The Courage of Immigrants
Emma Lazarus in her poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty wrote: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Bedros, my father might have seen those words in 1914 when he landed at Ellis Island and Araxie, my mother too, seven years later when she arrived. My parents were highly motivated to leave Armenia, their ancestral homeland in Eastern Turkey. Genocide does a lot to focus the mind on survival. For them, and millions of others, America was a safe haven. Today, violence. economic terror and hunger drive many to come to these shores. Immigration reform is talked about but little happens. NAFTA and rapacious capitalist policies have pauperized many people in Mexico and Central America. The trek north is dangerous. Women and children are particularly vulnerable. The journey requires tenacity and courage.
Speaker
Sonia Nazario
Sonia Nazario, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Polk Award, has reported for The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. Her book Enrique’s Journey was a bestseller.
David –
I would really like to share this lecture with more people because I am sure few people here are aware of the desperation and courage of these poor children.
Judy –
Ms. Nazario tells of the suffering of those compelled to migrate. We must know this as Americans. But, she does not accept popular pat answers of the left and the Senate-passed bill.
She sees losers in the current level of illegal immigration:
1. 1 in 14 Americans without a high school degree, mainly African Americans and previous waves of Latino immigrants, have seen wages fall because of the influx of migrants. 2. Migrating women stay in the U.S. longer than they expect, harming them and their children
What doesn’t work:
1. walls: as in the Senate-passed bill
2. guest workers: the bracero program created more waves of migrants
3. legalization: the 1986 legalization of 3 million – now at 11 million – shows “this did not work out as advertised.”
What would work?
1. U.S. support of governments that redistribute wealth. Yes, work to change our foreign policy!
2. tackle this exodus at the source through job creation in the home countries
3. fair trade, not “free” trade
4. family planning
5. justice here for victims of compelled migration caught in the push and pull of our greed, convenience, and guilt-easing charity
Who stands in the way:
1. businesses that benefit from cheap, vulnerable labor
2.political parties, churches, ethnic groups who want immigrants to boost their numbers and power
I thank her for asking us to think anew, think bigger, think deeper, think more honestly.