The Second Class resident: Anti Immigrant Laws as a Social, Political and Economic Concern
Publication Date:
Introduction
Immigration and related policies have been a vital part of the debate during the US Presidential Election of 2016, and especially so since anti-immigration stance has been one of the leading mandates of the Trump Campaign. During his Presidential campaign, President Trump has been particularly vocal in his anti-immigration stance, almost to the points that the anti-immigration stance translated into an anti-immigrant stance, to the extent that not only has he heavily criticized the previous government for its lax immigration policies, but he has also presented a negative image of immigrants, as outsiders and leeches, sucking off from the resources of the economy and thus taking away from the incomes and hard earned tax money of the rightful citizens.
An example of his extremist approach is the plan to build a wall in the US Mexico border, and make Mexico pay for it. Immigration is already an important socio-economic issue, especially when immigration laws do not prepare the economy for the inflow of people, who need shelter, food, clothing, and work. Additionally, the undocumented status of many immigrants is an additional problem for the US government, as the government cannot plan for the provision of people it doesn’t have any information and statistics on. However, the idea that even illegal immigrants are a burden to the economy is false.
Rather, research shows that illegal immigrants work especially hard, and all the while obeying the rule of law while giving their contribution in taxes, simply to avoid detection and the threat of being deported. The aim of this paper is therefore to raise the issue of Trump’s words and policies being anti-immigrant rather than anti-immigration, which has severe and negative repercussions on the economic and social well being of illegal immigrants working hard to make a living for themselves in the US. The illegal immigrants are contributing members of the society, and should not be given a second-class resident status, in terms of economic, social, and political opportunities. Additionally, Trump’s demonization of immigrants also has wide-ranging and negative social repercussions, most of which these immigrants have to face.
Trumps’ Presidential Campaign
Trump’s presidential campaign, as well as his term in office, has been openly anti-immigration. As a candidate and as president, Trump has been extremely vocal in his stance on immigration, with policies aiming at tightening immigration laws. While tightening immigration laws is not exactly a cause for concern, immigrants place an undue burden on the state in terms of employment, public services, and housing. However, what’s surprising and alarming is the view propagated about illegal immigrants, who are seen in a negative light, and as burdens to the society, with inherent criminal tendencies.
During his campaign, and even after being elected as President, Trump has made numerous claims in his speeches, linking Mexican immigrants to violent crimes, rape and gang membership, and therefore arguing that these dangerous criminals need to be sent back (“Trump On The Issues”). A popular slogan of Trump’s campaign is ‘Make America Great Again,’ which is based on exclusive policies and viewpoints rather than inclusive ones, and immigrants are presented as outsiders. This has been a major appeal in the campaign to urge American voters who felt that immigrants are a burden to the country to vote for him. Their demonization has led to immigrants being viewed as inherently criminal and evil, and this anti-immigrant stance has continued well into the Trump administration gaining office.
The Trump administration went as far as to separate immigrant families on their borders to stop refugees from entering as immigrants in America. The children of any refugee family attempting to enter America were snatched by the US authorities and kept in detention centers away from their parents, resulting in extreme trauma for the already suffering parents as well as the children (“The Guardian View On Donald Trump’S Immigration Policy: Hateful And Wrong | Editorial”). Trump even went as far as to call refugees and immigrants ‘animals’ to gain support for his extreme policies (Koret and Gomez, “Trump Ramps Up, Rhetoric on undocumented Immigrants”).
In his speeches to urge against the popular outcry against his policies, he said things like ‘You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are’ and ‘These aren’t people. These are animals’, and that Mexico is ‘not sending its best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime; They’re rapists. And some I assume are good people’ (Koret and Gomez, “Trump Ramps Up, Rhetoric on undocumented Immigrants”). The website for the Federation of American Immigration Reform calls immigrants ‘aliens’. These inhuman actions and stances against immigrants and refugees are not only helping the Trump administration fulfill its goal of discouraging immigration, but is also associating negative connotations to immigrants living within the US, even legal ones, such as them being inherently criminal, aliens, outsiders, dangerous and ‘not American.’
Morally Wrong, and a problem
These casual generalizations and the overall negative stance towards immigrants is wrong on so many levels, and mainly on moral levels. Firstly, as a first world country and a world leader, the US is morally obliged to help refugees and immigrants. These refugees and immigrants do not come out of free will from their countries but are often forced to leave their homes and families due to conditions of war, ethnic violence and economic insecurity within their home countries. When they reach American borders, they have nothing to their names but the hope of building a better life for themselves and their families in the land of dreams.
After suffering all the hardships, American policies towards refugees and immigrants pushes them away in the most inhumane ways, shattering their hopes of a normal healthy and happy life. Secondly, this dehumanization and demonization twists the actual facts relating to immigrants, whether legal or illegal, as most of these immigrants came into the US with nothing, and have been hard working, law abiding and contributing members of the society from day one. This can be seen from a number of researches.
Becerra et al. (115) for example, argues that law enforcement costs spent on undocumented immigrants are less than their proportionate share of the population, negating the notion that they are inherently criminal. Becerra et al. (115) also argues that when in the 1990s, the immigrant population of the US more than doubled, violent crime fell by 34% and property crime fell by 26%. As such, according to statistics, the share of crime by immigrants is proportionately lower than their population. This is because immigrants have a higher stake in avoiding detection by law enforcement.
