I'm trying to get my head around the apparent increase in xenophobia that seems to be spreading like wildfire in the US. Having lived the past twenty years in two very immigrant rich areas, South Florida and Southern California, I have always been exposed to a wide range of immigrants. When I say wide range, I mean from the guys doing the landscaping I say "Buenas Dias" to every morning, to the Professors I say "Nee How", "Wie Gehts", or "Come Sta" to in the lab. These guys have always been a daily part of life just like my Southern neighbor to the left and the Canadian neighbor to the right of my house. But now it seems like some of these people are now being perceived as the enemy and this I find to be very disturbing. Cross the fold for some elaboration....
I love the US and have recently passed up opportunities to live abroad again. Part of what I see as the beauty of this place is its diversity. Every ethnicity has its enclave that you are free to visit; it's like a mini international vacation at your fingertips. But now it seems that we are looking for a scapegoat for our economic woes and who are the rabid talking heads going after, the immigrants. The same people who built our country just a few generations ago are now being laid to blame for all our past faux paus.
Yesterday I got into a thread detailing H1-B visas and the fact that skilled foreigners are going to be let into our country to compete with jobs. It contained all the classic immigrant bashing you would expect from a Minuteman meeting: can't speak the language, will work for too little, taking jobs from Americans, etc....
I don't get how the grumbling masses can pass all the blame onto some Pakistani guy who busted his ass at school, is a whiz at programming, and is not afraid to work long hours (feel free to replace Pakistani and programming, with any other appropriate nationality/skills combo). How can you fault this guy for wanting to achieve a better life through harder work?
The debate is a deliberate misdirection from the real guilty parties, which is the academic and/or corporate mentality that wants to extract maximum return from the least investment. I see American Professors who have labs that are filled with Chinese post-docs and technicians. They'll be the first to admit they chose that nationality over a domestic candidate because the foreign workers will work longer hours for less. Americans want vacations and weekends for their own. The fault is not in their willingness to work longer, the fault is the requirement defined by the Professor and the demands of the field.
I'm not saying we should cut the work week to 35 hours (although that would be sweet), but we should make it difficult for employers to demand 80 work weeks from their workers. Let's face it, most Americans have an ingrained desire to enjoy their lives and focus on recreation and family and this runs counter to a lot of corporate management mentalities. We have allowed this profit before pleasure mentality to run amok and now we are seeing the consequences.
My point is, we shouldn't be blaming the foreigner, but rather we should alter the economic field which allows foreigners to be exploited while the domestic workforce is being passed up. This rampant xenophobia that we are witnessing reeks of classic scape-goating that we have seen so many times historically.
Can somebody please remind us what it says on the Statue of Liberty?
Disclaimer: I am dual nationality, my mother was an immigrant, my grandparents were immigrants, whose wife is an immigrant (recently naturalized), whose daughter possesses dual citizenship and I love all ethnicities (usually through their foods).