I didn't think much abou the use of the term illegals until recently. It's become clear that 2004 was the year of gay-bashing for the Republican party and 2006 will be the year of illegal immigrant bashing. What worries me about the term, illegals, is that it's deliberately designed to de-humanize. To remove the human element from the equation. As if these wonderful people, who clean our clothes, wash our restaurant dishes, cook our meals, clean our houses, cut our lawns, pick our food, etc. etc. are not just trying to make a living to support their families.
What seems lost to people who use the term illegals is that these people have any positive impact on society. You can see the fiscal conservatives are really worried about this bashing because illegal immigrants make up a crucial component of our workforce. Without these people local produce would be prohibitively expensive, and a lunch out would be a luxury, not to mention a dinner out.
But that's just the economic side of it. My real worry is that this could turn violent. As hatred toward gays became more mainstream, so did violence against gays. As hatred and de-humanization turns towards illegal immigrants, so will violence towards them. What's worse is that the person to take all of the impact of an attack would be immigrant, not only would they be assualted, they would also be deported.
I've read some postings about illegals. What strikes me is how the hatred is so petty. It's about how everyone should talk English cause that's the official language (it isn't.) Or that illegals have these weird customs and holidays. As if citizenship requires relinquishing of cultural identity. Why is it so easy for people to fall into a fear and a hatred of the unknown? Why can't we take as a base that everyone is just trying to live, love and get along, instead of letting paranoia drive use to false belief in the worst in people.
To borrow a passionate cry from you: "It's not even legal. It's not legal!!!!"
Why do we have any restrictions on the amount of people we let into our country?
The post wasn't about the legality of these people. It was about the term 'illegal immigrant' being shorted to 'illegal' so that the who notion of a person is lost. Then having lost the connection with a person you could think of them as vermin, fit only for violence or eradication.
Do you use the term 'illegal immigrants' or 'illegals'?
Posted by: jherr at April 3, 2006 01:37 PMActually neither. I usually ask, "What do you think about illegal immigration?" And from that point, I refer to the people as "them" or "they". I can see how referring to them as "illegals" could erase their faces and stories. Woody Guthrie had a great song about migrant workers. Sad.
So, umm, what do you think about illegal immigration?
Posted by: Jacqueline at April 3, 2006 08:10 PMI don't think it's the most important issue on the plate right now. I think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most important issue. I think this is only tangentially related to security since we could easily add more border security without solving the visa status problems of people here illegally.
Obviously this is just a campaign issue, and much like gay-bashing marraige amendments the Republicans are just using this as a way to keep the Xenophobes voting, and they have no intention of really 'solving' anything. They can't/won't deport 11 million people. Too much of their money comes from big business who make a lot of money off the cheap labor.
In the long run I fall into the Senate camp on this. There was some interesting polling done that showed that if when people live in areas with a lot of immigrants they have a better impression of immigrants and prefer a plan to give them legal status instead of kicking them out. And that follows with me. These are good people and they deserve a shot at the American dream.
I'm very impressed by many of the first and second generation Americans I have met. They understand the advantages of being an American and don't take that for granted as Americans in the 3rd generation and beyond. Americans always forget that even if they just earn minimum wage they still live better than 95% of the people in the world.
Anyway, as I say, this is like the gay marriage issue, and it's being used the same way. It's just a political football for the righties. They know they can't get people out to the polls to support a party of corruption and incompetence. But they can rally the hard right with some good old fashioned xenophobia.
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