Illegal Immigration is caused by Exploitation
The link between Illegal Immigration and Global Exploitation must be broken! Each week, like clockwork, there is some national crisis in the USA that must be fixed. A few weeks ago it was the “Gasoline Crisis” followed by the “Darfur Crisis”� and for the past few weeks now, the needle has been stuck on the “Immigration Crisis”�. Like many others, these where a long time coming but due to the impotence of our leaders to make decisions, what was once a hot pot that could be managed has turned into an overflowing mess. As usual, everybody is to blame except those who could have helped blunt the crisis..
Immigration is too broad a label
I think the entire term immigrant or immigration makes absolutely no sense to begin with, every living thing on this earth is an immigrant�, some say from Mars, others from comets but as Moby said in one of his songs “We are all made of Stars”�.
The piece of land you sit on is no more yours then anybody elses. I don’t think the dinosaurs had borders to allow good ones in and bad ones out… why should we?
Countries CHANGE!
500 years ago, if I told somebody that my nationality was Canadian, they would probably be executed or at the very least, promptly tared and feathered. Who is to say that 500 years from now the Canada (or any other country) will even exist. Just in recent history countries where born such as Israel, countries where destroyed like USSR (mostly satellite states) and others where renamed like the Congo (formerly Zaire). Our worlds geography is an ever evolving tapestry of political, cultural and ethnic desires not a static one as many lead you to believe.
Right now I am a Canadian but I hold no more patriotism to that name then any other, I consider myself a human first and foremost. I think it’s very limiting to classify our species based off where we where born and only helps to marginalized the vast majority of our populations.
So who has the right to keep people from going where they want to go? NOBODY!
Globalization and Economic Prosperity
If you go back as little as 100 years ago, populations where pretty free flowing around the globe where the major barrier to travel was geographical. This has now changed dramatically, in less then 24 hours you can go from one point on the planet to the other. This is only going to get worse as transportation methods get faster and cheaper and our immigration� laws will simply cease to become relevant as a result. If somebody wants to come to a country, they will always be a way for them to achieve their goals, legal or otherwise.
I totally understand why people want to keep some undesirables� out of a country, namely the poor, uneducated and dis-enfranchised. There are more poor people in this world then rich, we got to protect what was “given”� to us. This is the problem facing the industrialized world right now and is at the heart of the issues presented BUT NOT TALKED ABOUT.
Wealth generated off the backs of the poor
Go to your local Walmart, I bet you 95% of the cloths or items you want to buy come from ANOTHER COUNTRY. Cloths is probably Bangladesh, India, Pakistan�, Electronics notably China�. That stereo you purchased for 200$ I would be surprised if the laborer who built it got even a dollar, this is exploitation, pure and simple that is what all us rich� people are doing to the poor ones.
The wealth we live in the western world is absolutely mind blowing, much of the world dies from starvation while in the industrialized world, we die of overconsumption. To us, it is a right to be educated, get credit cards, own a car, house, boat… you name it. Back in Darfur, their only right is a life of lifelong misery. What do we do about this? Nothing, we exploit them even more hey, while they are down, why don’t we kick them one more time and extract a little more labor out of them?
Putting the pieces together
Lets sum things up, countries change, economies are getting global and travel is getting easier… what does that leave us with? A free flow of people from poor� countries to rich� ones, how do we stop it? Simple, according to rich� people (which is all of us), build a wall around us. We don’t mind exploiting you in your own country but no way in hell will your sweat and tears be used to experience any part of the wealth we created off your backs. This is a stupid approach preached by too many people in this world. The fundamental problem with this approach is it simply DOES NOT WORK, poor people are just as resourceful as the rest of us.
Now, what does illegal immigration have to do with global exploitation?
A lot more then you may realize, although there is little that can be done to stop illegal aliens from entering any country they wish there is a lot we can do to step the flow remember, illegal immigration is caused because of the lack of opportunity in their mother country brought on by exploitation in the country they usually want to migrate into. For instance, Mexicans want to enter the United States for a better life, not to pick fruit and be forced into sweat shops… but BECAUSE they are illegal, businesses and individuals exploit them for their cheap labor. This is a mind set that only leads to more exploitation both within and outside of a host country.
So what is the solution?
I do not think all is doom and gloom but I have an extremely simple solution to the problems caused by exploitation of the poor in this world.
Every item purchased should have three prices.
a) environmental price (1 out of 10)
b) production price (this is the actual cost to produce the item you are purchasing)
c) purchase price (what you pay at the cash register)
If every item you bought, whether a box of kleenex or a food item had this, we consumers could modify our purchasing habits to follow our consciousness, if you saw your shoes had a environmental price of 8, cost 1 dollar to produce and where on sale for 150$ - I sure as hell wouldn’t buy them… would you?
This will help stem the flow of illegal immigration because now people will be able to make a LIVING WAGE in their own country, no longer being exploited (as much). It will also put out of business the profiteers, smugglers and many more of what I call undesirables�.
Will this ever happen, sadly, I doubt it, there is too much money to be made in exploitation and keeping things as they are (which is the real problem).
The Bottom Line
Marching, screaming and crying about a problem without offering a solution does nothing but cause you to be ignored. You cannot stop illegal immigration but you can stop creating the environment that creates it in the first place, which is an environment of exploitation.
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