Due to an increase in unemployment among the municipal workers who will soon be replaced, it seems that everyone is talking about going to “El Norte” (the north aka the US). They all plan on crossing the border illegally which makes me think, once again, about how immigration plays such a large role in my personal life here.
In Canillá, there aren’t really jobs here because it’s so small You can work for the municipality, the bank, be a teacher, work at the health center, own some sort of a tienda, or work your farm (but this is typically small scale and the only market is selling products once a week in our local market or traveling long distances to sell in the markets of nearby towns). . In fact, the more educated you are, the harder it is to find a job in Canillá. If you’ve studied in school, that leaves you with the municipality, the bank, the school system or the health center. Some towns have NGOs or foreign institutions that will hire Guatemalans, but those are also on a contract basis and are typically located in department capitals. For example, Save the Children used to be in our town but they’ve moved on to other municipalities and they either take their staff with them or hope that the municipality hires the local workers.
I keep going back and forth as to whether people who say they’re crossing the border are doing it because of necessity or because they want to keep up with a high-level of living. In Canillá, you definitely see both cases. The people in the municipality are used to a certain amount of pay and some of them have even entrenched themselves in massive debt, thus, taking a low-level Guatemalan job just isn’t going to cut it for them. For others, it’s a matter of survival. It’s far better for them to find a low level US job that no American really wants to do in order to send that money back home (see NYT article about hiring locally for farming jobs). But then there are the risks associated with all of this:
• It’s expensive to cross the border, last I heard it ran for about $8,000 USD plus 10% interest and obviously if you don’t have money to live in Guatemala, you don’t have the money to pay that fee upfront
• It has become increasingly dangerous. Justin was telling me that a coyote from his town mentioned how the narcos are pretty much running shop in the border towns; you can play by their rules, get killed, or wait around indefinitely by the border to cross (and that isn’t guaranteed). This is on top of the other risks associated with illegally crossing the border: border patrol, injuries from harsh weather and walking conditions, illness, gangs along the way, etc.
• You leave your family. I cannot count how many family problems I’ve encountered because a child’s parents have left for the United States. In some cases, the children stay with the mother but then the father gets a new US wife and forgets his family back home. In other cases, both parents head for the US and leave the children with the grandparents who may not be able to dedicate the time and effort to raise another set of children. And in worse scenarios, the children become abandoned, forced to live on the streets or figure out how to fend for themselves.
Despite these risks, in their opinion, it’s still worth it to cross.
Never in my life have I thought about immigration so much. Honestly, immigration and the drug war are the two issues that have been completely eye opening for me. My mom is from another country, so of course I was familiar with immigration, understood the complexities of preserving an old culture while trying to fit in with a new one; but never had I experienced these sort of immigration issues on such a wide scale. I had never been on the other side of the fence.
Whenever I see news coverage about immigration, I immediately download the article or podcast. The New York Times posted an interesting article with photos and a documentary that I read a couple days ago. A couple salient points “Deportation is expensive, costing the government at least $12,500 per person”, “‘repeat crossers are singled out for removal alongside ‘serious felons,’ ‘known gang members’ and ‘individuals who pose a clear risk to national security.’” (I know repeat crossers…they are definitely not anywhere near the status of a gang member or big risks to national security), but what struck me most was the quote by David Shirk, director of the Transborder Institute at the University of San Diego “"If you think drug dealers and terrorists are much more dangerous than maids and gardeners, then we should get as many visas as possible to those people, so we can focus on the real threat…Widening the gates would strengthen the walls." Now before dismissing this comment, really think about it. Who should we really be targeting? The people in my town looking for work? Or the gang members and narcos that make a profit because they can manage increasingly intricate obstacles that the US creates to “stop” immigration? Immigration is incredibly complex and as I continue to meet people in my town who were born in the US, have crossed illegally, just want to visit, want to start fresh, I find myself wondering how can people in Washington, who probably have never seen the other side, make blanket solutions to immigration?
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It's difficult to craft laws that will satisfy everybody. Plus, in Washington we have political considerations, so policy needs to some extent comport with the U.S. citizens' feelings and thoughts about what is right.
ReplyDeleteWhen you talk about farmworkers in the U.S., I think back to when I worked for Legal Aid of North Carolina and visited labor camps where migrant workers (who had left their families in Mexico, Guatemala, and other countries) tried to earn some kind of living. But the reasons we (attorneys) were there was because of the violations that were committed against them. One man died of heatstroke in the fields, but he could have lived if the owner of the camp had just been a decedent person. Others were not being paid properly, or were not being housed according to law (i.e. overcrowding in rooms, with a family of a man, women, and their child having to share a room with others). You wouldn't necessarily think this happens in the U.S., but it does.
Immigration is a very sensitive topic in this country. You have the Dream Act, which is close to passing in California, that creates financial aid in higher education for children who are in the U.S. illegally, as long as they went to high school in California for three years and graduated (something along those lines). Obviously some people think this is a good decision that helps faultless children participate in our society, but other people are outraged because of the state of the California budget (dismal). The City of Los Angeles has been on a hiring freeze for two years and has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, and here the State is giving money to non-citizens.
Immigration is a very complex and often unfortunate issue. Where can you draw the line between welcoming people who experienced hardship in other countries and incurring costs that citizens aren't happy with. And how do you draw the line between those who are genuinely experiencing hardship, and those who are not? All good thoughts Carolyn!
Well said. I learn new things about both sides of the argument every day and I always find it fascinating. It is incredibly complex and I think understanding that complexity is the first step to forming comprehensive policy.
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