The Struggle of Immigrants [2]

2.3 Undocumented Immigrant

Undocumented immigrant as known as illegal alien is a people who across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Study shows that most of them are young adults and they are tend to be poorly educated. Some countries have million of immigrants. For example, in United States, there were 2.6 million undocumented immigrants resided in California in 2010 and increased by an average of 500,000 per year (Johnson et al. 2011). Those immigrants believe that the benefits of successfully immigrating are greater than the risk, thus, illegal immigration is becomes an option. Otherwise, not all illegal immigrants are crossing into one country to find work. Law enforcement officials of the United State indicate that are individuals coming across the border who are forced to leave their home countries because of criminal activities, such as drug smuggling, human trafficking and identify theft (nccivitas.org). Anti-immigration in United State claimed that local, state, and federal government are burdened with increased costs billions of dollars through their utilization of educational and social systems such as primary and secondary education, health, care programs, emergency rooms, and other anti-poverty programs to which they don’t contribute through taxes.

According to Becerra et al. (2012) study shows otherwise: what is claimed by anti-immigrants was a negative depiction of undocumented immigrants, which is based on exaggerations, the distortion of data, or incomplete information, that have created a hostile environment for undocumented immigrants. In addition, many of undocumented immigrants contribute to the economic through taxes. They pay Social Security and other taxes, but do not collect benefits, and they are not eligible for many government services. Becerra (2012) takes Texas as an example, his study reported that undocumented immigrants provided $17.7 billion in gross state product, If all undocumented immigrants in Texas were to leave or be deported, not only would Texas lose over $400 million in state revenues, but Texas would also lose 2,3% of jobs in the state because of the economic activity of undocumented immigrants that supports business an employment.

In spite of all the matters, another thing that needs to be highlighted is the term of ‘illegal aliens’. An ‘alien’ is defined as anyone who is not citizen or national of the United States, while the act of entering the country without inspection is a federal misdemeanor, and for repeat offenders could be a felony, the status of being present in the United States without a visa is not an ongoing criminal violation. For some, the use of the term ‘illegal alien’ is likely based on misconception that an immigrant’s very presence in the United States is criminal violation of the law (Haque-Hausrath 2008). It can be said, this term has been used to dehumanize and divorce ourselves from thinking of them as human beings. Moreover, immigrants are people who trying to cross borders in search of work could be branded as ‘illegal immigrants’, persecuted and vilified. Sometimes those immigrants are simply called ‘illegals’, as if a human being could be categorized as an illegal human being (Hayter 2004).

3. Conclusion

All the challenges that faced by immigrants as minority group with society and the state as majority are derived from the same root: racism and discrimination. Majority (natives) is considered as the only substance and ethnically homogenous group that feel more authentic than those immigrants, whereas in fact, these majority are the product of immigration as well (as i described in the first paragraph of introduction). In other words, these majorities claimed as the first group that arrived and feel entitled to rule and control another group. This reaction can lead a desire to break away that eventually will requires recusancy. The high level of immigration without adequate levels of integration can lead to separatism, marginalization and cultural conflict.

In the meantime, a country that has failed in addressing the problems of immigrants and minorities has led activists to organize a movement, such as No One is Illegal and The Sans-Papiers movement. They fight for the injustice forced by the attempt to enforce immigration controls, they fight for the regularization of all undocumented, and for freedom to immigrate and to stay. As we know, wherever minorities are, they are vulnerable to any majority decisions. Thus, it’s necessary to provide policy that can protect minority groups, to support racial equality between groups by adverse things that can be suffered by them, such as in educational curriculum, feasts, language, and provide their rights to be accommodated in politics.

Simultaneously, ethnic and cultural differences has become a threat and to raise mutual understanding between ethnics and religious is a complicated issue, because it involves prejudice, stigmatization, stereotypification, and cultural deformation. In case, political step is needed to address these issues. Therefore, the concept of multiculturalism emerged. Through this concept, each state would respect the autonomy of different nations’ culture by recognizing the rights of minority groups (Kymlicka 2003). I suppose that where multiculturalism shows its importance is in the idea that no culture is inherently superior to all others, and no culture is truly inferior to the rest. Every human culture has the possibility of contributing positively to the human condition. Kymlicka (2003) argued that to understand multiculturalism, one must understand liberalism, while human right is a product of liberalism. Hence, we will realize that there’s nothing to fear about cultural and religion differences, the whole world must live in unity, and respect the diversity.

References

1. Bader, V. (2005). The Ethics of Immigration. Constellations Volume 12, 331-361.

2. Bastian, B. (2012). Immigration, Multiculturalism and The Changing Face of Australia. Peace Psychology Book Series, 55-70.

3. Bauder, H. (2012). Open Boders: A Utopia? 1-13.

4. Biacerra, D., Androff, D., Ayon, C., & Castillo, J. (2012). Fear vs. Facts: Examining the Economic Impact od Undocumented Immigrants in the U.S. School of Social Work, 111-135.

