There was a recent comment in the Salt Lake Tribune claiming that the US unemployment rate is the fault of immigrant workers. Or to be more specific; "Permanent foreign workers". The entire idea behind the badly thought out letter was that ALL non US born workers are cheap labor. This of course is not true. In fact I myself am one of these workers and my skills do not come cheap.
But this does highlight a common misconception that has been perpetuated over the years. The idea that you can group all immigrants under the same label. The problem seems to stem from nobody, be it the media or our politicians, wanting to use the term illegal immigrant. And why is this? Political correctness? If so then the thousands of people who come to this country legally and at great expense are being done a great disservice.
One responder to the comment in the SLT asked the question: " Why isn't this a question the presidential candidates are discussing?"
An excellent question indeed. Why are so many politicians shying away from this debate?
There are of course many theories that try to answer this. The truth is more than likely a combination of these. One theory suggests we look at campaign contributions. How many of the companies that are making large donations are also profiting from the use of cheap illegal labor.
Another theory is the fear of losing votes from a given sector of the population. The word immigrant has become senonomous with a specific culture. Don't believe me? try this simple test. Ask random friends to say the first race/cuture that comes into their head when you say a certain word. Then say immigrant. You might be suprised at what you discover.
We have been trained to associate the word immigrant with some very negative conotations. All immigrants are the same therefore all must be the problem. This black and white outlook is of course totally wrong. People who have decided to come to this country legally and become part of this great nations culture should not be listed with those that have come here illegally. They have come here with the intention of giving something back. Indeed this country owes a great debt to these people.
Consider this; Domestically we do not produce enough engineers or scientists to supply the demand. So where do you think we are going to get this talent from?
Next time you hear the word immigrant take a moment to think wht that word means. Not all immigrnts are equal.
