I’m completely baffled again - this time by the current upheaval over immigration reform and illegal aliens. What baffles me is this: Why isn’t anyone talking about the cause of illegal immigration(1)? We hear that the cause is the availability of jobs here in the US.
That’s not the real cause - the cause is the LACK of jobs in Mexico, Central and South America. That and the corruption that prevents the creation of those jobs. If there were real jobs in Mexico (which there are beginning to be), we wouldn’t have a problem with illegal immigration. Why would someone go through the effort to get here when they have something as good or nearly as good close to home?
If we want to really solve the problem of illegal immigration, we need to stop looking at amnesty, increased border security, national ID cards, etc., and start focusing on the real problem - pushing the Mexican government to clean up the corruption and improve the investment climate in the country. Remember the Zapatista’s in Chiapas? That was in 1994. Why were they upset? Because the locals had been consistently shortchanged by the Mexican state and federal governments. The locals ended up being essentially slaves in their own land. Who wants to live like that? Their situation may have been extreme - but it wasn’t unusual.
Yes, Vicente Fox has vowed to clean up corruption. Supposedly he has done some so far. And yes, Mexico is starting to have a middle class. Hopefully this will continue to improve. As it does, the immigration problem will take care of itself. And it will do so regardless of how much we do or don’t do to stop it. The key thing we need to do is stop allowing ourselves to be distracted by the effect and keep focused on the real cause.
NOTES:
(1) Since the vast majority of the illegal immigrants in this country are from Mexico, I’m focusing on Mexico for now.