Immigration and poverty
Many of the folks I know here talk about immigration. I have friends who have told me they tried to go illegally and got caught and sent back. One friend told me it was the worst experience of his life. Recently a friend of a friend decided to try to go illegally to the States. She payed a coyote $7,000 to get safely to the other side, into the United States, only to get caught in Mexico. She has been detained in a correction facility there with other immigrants trying to flee the desperate situation in Nicaragua, I'm not sure if she has gotten back yet.
One of my best Nicaraguan friends here just confessed to me that she is thinking of going to the States. She wanted to know my opinion, what was possible, if I thought she should go. We talked about the possibilities, she said she has family members there that have been living for years without problems, and that they are all set. She has two young kids who she says she would leave with her mother, which means she would only remain as a faint memory to them as the years pass by. I didn't tell her to go or not to go, that's not my decision. But I told her the stories I have heard, the stories that everyone hears, yet despite these stories the risks seem smaller than the toll of continuing to live in abject poverty.
It's hard to know where to put myself in this. Because in reality I am a representation of the oppressor, I am from the United States, I can go back there without having to do hardly anything, I just flash my passport and I'm home free. Literally. But what ARE we doing? If the United States wants to worry about border control and limiting the flow of illegal immigrants into the country we need to do things differently. No matter how many walls or barriers or obstacles you put in the way desperation takes over. What if we tried, rather than closing our borders, to open our hearts and assist in the development of poor countries so that the population would not need to leave their homes and their families and their tierra behind? What if we think about working from the bottom up, starting with those who need help the most and giving them the tools and resources to develop their own land? Instead we continue to build walls to try to protect what we have, hoarding our goods and our resources because we are afraid of what we might lack if we have to share it with others. I believe that it is our fear of sharing what we have that makes us seek more. We crave more because who knows, tommorow it might be gone. But where does that leave those who never had anything to begin with? If we try to throw crumbs to the masses that are collecting around our walls we will soon be overtaken and forced to open our doors and break down our walls because they will not stand if enough pressure is forced upon them.
So why don't we begin by being open to those who are seeking our assistance rather than immediately hiding behind fortified walls?
One of my best Nicaraguan friends here just confessed to me that she is thinking of going to the States. She wanted to know my opinion, what was possible, if I thought she should go. We talked about the possibilities, she said she has family members there that have been living for years without problems, and that they are all set. She has two young kids who she says she would leave with her mother, which means she would only remain as a faint memory to them as the years pass by. I didn't tell her to go or not to go, that's not my decision. But I told her the stories I have heard, the stories that everyone hears, yet despite these stories the risks seem smaller than the toll of continuing to live in abject poverty.
It's hard to know where to put myself in this. Because in reality I am a representation of the oppressor, I am from the United States, I can go back there without having to do hardly anything, I just flash my passport and I'm home free. Literally. But what ARE we doing? If the United States wants to worry about border control and limiting the flow of illegal immigrants into the country we need to do things differently. No matter how many walls or barriers or obstacles you put in the way desperation takes over. What if we tried, rather than closing our borders, to open our hearts and assist in the development of poor countries so that the population would not need to leave their homes and their families and their tierra behind? What if we think about working from the bottom up, starting with those who need help the most and giving them the tools and resources to develop their own land? Instead we continue to build walls to try to protect what we have, hoarding our goods and our resources because we are afraid of what we might lack if we have to share it with others. I believe that it is our fear of sharing what we have that makes us seek more. We crave more because who knows, tommorow it might be gone. But where does that leave those who never had anything to begin with? If we try to throw crumbs to the masses that are collecting around our walls we will soon be overtaken and forced to open our doors and break down our walls because they will not stand if enough pressure is forced upon them.
So why don't we begin by being open to those who are seeking our assistance rather than immediately hiding behind fortified walls?
posted by Emily at 10:38 AM
1 Comments:
I felt a bit of what you are expressing when I breezed through customs yesterday.
did you go with your friend to try to get her visa?
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