Perspective on Immigration

By David at Kmareka, Section Diaries
Posted on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 03:20:16 PM EST
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These foreigners do not belong here. Whatever their reasons for coming and however valid those reasons may seem, this is not their land. They were not invited. They are not welcome. Truly, it is unfortunate that, in their home countries, they have had to suffer persecution, poverty, squalor, and the like. It is unfortunate that the economic and political opportunities they may find here are largely unavailable to them there. It is unfortunate that such circumstances have necessitated that they travel an arduous distance to seek the better life that is their due and desire as much as anyone's. But they simply do not belong here.

And yet they come and they come, waves of foreigners with their strange customs and alien language, making themselves at home in a place that is not their home. Even worse, by virtue of their needs and numbers, they import the hardships they seemingly left behind: the crowded conditions, the drain on local resources, and the tension and incivility that arise from such. It is difficult not to feel resentful. Yet, somehow, those who have lived here for many generations are expected to acquiesce and accommodate to these interlopers. Those who may rightly call this land home must watch in growing dismay as all that is familiar and cherished is strangely transformed.

Like it or not, though, the Europeans are here to stay.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The ironies are abundant. The interlopers of yesteryear are the aggrieved citizens of today, many of whom seem to possess memories as short as their tempers. They would do well to recall that they were neither the first here nor the first to feel put out. Indeed, however they are impacted by immigration, whatever challenges and hardships they may presently face, their collective experience pales in comparison to that of native Americans in centuries past--who were branded as savages, mistreated, forcibly displaced, and massacred. What experience now or in the foreseeable future can compare?

Immigration is admittedly a knotty issue. But please have some perspective.

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Perspective on Immigration | 20 comments (20 topical)

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I certainly got David's point (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by Jakebnto on Fri Dec 01, 2006 at 01:58:23 PM EST

I have often thought it odd that all these people with European backgrounds are whining about Mexicans. Mexicans, to a large extent, are indigenous to the America's, unlike most of the rest of us.

That is, if any human being outside East Afica can be said to be indigenous. Europe, for example, was home to at least one other species of humanity long before modern man showed up.

I guess it's in our blood - move in, overwhelm the existing residents, then whine about the next wave of newcomers.

Jake

It is just a smartass (1.00 / 0) (#9)
by Pancho on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 10:52:37 PM EST

and disingenuous attempt to compare the current invasion of illegals from Mexico to the past legal immigration from Europe. We didn't teach the Europeans in their own languages when they arrived and we sure as hell didn't give them government benefits.

Maybe (none / 0) (#10)
by Edger on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 10:59:11 PM EST

But I think you are being to simplistic, too tell you the truth. I suspect there is more to it than that.

Jeralyn asked a good question that we don't have an answer to yet. I'll hold off on making judgements.


: Bio (none / 0) (#11)
by squeaky on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 11:58:34 PM EST

From his bio at TL:

By avocation, I am a writer and satirist.

What does everyone want? (1.00 / 1) (#19)
by LonewackoDotCom on Sun Dec 03, 2006 at 06:02:24 PM EST

Let's bottom line this: what type of government does everyone want to rule the area occupied by the U.S., and is that form of government covered by the U.S. Constitution, or would you replace the Constitution with something else?

I Agree (1.00 / 1) (#20)
by ollenga512 on Sun Dec 17, 2006 at 07:01:51 AM EST

There was a time when immigration was okay. But eventually you reach a point where it does more harm than good to allow it to continue. I think we have reached that point!!

Did you write the first part? (none / 0) (#1)
by Jeralyn on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 08:53:49 PM EST

David, did you write the first part or is there a link to it?

: In response to your question... (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by David at Kmareka on Sun Nov 26, 2006 at 07:08:53 AM EST

I wrote the entire piece. The only link is to my fecund mind.

: Apologies for my interjection (none / 0) (#2)
by Edger on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 09:35:59 PM EST

These foreigners do not belong here? (none / 0) (#3)
by Edger on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 10:14:22 PM EST

I disagree, David. These foreigners do belong here.

