Immigration, Citizenship, and Race

It appears that he and the boys got onto the subject of citizenship. Asrat correctly asserted that "You can't just come for a visit and get citizenship." To which Gebre responded "Yeah! You have to turn white!"

Groan.

He had no clue what he'd just implied. And I'm thankful for that. I don't want to burden them with racial anxieties. But blending conservatism with immigration via a cross-cultural marriage often puts us in very strange positions when it comes to issues like immigration (and race).

It's aggravating to have to sort through xenophobia and ridiculous attitudes from the very people I would love to agree with.

Where I agree with conservatives is this: A nation, and it's invidivual states, have the right to create laws regarding immigration, enforce those laws, and open or close borders at will. And it is wrong to knowingly break such laws. As Christian individual, I understand that I am to obey the laws of the government I live under to the best of my ability, and that if I feel breaking the law is a moral necessity, I must be prepared to face the consequences. I believe that our policies up to this point, and our welfare system are major draws for illegal immigrants.

But here I depart.

To start with, I am horribly disappointed by attitudes that are not just against illegal immigration, but anti-immigrant at heart. The truth is, this nation was built on immigrants. The founders of this nation came here from elsewhere. Did they come here legally? Well, they felt entitled to the land, and made their own laws. Didn't exactly ask permission.

But what's done is done. We have a functional (so we are told) government and immigration laws now. And we need immigrants. While it was a bit of a publicity stunt, the recent offer by immigrants to Americans to take their jobs as farm workers makes a point. Some Americans would do it. But we are a nation of entitled people whose youth have grown up screen-addicted and lacking work ethic. From the beginning onward, without the masses of new immigrants and immigrant's children doing the grunt work, we would not be rolling in abudance as we do. Immigrants need us. We need them.

What's worse, to me, are the attitudes of the heart that I have seen. Too often the debate slips into fears of cultural change, slurs, stereotypes, and generalizations. Over the generations, our culture has taken on bits and pieces of the cultures of various other nations whose sons and daughters landed here--words, holidays, idioms, fashions. But now, now it's scary to think of our society changing and taking on more bits and pieces? Why is that? Is it because the newer immigrants aren't of European descent? St. Patricks day can be a national holiday and an excuse to get plastered, but a Mexican holiday is an offense to all that is good and true? We never stop to think about what a mish-mash of languages English really is, until we decide that one particular language is an intolerable encroachement. Why is French OK but Spanish frightening? It seems we want to have our cake and eat it too. The truth is, it is the nature of human societies to blend, shift and change over time. If we're willing, we can learn from each other, appreciate the good, work out differences in a civilized manner, and chose to be refined and improved rather than splintered. But it can go the other way too--clashes of civilizations, shattering, sharp edges, wounding each other. As far as I can tell, we tend toward the latter.

I don't know if there is an answer to the dilemma we face now with immigration. If there is, it's certainly not likely to be a simple one that pleases everybody. But I think the debate would go a lot better, and solutions become more clear, if we could step away from emotionalism, fear, and jingoism. As Christians we believe in obeying the law, but we also have a direct and specific calling to compassion and to loving our neighbor...Even Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez in Arizona who made a desperate run across and unguarded spot of desert border and promptly had an "anchor baby" in an American hospital.