Immigration: A Brief Conversation
Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 10:55:50 AM PDT
I'm a role-player. That is, I play role-playing games... not the new-fangled kind that some people play on computers. Every weekend or so, I gather with a group of other role-players, and we play role-playing games. Usually, we play GURPS, but on Saturday, the other GM (he or I will GM on any given week) decided to start up a Spacemaster campaign. As I was learning about how to build my character in this system, the GM's wife (also a player) spouted something off about Hillary Clinton giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. It was sort of in context of Oklahoma's new anti-immigration bill going into effect on Thursday. That's a whole other can of worms, though.
I figured that they were somewhat to the right, because his car has a "Support the Troops" sticker, and sometimes, the wife could be a bit racist. I kind of let it slide, as I don't want to hijack a gaming session with a bitter argument about race with a woman in her 50's. I wasn't going to go and defend the New York license decision, either, as I hadn't given it much thought.
What I did do, though, was point out that Hillary Clinton had nothing to do with it. It was Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York that had the power (and the guts, quite frankly) to make this decision. I'm no Hillary fan and will be voting against her in the primary, but I figured that I'd at least just say that Hillary had nothing to do with the decision. They retorted that she likely had influence. I said maybe, but I also indicated that there wasn't any reason to believe so. I did not point out that she spoke out of both sides of her mouth on the issue in the last debate, something that says to me that she really didn't have any say in the issue.
The husband then noted that he couldn't forgive Bill for what he did to his beloved US Navy. I quickly noted that the Cold War was over, and the conversation mostly ended. I don't think that any of us wanted to make a fight out of it. We then continued character creation. I ended up with a psychic female character with the ability to give herself special physical powers. I don't often play females, and the group was amused that I would play one at all.
At any rate, I got to thinking about the issue later. I mean, as far as immigration goes, I'm not particularly concerned. In high school, I worked with illegal immigrants, and when we could communicate with each other, I enjoyed their company. Since then, I've had little contact with them, being a scientist working on getting a Ph.D. I hear the stories on the news. I see the right going bonkers about them. I see these things, but I've developed few opinions on the overarching issue. I have developed the following, though:
- People who choose to immigrate here illegally, especially from south of the border don't do so because they want to. Rather, they have to leave their families, friends, communities, and culture in order to make enough money to have dignity. They're not trying to invade or ruin our culture.
- Because of number 1, I think that in the long term, the best way to reduce illegal immigration is to increase the standard of living south of the border, preferably through improving labor and environmental standards. I think that this can be accomplished in a number of ways.
- I find it offensive to suggest that illegal immigrants are working the jobs that they do, because only they have low enough standards to work them. I think that they are working them, because they'll do it cheaply, and employers like that. I'm sure that Americans would be willing to do the work, if they were compensated fairly. There is dignity in any honest work.
- Attempting to deport all immigrants is impractical and probably would be too much of a shock to our economy. I'd like to see the economy change such that all working here were receiving wages such that Americans are working those jobs. In such a case, it wouldn't be a shock, but right now, it would be.
- Simply making undocumented workers legal residents seems somehow wrong, too. Doing so seems like it would be more of a boon to unscrupulous employers than to anyone else. Also, it sounds like a paperwork nightmare.
- Building fences seems dumb. Even the least bright role-playing game player can tell you that he could come up with a solution for his character, superhuman or not. People are inventive, and primitive security like walls and fences will not stop them. The Mexicans that I've worked with were industrious and creative, just like any other human on the planet. Those obstacles will not work.
- Going after the employers of illegal immigrants seems fine, so long as it's done consistently. As long as any crack-down is humane, I have no problem with such action.
- We cannot fix this problem in the short term. It is a long term problem and may never go away, even with radical enforcement. In fact, radical enforcement may make exploitation of illegal immigrants even worse.
And this brings me back to Eliot Spitzer and his driver's license decision. I kind of understood why he did it, but I couldn't explain at the time of the brief argument without sounding daft. After some thought, though, I think I have a way of explaining it to someone inclined toward an anti-immigrant mindset. Say you were driving around in New York and an illegal immigrant hit you with his car. Now, because the illegal immigrant has a driver's license, he can also have insurance. Without that license, there was no chance of it. Your damages are covered by his insurance, and you can thank Eliot Spitzer for it. I like this setup, because if you're anti-illegal immigrant, the blame for the accident is on the illegal immigrant, so there's a little sympathetic element to it. At the same time, that may be an appeal to racism, but at least the essential point has been made.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.
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