kinda want to start over and make a new tumblr. or just stop tumbilng
Tonight I went to a govteam potluck and mini-debate on the state of our political climate etc. It was great to be able to hear about hot button issues from so many different perspectives. One thing that our teacher asked us is if our classes have changed our perspective on any of these issues. On class that I was in this semester really changed my views on immigration. I decided to include an excerpt of an essay that I wrote this semester that will hopefully change or at least challenge your views as well:
In contrast to the general acceptance of skilled legal immigrants, unskilled illegal immigrants have faced the greatest amount of backlash. The bulk of immigration in recent years has been of foreign workers in search of menial and generally low paying jobs (Portes and Rumbaut: Who and Why). Thus, unskilled immigrants began to take up a larger percentage of our population, which created backlash from the natives. Many of the claims made about illegal immigrants have created resentment, but are largely untrue. For the most part, the immigrants are disliked for two reasons; primarily, they are portrayed as a group of people who use a heavy amount of resources within our welfare programs and, secondarily, take jobs away from citizens at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy (Coates). These issues are particularly inflamed in Arizona, where Latinos account for 31% of the population, yet only 17% of the electorate (Barry). The animosity has grown toward those who are young, poor, and/or Latino for their disproportionate use of education and social services. This sentiment is ill placed because studies show that illegal immigrants pay more in taxes than the equivalent cost of the services that they receive (Barry). Significant evidence to support a direct link between illegal immigrants and native-born citizen unemployment does not exist (Coates). There is however, evidence to show that non-immigrant workers are no longer willing to do the same work that immigrant workers do on a daily basis (Farmingville). Additional research shows that when illegal immigrants take bottom-rung positions, they free up their slightly more skilled, and usually white, counterparts for better, more sophisticated jobs (Coates). In Arizona, politicians have taken advantage of the negative aura surrounding illegal unskilled immigrants and have come up with additional blatant lies to garner votes and point fingers for their financial woes (Barry). They claim that immigrants cost large amounts of money, especially within criminal justice programs. In reality, crime rates have dropped as the immigrant population has expanded (Unz) and Arizona border towns have become some of the safest communities in the state (Barry). Though there is much evidence to show how these immigrants are currently positively embedded into our fiscal structure, their status as illegal immigrants has hurt their capacity to integrate with society.