5. Castles, S. (1993). The Age of Migration. London: Palgrave Macmilian.

6. Gans, H. (1997). Assimilation adn Pluralism. International Migration Review, 875-892.

7. Haque-Hausrath, S. (2008). Dipetik 10 6, 2015, dari Border Crossing Law Firm P.C.: http://www.nohumanbeingisillegal.com

8. Hayter, T. (2004). Open Borders. London: Pluto Press.

9. Johnson, H., & Hill, L. (2011). Illegal Immigration. ATISSUE, 1-18.

10. Kymlicka, W. (2003). Kewargaan Multikultur. Jakarta: LP3ES Indonesia.

11. Mudzakkir, A. (2013). Imigrasi dan Batas-Batas Globalisasi. Jakarta: Harian Indoprogress.

The Struggle of Immigrants [1]

1. Introduction

The out of africa theory revealed that our ancestors, who lived around 200,000 years ago, was a group of immigrants who had made incredible long journey from one place to another, originating from eastern Africa and spreading out across the earth. They immigrated as a form of adaptation to gain more favorable opportunities for their groups (Roberts 2009). It can be said, that the population of the world nowadays is actually a product of immigration. The phenomenon of immigration still continues until today. People immigrate for various reasons. Immigration has become an alternative for those who want a proper job in developed countries, or to improve their quality of life. Some people seek asylum to avoid conflict and war.

During Cold War, from the late 1940 to the early 1970, the largest number of immigrants, around 2,5 million immigrants per year, continued to come from third world to the United State and Europe. Most of them were forced to avoid wars and political persecution (Castles 1993). Similarly, between 1995 and 2000, around 2,6 million immigrants per year moved from one less developed country to another, as an example from Paraguay to Brazil or from Ghana to Ivory Coast. In southeast Asia, immigrants from Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar seek jobs in Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, and other newly industrialized countries in Asia (prb.org).

As a matter of fact, not all of those immigrants fared well in terms of jobs and economic status, in other words, many of them worked for low wages and forced to work long hours. Moreover, the immigrants are faced with many barriers once they arrived in their host countries because of ethnic and racial differences, and considered as the major cause of population increase. The aim of this essay is to discuss about what the challenges facing immigrants, and why the immigrants should have the same rights as others to stay.

2. Pro and Cons Arguments

2.1 Border Controls

Border is where checks take place. Before you enter to one country, you will need to prove your identity and present papers to borders. These official papers can be different, depending on where you come from, your nationality, the reason you are visiting, how long you plan to stay. Border control is extremely important thing in controlling and examining all those movement of citizens in and out of the country, controlling the spread of diseases, and preventing the smuggling of weapons, drugs, and illegal substances or objects. Border controls became more stringent since the terrorist incidents on September 11, 2001 in United States (Walker 2004). As a consequence, immigrants are associated with the acts of criminalization.

For some liberal thinkers, border controls should be eliminated. The argument is in accordance with what was championed by ‘the free movement’ activists’ in the early 2000s. They argued, that mobility is a right of all human rights, in other words, border controls should generally be open and that people should normally be free to leave their home countries and settle in another which is normatively refers to Article 13-1 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights that ‘Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country’. Hayter (2004) argued that border controls caused discrimination on mainly racist grounds between foreigners, they would still discriminate against foreigners in general, as opposed to natives or residents. Governments make us of whatever measures they choose to deter, punish and eject people they don’t wish to receive in their territories. To exemplify, million of foreigners who are national of the European Union are free to enter and settle in Britain, others are not or when immigrants come from the Middle East who have name Arabic names; they easily be accused as a terrorist. It can be said, that border controls are inherently racist.

2.2 Assimilation

The general definition of assimilation is the process of two different things coming together to blend and create a new things all together. In this case, assimilation is a process in which formerly distinct and separate come to share a common culture and merge together socially. Immigrant as a members of the minority group have to learn the culture of the dominant group (resident), such as learning the natives language, changing eating habits, adopting new value systems, and altering the spelling of the family surname (Gans 1997). Gordon as an American sociologist argued that if immigrants failed to assimilate, they would not be able to compete for jobs or other opportunities in the secondary sector of the social structure as a consequence until they had learned the dominant group’s culture. That argument is based on maintaining the rule of the original ethnic group, or in other words, immigrants need to abandon the original cultural attributes and conform entirely the culture of their host countries.

It’s natural when a community that already exist for a long time becomes resistant or try to prevent their original culture from another new culture that comes into their territory, which often appears as minority group (immigrants). On the other hand, it would be excessive and inhuman when the immigrants forced to alter their true identity, in other words, assimilation is a crime against humanity. For example, in French, North African immigrant Muslim women have to give up wearing their chadors or their veil, and in Germany, how Turkish communities still being called aliens or foreigners even if they were born in Germany and have German citizenship (Mueller 1997). We cannot forget history: how Jews have been the main target of racists, in Britain and elsewhere, or how black people have been the main target of discrimination due to the color of their skin, blamed for crime, violence and riots (Castles 1993).

to be continued...