any illegal with a family to feed who steals my identity to get an American job he doesn't deserve while I'm trying to feed mine. Sorry, but I'm not all choked up every time I read about the poverty situation south of the border. There's a big difference between being compassionate and being an idiot.
We have enough poor people here at home to worry about, Chris.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 1:41pm):
It is a joke for republicans to say tha they are invested in the welfare of poor people at home. They consistently slash any sort of program that might serve to educate or promote income equality. They are doped up on the "if you work hard enough you too can be Bill Gates"dream that has been sld them by the uber-rich.
You are all illusioned if you think that you got where you are through hard work. There is a widening income gap in this country. That's bad for all of us. I'm no socialist but when poor people can't find work or have any hope of bettering themselves, when they are forced to live in crime-ridden areas, when they have no access to healthcare or decent education, it is a recipe for a culture that is abd for all of us. Equaling out the playing field os good for all of us.
Free trade is a joke. Economics works on a model that assumes capital is reinvested in the country. It is not. American corporations are making money hand over fist while laying off workers here at home. Free trade simply does not work. The country learned this after the Great DEpression-thus the reforms of those years and safety nets like social security. Sadly, the Republicans seem to have forgotten this and it will take another crash and many people hitting ridiculously low poverty levels before the poeple realize that the Republicans slash taxes and spend out the whazoo policy is intended only to make the rich richer on the backs of the middle and working class.
So I say, let the Reublicans fuck up the country. Perhaps it is the only way people wil emerge from the conservative-corporate media haze they currently walk around in. Amyeb then we can get back to making America a land where there is opportunity for all and we take care of our poor and sick.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 2:15pm):
"Amyeb then we can get back to making America a land where there is opportunity for all and we take care of our poor and sick."
I am all for taking care of sick people. NOT with government funded health care though. But the poor should only get so much help. It's not my fault some girl had three kids in her teens and now has no way to support them. She should have thought about that before she spread her legs. The kids deserve the help, but throwing money at the mother is probably not going to the kids in the first place. Us logical thinkers are not SOLD on the fact that if you work hard you go places, we actually worked hard and succeeded. I don't want my hard earned money going to people who are investing it in drugs or chrome rims.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 2:18pm):
Don't worry about the unjustly poor getting sick of working their asses off for nothing. If we all carry concealed guns they won't try anything funny.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 3:09pm):
Poor central banking caused the depression, not free trade, dumbass. Let's take as fact that evil corporations take in extra profits reaped from low cost foreign labor. So far, you have helped 1. foreign labor, which you should be in favor of. Unless you're some kind of jingoistic national socialist. And 2. the evil corporation. YOu are assuming that the money made by said corp just disappears into thin air. It does not. Generally, evil corps are greedy, and they will attempt to make more cash . This will create more jobs either on the high end at home, aka good jobs, or more abroad, helping more poor foreigners.
Free trade simply conveys information to a country. You should stop making X, because others do it better. Instead you should conentrate on making Y. It's called comparative advantage. It's basic economics. Take a class, you're at a university.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 3:19pm):
"Amyeb then..."
You could stand to take a typing class or two, kid!
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 3:20pm):
"Us logical thinkers..."
"We" not "Us" you dipshit!
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 3:58pm):
Corporate America, man. Corporate America! Is there a drum circle forming nearby. I am feeling a need to hit the pipe and listen to some tribal rhythms.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 4:12pm):
Okay Mr. Dols, just wrote out one long rebuttal to your other article of last week. This one will wait, and is probably better off in the hands of one more versed in immigration than I. However, since this op-ed is more recent, and you are therefore more likely to read the comments, I'll put the non-rebuttal part here:
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Shut DOWN by Protest Warrior! How do you like that? How do you like that? Woohoo!
I'd just like to offer a hearty congratulations to UW-Madison Protest Warrior for infiltrating the march, and UW-Madison College Republicans, and Wisconsin Free Republic for holding the line against this doofus and his "comrades" at the recruiting office.
Better luck next time, sucker.
Woodrow Major
Protest Warrior, Murray State University
Rogue 9, Protest Warrior forums
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 4:30pm):
The same rabble as before. Anyway, I have to say that Chris Dols is very against freedom of speech and other freedoms. He wants equal opprutunity, not equal rights.
Anyway, on to details:
Why YOU should be a socialist:
1. Support Anti-American terrorists and dictators and Weaken America!
2. Forcibly redistribute wealth in America by gunpoint
3. Because you will not be able to take the consequences if you don't
4. Come to power and destroy the US constitution and submit to North Korea... YES!
Support the destruction of YOUR freedom. Become a Socialist today!
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 4:46pm):
"Border control isn't bad because it's weak; it's bad because it exists at all."
Better check with the Greenies first - no border control would lead to no green space in the USA. Think of the mass migration that would result. The uber-rich only have so much money, if you confiscate it all it wouldn't run the government very long with the load that this would put on it. Do you think that the new residents would all respect existing zoning?
This would be no "mere anarchy" it would be uber anarchy.
Anonymous (April 15, 2005 @ 8:05pm):
Chris is full of passionate intensity.
***
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Anonymous (April 17, 2005 @ 7:08pm):
Chris Dols is a communist. I bet he sympathises with Lenin, who killed over 3 million people. Lenin handpicked Stalin to be a possible successor to the USSR.
Communism has only killed 100 Million People, and people like Chris Dols want to give it another chance. Get Real!
