Research

In the beginning immigration wasn’t a controversy; but attitudes toward immigrants have cycled back and forth between favorable and hostile since the 1790s. There are always issues here and issues there, they are always there. Man have always struggled to get along with another. They fear that the new man will over take him. They try their best to keep their life the same. They start to call people “illegal.” Nobody should be scared of people moving in. It could help you out in your every day life. People should ask themselves: what am I scared of? what am I trying to prevent? will this help me out? will it not? Immigration is a lot of thing but most people judge it before they even know what it will really cause. The main question people should be asking is; why call some one something they are not?

Human beings have always migrated, from the beginning of time. English colonists took over and occupied this part of the continent more than 500 years ago, displacing its inhabitants: the American Indians. English settlers were immigrants. Was that immigration legal? Were the pioneers that came in the Mayflower legal? Did they have the permission of the Native Americans to immigrate and take their lands? Did they carry any passport? The answer is no. They did not ask for the permission to come and stay. Yet they did. Nobody thinks that back. Almost everybody in this country can go back and find one family member that  was immigrant. Yet they think they have a right to be here and some people don’t.

When people think that other people don’t have the right to be here they start to call them “illegal.”  When we call someone an “illegal immigrant,” we should be aware that the point that is being made is that person is an immigrant, and secondly that he does not count in terms of the proper documentation. “Immigrant” is the noun and “illegal” is the adjective. This means that the main point here is that the person is an immigrant and the other point is that he is undocumented. The legality of the immigration status is incidental; it just adds  information to the status. It does not define the person, what does actually define him or her is the term “immigrant.” And an immigrant is a person; a person cannot be illegal.  A human being cannot be illegal. A country with centuries of slavery, racial segregation and discrimination now has the perfect excuse to continue what they have always done. Take all the power because they are scared of all the different cultures.

In the present Hispanic population is now the new target for all the controversies. Let’s do some thinking. Imagine that there is a country out there in which a wall is being built along its border in order to keep people out. Let’s say that every year, about 500 people die trying to cross the border to enter. Let’s suppose that in that country, social services like health, education and legal representation are refused to undocumented immigrants. In addition to this, in that remote country, immigrants cannot open a bank account, get a driver’s license, rent an apartment, and they are discouraged from speaking their own language. Let’s imagine that that country has profited from immigrant labor for generations by paying the lowest wages and salaries to those who are undocumented and cannot find a job. Let’s add also that it has added military to its border. This is the US, it is not a made up country. The US are afraid that if to much people move from Mexico that they will over run the government.

Let’s go back to, why get defensive when with immigration? Almost all immigrants come here to live the dream. They do not come to cause harm. Yet we take away everything away from “illegal” immigrants. They are just trying to make a living, take care of their family. You can say “ they are going to rob something”, they might do that. they might cause problems for my work. all these bad thing can happen as well. But lets ask our selves, why get defensive when with immigration?