IMMIGRATION – C.O.
Alvaro Vargas Llosa on Immigration at WLRN par Tropical Currents. Date de sortie : 2013.
Immigration then and now
« How would compare today’s immigrants … how … and contrast them to previous generations? »
« It’s always been the case that people who came to America, mostly came to establish themselves, because they were fleeing from something … usually, economic hardship at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century ; before that, of course , religion had to do with it as well, but after 1880, it was mostly people from southern, central and eastern Europe, including Italians. At the time that was seen as something that was threatening, both from a cultural point of view and from an economic point of view . These were people who were seen or perceived as having a very different type of cultural background, people who were more low skilled than their predecessors, who were not going to contribute to the economy, who were going to take jobs away, who had a low level of education… and there came about a set of laws that really were aimed at stemming the general inflow …so that is kind of similar to what we’ve seen in recent years, with all these different efforts to try and stem the inflow of people from Mexico and central America. People forget that at the time Italians were seen just as many people perceive Mexican immigration today.
Obama on illegal immigration reform (2013)
Right now, we have 11 million undocumented immigrants in America; 11 million men and women from all over the world who live their lives in the shadows. Yes, they broke the rules. They crossed the border illegally. Maybe they overstayed their visas. Those are facts. Nobody disputes them. But these 11 million men and women are now here. Many of them have been here for years. And the overwhelming majority of these individuals aren’t looking for any trouble. They’re contributing members of the community.
Every day, like the rest of us, they go out and try to earn a living. Often they do that in a shadow economy — a place where employers may offer them less than the minimum wage or make them work overtime without extra pay. And when that happens, it’s not just bad for them, it’s bad for the entire economy. Because all the businesses that are trying to do the right thing — that are hiring people legally, paying a decent wage — they’re the ones who suffer. They’ve got to compete against companies that are breaking the rules. And the wages and working conditions of American workers are threatened, too.
We have to make sure that every business and every worker in America is playing by the same set of rules. And that’s why we need comprehensive immigration reform.
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