America not all it's cracked up to be...?

After watching an in-class video about immigrants in foreign countries claiming how much they wish to eventually make it to the United States, I couldn’t help but wonder why?



Migration is a big part of culture. Without explorers and settlers moving around, the United States wouldn’t even be founded or turned into a country. Over the past few decades, the amount of illegal aliens in the U.S. grew rapidly causing a big concern for community members. Politicians saw this topic as a way to pad their political campaigns and took off with how to correct this ever-growing problem.

In more recent campaigns, these politicians argue back and forth about protecting our borders and forcing the illegal aliens out of the country. The opposing debate is the fact that these illegal immigrants are hard-working and take care of the jobs that most Americans are too lazy or have too much pride to do.

Then there is the whole tax debate. If these Hispanic people are coming into this country and working for cash, then how do they pay taxes? Well, they don’t. Actually, they do when they purchase items such as groceries, electronics, and clothing, which eventually filters the money back into our economic system. But who wants to pay taxes anyway? I sure don’t! Don’t most Americans wish they didn’t have to pay them? And don’t we see in the news quite often stories about so-and-so that hasn’t paid taxes is X amount of years and now they owe a truck load of money? So these “illegal” immigrants are just beating us at our own game when you think about it. They are one step ahead of where most Americans wish they could be.

There is a downside to all of this. People in Greece and Iran, for example, want to make it to the United States and live the “American Dream”. However, the economy of the United States is in a downward spiral and continually getting worse. There is no “American Dream” anymore. The reality for most people is putting food on the table and keeping a rood over their heads. There’s less and less talk of the perfect career, white picket fence, wonderful house, 2 kids, a dog and a cat and more concern for finding a job that pays the necessary bills.

In a recent article, the citizens of Arizona have less concern for illegal immigrants and more concern for the unemployment rate. As we round off another year and election time creeps up on us in 2012, voter concern about illegal immigration drastically declining. Even though it continues to pop up from time-to-time, Arizona, like most states, is concerned about boosting the economy.

Based on a poll taken, 67 % of citizens worried more about the lack of jobs available, while only 4 % marked immigration as their top concern. There’s also speculation of immigration-law remorse. Senator Russell Pearce was Arizona’s strong anti-immigration leader, but was recently replaced with a former bishop who pushes for more kindness in immigration laws. Arizona residents completed a survey that showed more tolerance towards these immigrants. Most people thought it would be okay to allow the immigrants to stay if they adjusted the law to where the immigrants had to pass a criminal background check and pay a fine.

In Alabama, public safety officials are concerned about the anti-immigration law causing a heavy impact on the farming and meat industry. Typically, the migrant workers help the land-owners take care of the farms. But after the law went into effect, these workers fled the area due to fear of getting deported. This left the land-owners with no help in the fields. One potato farmer, Keith Smith, lost all of his workers after the law was passed in Alabama. He tried hiring Americans, but most showed up late, worked slow, and eventually quit. Brent Martin actually lost his farm due to his workers leaving. Now, Brent Martin works on a tomato farm that someone else owns.

So, again, I wonder why people in foreign countries want to come to America. With the anti-immigration laws running the immigrants away and bad economy, we’re no better then anywhere else. Some Americans have fled from the United States to go to the Caribbean! Media may place us in the limelight, but we can’t even get it together as a country. We’ve got protesters in the streets and mini wars being fought between cultures. We may have a lot of good things in America (like our freedom, which is a MAJOR plus), but we’ve got problems just like the rest of the world.