By now you are likely saying to yourself, "where is he going with this?" Let me try to explain. We need to establish some basic facts before we can explore the less often discussed realities that are also at play with immigration. One, America is still viewed as a land of opportunity by many who are struggling to survive in other countries. Two, the individuals who enter America generally succeed in improving their living conditions. Three, in so doing, added pressure is placed on the lower income earning segment of Americans as they compete for fewer jobs that frequently pay less money.
So how does slavery come into play? Well, by definition, slavery has multiple meanings. Most familiar is the definition that says "the state of a person who is a chattel of another". This definition best describes America's history with slavery. However, slavery has a second definition that says "submission to a dominating influence". Therein lays my theory. I like to start by looking at the oft heard mantra, - "immigrants are simply taking the jobs that Americans won't do," and work backwards. To do that, we simply need to change the words to this - "companies and individuals are offering jobs with pay that American's can't afford to take." With this second statement, we begin to make the connection to the alternate definition of slavery.
Next, we need to talk about a market driven economy. It begins to get more complex but please stay with me. The notion of a market driven economy is the hallmark of capitalism...the sacred cow of the American society...and generally speaking a hell of a good construct. The problem begins to take shape when, by virtue of economies of scale across multiple countries, those in position to employ disrupt the internal economy of scale by hiring illegal immigrants. Simply stated, wages are driven down because of the immigrant dynamic. Basically, one mans pittance becomes another's prosperity whereby a new market driven economy has been established.
We then need to look at the enabling factors. In the last twenty five to thirty years we have allowed our system of illegal employment monitoring and enforcement to completely collapse. The ability to subvert the documentation process has gone unattended such that neither the employer nor the employee fears the possibility of experiencing any meaningful deterring consequences. Frequently those employers who benefit from this void argue they cannot be expected to police the documents. It is a legitimate argument to a point. However, in the absence of any negative repercussions, (i.e. a number of employees being discovered to be illegal thereby disrupting production or company operations) they have no internally compelling interest to verify. They do have compelling economic motivations to disregard enforcement. It's an absolute recipe for failure. The unspoken truth is that this loophole (more likely this crevasse) makes a number of Americans happy.
The question is what happened? The answer is simple. The underlying economic motivations have been institutionalized to ignore compliance. Don't be fooled. Just as with our currency, the necessary documentation could be improved such that counterfeiting and fraudulent representations could be minimized. It would require a verification system (which exists in name with the INS) that is functional. If employers and employees knew that submitting false documents would eventually be detected, deterrence would begin to take hold.
Government, in tandem with business, has fostered and fueled the immigration problem. The system is designed to allow for these jobs in order to produce the desired economic benefit. When I hear the banter of many of those apparently opposed to illegal immigration, who I believe at the same time have knowingly allowed it to perpetuate for obvious benefit, I'm reminded of the expression "he doth protest too much". I don't buy it for a minute. The problem exists more by choice than by chance.
Therefore, back to slavery. If the dominating influence is such that the American workforce and the illegal immigrant population must submit to this new economic dynamic, slavery has been reconstituted. Not by ownership of the individual but by ownership of the economic system such that the employee is forced to acquiesce to a structure that promotes poverty level wages in order to bolster corporate profit. It's not picking cotton for free against one's will but if we measure the standard of living, it's not much better. The beneficiaries are apparent. Sneaking into America to do this is illegal. However, by description, these employees are in fact "submitting to a dominating influence". Ironically, that act can currently be defined as participating in slavery. Only this time, it's the slaves who have apparently committed the crime. Now that's what I call a full scale reversal of fortune.
read more here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
Comments are closed on this story.