Kin Camell "Migrants Can Live Vibrant"

Kenneth D Camell ll
Prof Marsden
Intro to Ethnic Studies
March 17, 2021


                       

            Migrants Can Live Vibrant

Immigration isn't a Mexican, American or European issue, it's a human issue. Beyond the fantasies of the American Dream an undeniable lack of empathy and humanity allow poverty and war to decimate communities around the world. Immigration is a global issue shrouded in political chaos, so I will attempt to simply define and explain what immigration is. I will also use statistics to prove how humanity suffers due to lack of empathy.

There isn't an international definition of a migrant although Amnesty International defines a refugee as; a person who has fled their own country because they are at risk of serious human rights violations and persecution there. The risks to their safety and life were so great that they felt they had no choice but to leave and seek safety outside their country because their own government cannot or will not protect them from those dangers. Refugees have a right to international protection. Whereas an asylum-seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Seeking asylum is a human right. This means everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum. Too bad it isn't a universal law !

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) defines U.S immigrants as; (also known as the foreign born) refers to people residing in the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth. This population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), certain legal nonimmigrants (people on student or work visas), those admitted under refugee or asylee(asylum) status, and persons illegally residing in the United States.

My initial thesis was to highlight how the Canadian Dream was actually attainable as opposed to the ever elusive American Dream. Unfortunately I had a rude awakening while conducting research for this essay specifically finding out how small Canada's population is. Based on 2017 statistics The Migration Policy Institute reported Canada's population is 37,000,000. The U.S population is 325,000,000 with California having a population of 39,000,000 ! It's difficult to compare countries with such stark populations despite Canada having a larger immigration population per capita (22 % of its population are immigrants while  14% of the U.S population is composed of immigrants).

In 2017 Tal Kopan reported that the U.S accepted 45,000 immigrants. That same year The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 155,000 immigrants in the U.S. and 30 % of those immigrants were not criminals. That same year 215,000 immigrants were deported and 40% were not criminals. The previous year in 2016 The US accepted 85,000 refugees and ICE arrested 110,000 immigrants. 15% of those immigrants were not criminals. That same year 250,000 immigrants were deported and 40% were not criminals.I previously mentioned how immigration is political chaos and here is one recent example: Department Of Justice(DOJ) and the Attorney General prevented an immigration judge from rendering just verdicts. “By interfering with the legal immigration process and removing Judge Morley’s cases. The DOJ actions violate the independence of the judges decision making. “ - Judge Ashley Tabbodor (President of the Immigration Judges Association). And how can I forget about the "Migrant Caravan" which is another example of politics preventing asylum seekers from reaching The American Dream.

Before Donald Trump and his American Dream of building the wall,  the United States border issues with Mexico date back to 1882. The Exclusion Act of  1882 was aimed at prohibiting Chinese people from entering the U.S (Harmon Leon) .By 1960, Asians represented 5 percent of the U.S. foreign-born population; by 2014, their share grew to 30 percent of the nation’s 42.4 million immigrants. (Jie Zong Spotlight Jan 6, 2016) In the U.S  between 2016 and 2017 the Mexican immigrant population shrunk by about 300,000, from 11.6 million to 11.3 million. Despite that the statistic, Mexicans are still the largest foreign-born group in the country (U.S) accounting for 25 percent of the 44.5 million .In 2015 the US had 46 million foreign residents and Germany had 15 million foreign residents.(MPI)

To give a clear picture of how dire living conditions are for the majority of the world I gathered some bone chilling statistics. There are currently 258 million people living outside of their native country. 66 million people are displaced by violence or persecution resulting in 25 million asylum seekers. In the western world the media highlights immigrants from African, Middle Eastern, Latin and Asian countries however 9 million U.S citizens choose to live overseas and 5 million Brits choose to live outside of Britain. These immigrants are called expatriates ,anyone living outside their native country by choice or a migrant from a rich country.(UNHCR)

How can the the United Nations even exist when wars have left 6 million Syrian refugees , 6 million Palestinian refugees and 2 million South Sudanese refugees without any hope ? And how can 3 million children starve to death every year ?(UNICEF, 2018a). War and poverty contribute to a form of modern slavery commonly known as human trafficking. Greed and lack of empathy has fueled human trafficking to an estimated $150 Billion a year industry. It's worth noting that Jordan, Lebanon, and Uganda are the host of the largest refugee communities however a global effort is very necessary. The Western World (The U.S and Europe) have the power to allocate resources and balance the inequities that plague this planet. If that call for humanity continues to go unheard then nothing will change except increases in the amount of poverty and war torn countries resulting in more asylum seekers and refugees.




              

                              Works Cited

Carranza, Rafael. “Immigration Judges Union Alleges DOJ, Jeff Sessions Interfering in Cases.” Azcentral, The Republic | Azcentral.com, 9 Aug. 2018, www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2018/08/08/national-association-immigration-judges-challenges-doj-judicial-interference-immigration-court-case/934849002/.

“Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.” Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, ccis.ucsd.edu/.

“Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change.” Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, www.belfercenter.org/publication/crossroads- comparative- immigration - regimes-world demographic-change

Data from U.S. Census Bureau 2010 and 2017 American Community Surveys (ACS); Campbell J. Gibson and Kay Jung, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850–2000" (Working Paper no. 81, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, February 2006

Jie Zong.” Migrationpolicy.org, 15 Nov. 2018, www.migrationpolicy.org/about/staff/jie-zong.

Leon, Harmon. “The First Mexican Border Wall Was Actually to Keep out Chinese People.” Timeline, Timeline, 4 Apr. 2017, timeline.com/mexican-border-chinese-wall-62bda038c29a.

“Migration Policy Institute.” Migrationpolicy.org, 1 Nov. 2018, www.migrationpolicy.org/.

Spracklin, Pat. “Top 10 Immigration Friendly Countries.” Immigroup, www.immigroup.com/news/top-10-immigration-friendly-countries.

“What Is a Refugee? Definition and Meaning | USA for UNHCR.” Definition and Meaning | USA for UNHCR, www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugeeWorld Child Hunger Facts - World Hunger Education.” World Hunger News.

World Child Hunger Facts - World Hunger Education.” World Hunger News, www.worldhunger.org/world-child-hunger-facts/.