My fathers parents both emigrated from Romania and met each other after they arrived. I have no idea whether they arrived legally or illegally. I never asked them. I never cared. Neither did anyone else who ever met them. It just plain didn't matter. My grandmother was a Romanian Jew who hid her Jewish background because of her memory and terror of the Romanian Holocaust. We did not know she was Jewish till her death. We found a letter after she died that she had written to her family and hid explaining that she did not want anyone to know she was Jewish, for fear that her children and their families would be persecuted. But they got here, walked a hundred miles into the woods, picked a spot they liked, built a shelter in a riverbank, rode out the winter there, and in the spring walked back that hundred miles to get some horses, led the horses back that same hundred miles, then built the farm where my father was born. They were true pioneers.
They didn't come here to support laws that would have blocked or made it more difficult for them to get here or criminalized anyone else for coming here.

Stand facing one of them. Whether you see a white one, a brown one, a yellow one, a red one, or you see anything that looks different or makes you nervous, if who you see makes you nervous the place to start looking is inside yourself.

Look him or her in the eye. Then look down. You'll see two pairs of feet firmly planted on one planet.

Very often that's a feeling I get when I wake up in the morning. I think, "I'm living in an occupied country. A small group of aliens have taken over the country and are trying to do with it what they will, you know, and really are." I mean, they are alien to me. I mean, those people who are coming across the border from Mexico, they are not alien to me, you see. You know, Muslims who come to this country to live, they are not alien to me, you see. These demonstrations, these wonderful demonstrations that we have seen very recently on behalf of immigrant rights, say, and you've seen those signs saying, you know, "No human being is alien." And I think that's true. Except for the people in Washington, you see.
Howard Zinn, November 24th, 2006

Native Americans (none / 0) (#4)
by squeaky on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 10:26:24 PM EST

Gee Edger, I read the diary from the point of view of a Native American in 1650 or so. I thought it was slightly tongue in cheek......but maybe not and David is horribly xenophobic.


I'm not sure, Squeaky. (none / 0) (#5)
by Edger on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 10:28:51 PM EST

I hope you're right and I'm not misreading David.


: Errr... (none / 0) (#6)
by Edger on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 10:30:15 PM EST

I hope you're right and I'm misreading David.

me too (none / 0) (#7)
by squeaky on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 10:42:59 PM EST

If not, it is very hostile and irrational.

It is provocative at least. (none / 0) (#8)
by Edger on Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 10:52:19 PM EST

And David did ask "please have some perspective". I took that to mean various perspectives, not just ones he agrees with. And my post was not meant to condemn David. I'm still unsure of his perpective.

But I really meant it when I said "two pairs of feet firmly planted on one planet". Borders were invented long, long after people were, I think. :-)


Clarification (5.00 / 2) (#13)
by David at Kmareka on Sun Nov 26, 2006 at 07:27:58 AM EST

I am most certainly not xenophobic. My intent in writing the piece was to contrast in a somewhat provocative way the experience of native Americans some centuries back to the experience of Americans now, many of whom are quite reactionary about immigration and indifferent or blind to the historical perspective. I was merely attempting to highlight the irony of the contemporary point of view.


Consider everything (1.00 / 1) (#15)
by jimakaPPJ on Fri Dec 01, 2006 at 11:22:09 AM EST

David - What you left out is the fact that the NA's ran into an expansionist civilization that had better weapons, better organization, and, as bad as it was, a more advanced and gentler culture, especially in what is now Mexico and Central/SA.

It also had more people, and a higher live birth rate because of, among other things, it could feed more people.

It was also determined to rule.

Next time you start defending the rights of the radical Moslem terrorists you might consider the above.

And if you haven't read "The Contested Plains," I think you will find it a scholarly look at who was where first.


Look up , quick, PPJ (none / 0) (#16)
by aw on Fri Dec 01, 2006 at 11:37:19 AM EST

There's something zooming right over your head.


: Yeah... (none / 0) (#17)
by Edger on Fri Dec 01, 2006 at 11:39:04 AM EST

...David's entire post.

Well... (none / 0) (#14)
by Edger on Sun Nov 26, 2006 at 07:52:39 AM EST

...you succeeded in both. Good piece, David. I'll admit to misreading you, and I'm happy that I did.

My comments still reflect my own feelings on the subject, however.
