Thought Theater

Slavery Redefined: The Immigration Myth genre: Polispeak & Six Degrees of Speculation

Everybody’s talking about immigration. The opinions are as varied as the surnames in a phonebook…surnames that represent countless former immigrant families. When discussing immigration, many draw comparisons to that portion of our history where passing the Statue of Liberty signaled the pending arrival at Ellis Island, the virtual gateway to opportunity. I contend relying on that segment of our history serves little purpose in understanding the current immigration crisis. I propose looking at a prior time in our history. That time involves the period of slavery in America. These people also arrived by boat…but only after being captured in far away countries.

By now you are likely saying to yourself, “where is he going with this?" Let me try to explain. We need to establish some basic facts before we can explore the less often discussed realities that are also at play with immigration. One, America is still viewed as a land of opportunity by many who are struggling to survive in other countries. Two, the individuals who enter America generally succeed in improving their living conditions. Three, in so doing, added pressure is placed on the lower income earning segment of Americans as they compete for fewer jobs that frequently pay less money.

So how does slavery come into play? Well, by definition, slavery has multiple meanings. Most familiar is the definition that says “the state of a person who is a chattel of another". This definition best describes America’s history with slavery. However, slavery has a second definition that says “submission to a dominating influence". Therein lays my theory. I like to start by looking at the oft heard mantra, - “immigrants are simply taking the jobs that Americans won’t do," and work backwards. To do that, we simply need to change the words to this – “companies and individuals are offering jobs with pay that American’s can’t afford to take." With this second statement, we begin to make the connection to the alternate definition of slavery.

Next, we need to talk about a market driven economy. It begins to get more complex but please stay with me. The notion of a market driven economy is the hallmark of capitalism…the sacred cow of the American society…and generally speaking a hell of a good construct. The problem begins to take shape when, by virtue of economies of scale across multiple countries, those in position to employ disrupt the internal economy of scale by hiring illegal immigrants. Simply stated, wages are driven down because of the immigrant dynamic. Basically, one mans pittance becomes another’s prosperity whereby a new market driven economy has been established.

We then need to look at the enabling factors. In the last twenty five to thirty years we have allowed our system of illegal employment monitoring and enforcement to completely collapse. The ability to subvert the documentation process has gone unattended such that neither the employer nor the employee fears the possibility of experiencing any meaningful deterring consequences. Frequently those employers who benefit from this void argue they cannot be expected to police the documents. It is a legitimate argument to a point. However, in the absence of any negative repercussions, (i.e. a number of employees being discovered to be illegal thereby disrupting production or company operations) they have no internally compelling interest to verify. They do have compelling economic motivations to disregard enforcement. It’s an absolute recipe for failure. The unspoken truth is that this loophole (more likely this crevasse) makes a number of Americans happy.

The question is what happened? The answer is simple. The underlying economic motivations have been institutionalized to ignore compliance. Don’t be fooled. Just as with our currency, the necessary documentation could be improved such that counterfeiting and fraudulent representations could be minimized. It would require a verification system (which exists in name with the INS) that is functional. If employers and employees knew that submitting false documents would eventually be detected, deterrence would begin to take hold.

Government, in tandem with business, has fostered and fueled the immigration problem. The system is designed to allow for these jobs in order to produce the desired economic benefit. When I hear the banter of many of those (in government) apparently opposed to illegal immigration, who I believe at the same time have knowingly allowed it to perpetuate for obvious benefit, I’m reminded of the expression “he doth protest too much". I don’t buy it for a minute. The problem exists more by choice than by chance.

Therefore, back to slavery. If the dominating influence is such that the American workforce and the illegal immigrant population must submit to this new economic dynamic, slavery has been reconstituted. Not by ownership of the individual but by ownership of the economic system such that the employee is forced to acquiesce to a structure that promotes poverty level wages in order to bolster corporate profit. It’s not picking cotton for free against one’s will but if we measure the standard of living, it’s not much better. The beneficiaries are apparent. Sneaking into America to do this is illegal. However, by description, these employees are in fact “submitting to a dominating influence". Ironically, that act can currently be defined as participating in slavery. Only this time, it’s the slaves who have apparently committed the crime. Now that's what I call a full scale reversal of fortune.

Comments

1 On April 23, 2006 at 1:19 PM, Jimi wrote —

Government, in tandem with business, has fostered and fueled the immigration problem. The system is designed to allow for these jobs in order to produce the desired economic benefit. When I hear the banter of many of those apparently opposed to illegal immigration, who I believe at the same time have knowingly allowed it to perpetuate for obvious benefit, I’m reminded of the expression “he doth protest too much". I don’t buy it for a minute. The problem exists more by choice than by chance.

Daniel, I don't think Middle Class America was given any choice. Back in '86, I said no to Amnesty. We were all promised increased security and enforcement for illegal immigration. A promise uttered with the intent of never being kept by Washington. Fast forward twenty years and I am hearing the same thing. I didn't believe it then and I don't now.

I think you help confuse the issue when you lump the People who have been rightly complaining with the apologists, revisionists and general crybabies. So, I knew the problem existed, was told everything would be fixed and my complaints are baseless. I was right and was lied to by my government. Your analysis is pretty spot on, until you look to lay some blame with those who are blameless.

2 On April 23, 2006 at 2:06 PM, Daniel wrote —

Jimi,

I am not intending to lump all those who are or have been unhappy with the enforcement in with those in government who give lip service to the issue. I should have repeated the word government in the sentence, "when I hear the banter of many of those (in government) apparently opposed to illegal immigration..."

Obviously, it is the government who is in charge of enforcement and they have clearly dropped the ball. I did not intend to lay blame on those powerless to enact the needed changes or the prescribed enforcement.

Thank you for your comments.

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