Statistics and facts also negate Trump’s portrayal of immigrants as useless members of the society who drain the economy. Hanson (10) argues that the indirect taxation system in the US means that immigrants pay their share of the taxes automatically through sales, income taxes, property taxes and payroll taxes. Secondly, to avoid detection, most illegal immigrants in the US have a fake social security number, through which they make regular social security payments (Becerra et al. 122).
Since these social security numbers cannot be traced back to a registered household, the payments are included in a suspense file of social security, which is used to fund health and security expenses of the households with valid social security. As such, illegal immigrants contribute their share to social security, without receiving the benefits of their payments to social security. These benefits are accrued to American citizens and residents.
Contribution Towards Society
Trump’s stance against immigrants has also been based on the idea of immigrants stealing the jobs of Americans. Even this argument is not based on facts and is statistically incorrect. Since most of the illegal immigrants are unskilled workers willing to work for lower wages to avoid detection, they do not compete with a majority of American workers, who are relatively more skilled (Nadadur 1041). Rather, these unskilled workers supply an essential part of the labor force to the US economy, which is short in its own citizens and residents who have higher educational qualifications and skills that these immigrant workers.
As such, these workers provide the economy with the much-needed labor force for domestic and services work, as well as fulfill the shortfalls of labor in times of boom, and provide labor which can easily be laid off at times of recession (1042). Similarly, Hanson (5) points out that significant increases in education and qualifications in the US over the last few decades has led to a shortage of supply for unskilled workers, a shortage that is fulfilled by immigrant workers at a low cost. As such, these workers fulfill vacancies for jobs such as agriculture, construction, cleaning, maintenance, and food processing, and similar low paying low-security job. They provide low-cost labor to US industries, thus increasing their profit margins, and also contribute to local and domestic businesses through consumption.
Statistics, therefore, show that immigrants, whether legal or illegal, are contributing members to the society, are less involved in criminal activity that Americans and legal citizens, and receive lower security and health benefits compared to citizens and residents. As such, the anti-immigrant claims of the Trump administration are not only false but dangerous misrepresentations of contributing members of the society and the economy. Consider the fact that many of these illegal immigrants came when they were young, worked all their lives to build new homes, and provide a better life for their children.
These children, born and raised in America, are just as American as the children of American citizens. Even though these people have spent their entire lives, or a majority of their lives, in America, as law-abiding people and contributing members of the society, under the Trump administration they face a constant threat of being found and sent back to their home countries, thus completely destroying the lives they have worked so hard to build, and tearing apart families. Because of the negative propaganda against immigrants, these people face additionally disadvantaged and censure around them, in terms of schooling, employment, and other employees, simply because they are viewed as outsiders and inherently criminal. In my opinion, this is completely immoral and inhuman.
Conclusion
Trump’s policies and stance against immigrants is dangerous because it follows the divide and rule strategy used by the British Empire to keep so many of its colonies under control. While it fulfills the role of gaining mass support for the Trump administration, it has long-lasting and severe repercussions for American society. Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and stance is not only racist, but divisive, and divides the US population based on notions of them and us, which further deepen the social cleavages already existing in the society. This propaganda, based on false claims, will not only lead to a social, political and economic disadvantage for the immigrant population of the US, which is a sizable population in itself, but in the long run will also pitch social groups against each other, leading to problems of law and order and ethnic discrimination in the US.
Instead, the US needs to realize that immigration is a fact of the modern world, and a better way to deal with it will be through planning strategic immigration policies (Zakaria, “What’s really pushing politics to the right? Immigration”). The US needs to learn from the Canadian model of immigration, which has strategic immigration policies that work to limit immigration to the extent that the government can handle the additional responsibilities, as well as plan for increased immigration and the provision of services to immigrants to lead to a healthy and productive society, instead of demonizing immigrants. These policies do not treat immigrants as second-class citizens, but rather as contributing and important members of the society.
Works Cited
“The Guardian View On Donald Trump’S Immigration Policy: Hateful And Wrong | Editorial”. The Guardian, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/19/the-guardian-view-on-donald-trumps-immigration-policy-hateful-and-wrong. Accessed 3 June 2019.
“Trump On The Issues”. Council On Foreign Relations, 2019, https://www.cfr.org/interactives/campaign2016/donald-trump/on-immigration. Accessed 3 June 2019.
Becerra, David et al. “Fear Vs. Facts: Examining The Economic Impact Of Undocumented Immigrants In The US”. The Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare, vol 39, no. 4, 2012, pp. 111-133., Accessed 3 June 2019.
Hanson, Gordon H. “The Economics And Policy Of Illegal Immigration In The United States”. Migration Policy Institute, 2009, pp. 1-16., Accessed 3 June 2019.
Korte, Gregory, and Alan Gomez. “Trump Ramps Up Rhetoric On Undocumented Immigrants: ‘These Aren’t People. These Are Animals.'”. Usa Today, 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/16/trump-immigrants-animals-mexico-democrats-sanctuary-cities/617252002/. Accessed 3 June 2019.
Nadadur, Ramanujan. “Illegal Immigration: A Positive Economic Contribution To The United States”. Journal Of Ethnic And Migration Studies, vol 35, no. 6, 2009, pp. 1037-1052. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/13691830902957775. Accessed 3 June 2019.
Zakaria, Fareed. “What’S Really Pushing Politics To The Right? Immigration.”. The Washington Post, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/whats-really-pushing-politics-to-the-right-immigration/2016/12/08/7a7553c8-bd8a-11e6-91ee-1adddfe36cbe_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.29129f0ca2fa. Accessed 3 June 2019.