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The 'immigration issue'

[I recently saw a mention of "the immigration issue".] I've never really sat down and thought through what I think about it, so I'm taking this as the chance to do so.

I'm also going to do a public mental experiment. I'll write the first section of this post without doing any research at all. It will just be unadulterated spew from my brain. Then I'll do some research on the actual issues, and finish the post with any changes or new ideas I have. I'm curious to see what happens 😃

Part 1: unfounded belief

I've never understood what the issue is, in the "immigration issue." Why is is that we distrust Mexicans* so much? What makes them worse than Arizonians or Oklahomians or Ohioans? They're people, and they're crossing an imaginary line in the sand, and we see that as a problem. Why? Why do we see that as a problem when we don't see it as a problem when an American crosses between states in the U.S.?

*Please, please, please, don't take this to mean that I do or don't like Mexicans, or think that they're the root of all evil, or think that they're the only illegal aliens, or think that all Mexicans are illegal aliens, or that I'm going to eat your children, or think anything else that gets your blood boiling. It's easier (for me) to use an example, so I am. I could have happily talked about people from the moon and made the same points. But I didn't because I thought it would confuse the issue even more.

Why do they cross that line in the sand? I don't think it has anything in particular to do with the sand on one side of the line or the other. In fact, I think it doesn't have anything to do with the physical properties of either place. They cross over because they want to be in a place where the people they're going to (Americans) will treat them differently than the people they were with (Mexicans).

What is it about Americans that makes us so desirable? I postulate that it's the beliefs, attitudes, politics, and general behaviours of the Americans that makes America so desirable. We have democracy, freedom, a strong economy, justice, safety, etc. etc. etc., and those are much better than whatever they have where they come from. That makes it worthwhile to them - they want to be in a better place. (Sounds familiar - I know a person or two with those same goals!)

So why are we so afraid of these people who want to come be with us? I think the word "afraid" is important here - it's a clue that the issue is emotional, not rational. And I think that's true. Like most topics in American politics today, the winner will be whomever sways the most hearts, not the most minds. (And the hearts aren't generally listening to the minds.) Because of that, I postulate that the fear exists because it serves somebody's interest for it to exist. We fear because we've been told to, not because we should. (For example, why are we afraid of terrorists coming into the country via Mexico, when there's lots of evidence that they have much better ways to do so?)

Fear aside, what are the rational issues? Matt mentioned healthcare costs, and I can certainly see that illegal aliens aren't going to be paying taxes, and will therefore be using resources (roads, water, land, etc.) that they didn't contribute to. Both seem like legitimate problems.

What would an economist think, though? I've heard (numerous times) that the southwest wouldn't have an economy if it weren't for Mexicans who were willing to work minimum-wage and below-minimum-wage jobs. If they're responsible for propping up the whole economy, we should thank them for providing the healthy exchange of money that our government depends so dearly on for its taxes. So maybe they do contribute to the roads, water, etc. 😃

To follow the economic question further, I'll use my simple touchstone that I use for all economics: where is the value (money) being created? To apply that here, I simply ask: do Mexicans create more value then they consume? Do they wash more dishes than they drive their cars? Do they clean more houses than they flush the toilet? Do they earn more money than they spend?

I don't know the answer, for sure. My guess is that they do. And if they do, it means that they're coming to this country and adding value to the overall pool, not taking it away. Regardless of the details, if they're adding more value than they're consuming, I count that as a good thing.

So: I reject the fear argument. I (tentatively) reject the economic argument. What's left?

I can see a social argument: Americans might not want their kids to be raised with Mexican values, Gods, traditions, etc. I can't take that argument seriously, though - every American, ever, has an immigrant ancestor. I can't see how we can say "these immigrants are bad, but these over here are good" with a straight face.

I can also see a security argument: Mexicans without identification are dangerous, because we can't... can't do what? Arrest them? Track them? Electronically follow their every purchase? Tell if they have a bomb when they get on a plane?

There's lots, and lots, and lots of depth to the security argument. It also happens that security is a hobby of mine, so I know quite a bit about real security. If I start writing about it I won't ever stop, so I'm going to skip it here. My summary, though, is this: any security that depends on accurate identification of all people is weak security.

Anything else? I'm not seeing anything obvious, so I think I'll stop here and pretend like I've won the argument, and declare that Mexicans are actually good for this country.

If so, now what?

A slight tangent: if we, the people, of The United States of America could somehow agree that Mexicans are good for our country, what might we change? It's easy to imagine that we'd open the border and allow anyone in, so long as they could identify themselves. It's easy to imagine that we'd let them stay, so long as they agreed to pay taxes and abide by our laws. It's easy to imagine that we'd give them honest jobs and support and help them spread across the country. And it's easy to imagine that a giant group of people who were accepted and supported and given opportunity would be much less of a drain, and much less of a risk, then they are today. All we have to do is accept that they aren't scary 😃

Part 2: learnings

I'm back!

As usual Wikipedia is the best place on the 'net to learn stuff. For this stuff, I used the Immigration page, the Anti-immigration page, and the Illegal immigration to the United States page.

Major learnings:

Part 3: less-unfounded belief

Wow. I imagined that I'd arrive here feeling like I'd really learned something... but I haven't. I've simply strengthened my basic argument: "illegal" immigrants are people, too, and there's no reason to fear them. The only rational reason for fear (that they might hurt the overall economic health of me) seems like poppycock because I believe that (on average) people try to add to the world, not be a burden to it. Immigrants are no exception to that rule. All the other reasons are essentially irrational.

I'm very glad I did all that research, though. I now know enough to justify reasonably strong opinions about this subject. Those opinions, in turn, give me a touchstone against which I can measure politicians... and we all know that they need measuring 😃

Editor's note: this post was ported from an older version of my blog, and I didn't port the comments. But there was a lively discussion in those comments, so if you are interested in reading further, the Wayback Machine still has them.