New
immigration propaganda misses the point
Daniel
Frias
It
seems that the country's most anti-immigrant
state is at it again.
Only
this time it's not with political propositions
or state bills, but with a new TV commercial.
This commercial depicts the current condition
the state of California is in by having
a small innocent looking Caucasian child
sitting Indian style with his hands on his
cheeks asking why, if Californians are having
less children, is the state so populated.
The
little boy also ponders the question of
why one out of every three children in California
schools is from a different country. The
commercial goes on to say that California
freeways and highways are overcrowded with
automobiles and that immigrants are responsible
for 98 percent of California's population
growth.
This
controversial commercial has many people
inside and outside of the immigrant community
upset. They feel they are unfairly singled
out and portrayed in a bad light by the
commercial. The person responsible for the
statistics of the commercial says that his
facts are based on scientific research and
that in no way is the commercial intended
to attack immigrants. But many analysts
see it as otherwise, they see it as an attack
on California's immigrants. An attack that
is all too common in the Golden State which
has passed several anti-immigrants bills
including Prop. 187, which denied health
care, education and access to other social
services to undocumented immigrants.
Anti-immigrants,
mostly right-wing conservative Republicans,
would like to rid California of all immigrants.
Or do they? The truth is they would, but
they really don't want to. Despite the fact
that many people do not like immigrants
they know that California needs them. Just
look at our new governor. He is an immigrant.
He
may be a U.S. citizen and have a valid California
drivers license, but he is still an immigrant
and they voted him in for office. Of course
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a rich actor who
makes movies and more importantly, he's
a Republican. But none the less he was not
born in the United States and like the majority
of immigrants came to this great country
in search of the American dream speaking
very little English.
So
why is it OK for only certain people to
search for the American dream and not others?
Journalist
Jorge Ramos wrote in his book "The
Other Face of America: chronicles of the
immigrants shaping our future," "When
the economy is going well immigrants are
welcomed, but when the economy is bad they
are not wanted."
Of
course if the United States really wanted
to rid themselves of immigrants they would.
But they don't because then they would have
no one to use as a scapegoat when the country
or state is in a mess such as California
is right now. Restaurant owners, contractors,
growers and other business owners would
have no one to exploit.
Career
women would have no nannies. Californians
would have no one to work in the fields
and put food in the super markets. Restaurants
would have no servers, office buildings
would be dirty and many employers would
have a hard time finding people to work
for minimum wage with no benefits.
California
has citizens right now with jobs that pay
three times the minimum wage pay with full
benefits and they don't want to work. You
really think this state is going to find
people other than recent immigrants to work
for low wages in remedial jobs?
They're
not. They know they are not. So either accept
immigration and learn to live with it or
get rid of all the immigrants. That way
all your so-called immigration problems
will be solved.
Daniel
Frias is a journalism major at Cal State
Long Beach.
|
