[Pen-l] new blog post: A Nation of Immigrants, Part One

[MICHAEL YATES <mikedjyates@xxxxxxx>]

Full at http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org
 

Every night on CNN, Lou Dobbs bashes immigrants.  No matter what the subject, he manages to turn it into a horror story about the evils of people he calls “illegal aliens.”  They steal; they cheat; they use drugs; they murder innocent people; they transmit diseases; they have filthy habits; they take jobs from decent hardworking American; they cost the taxpayers billions of dollars each year; they get perks ordinary citizens can only dream of, such as free healthcare and college tuition.  Dobbs’ attacks are mirrored day and night on radio talk shows, in newspaper editorials and guest columns, and in the halls of Congress and every state capitol.

 

What these hatemongers say resonates with many of my fellow citizens.  I have heard them say so.  But especially in these hard economic times, when scapegoating of one group or another might become virulent and lead to vicious and divisive actions and politics, it might be a good idea to get a handle on some facts.

 

The first thing we need to understand is that immigrants come to the United States not out of choice but because changed circumstances, brought about often enough by business-supported political actions taken here in the United States, have forced them to do so.

Consider the story of a typical immigrant, a composite of millions of others who could tell the same tale.  Let us call her Elena.  Elena worked in a garment factory in a free trade zone in El Salvador.  The factory is a subcontractor for a large clothing chain in the United States.  The free trade zone itself is the product of an agreement made between the government of El Salvador and the International Monetary Fund.  The government is right-wing, dominated by the rich rural families that have run the country for many decades.  It has been waging a war against left-wing insurgents, aided by money and military advisors from the United States, which, in support of U.S. coffee companies and other businesses with interests in El Salvador,  has been deeply embedded in Salvadoran affairs .  The government’s budget is strained because of the war and because the rich are too powerful to be taxed and the poor have no money.  In the countryside adults must subsist on about 1,200 calories per day.  To pay its bills, the government goes to the IMF for a loan.  The IMF, itself dominated by the United States, grants the loan but imposes strict conditions on the Salvadoran budget.  One of these is that exports must be stimulated by offering foreign firms tax incentives.  So the government establishes a free trade zone, a space in the capital city of San Salvador where businesses can set up shop in publically-financed buildings and operate tax-free.  There is plenty of labor available, mostly women who have migrated to the city to escape the civil war in the countryside.

 

 

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