Of Grandmas and Mexicans
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the newsletter or RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The debate over immigration has been raging nationally and locally. I have Hispanic friends who carry one perspective, and white family and friends who carry opposite perspectives. I do not pretend to know what is right or the solutions, but I will try to explore some of them here and hopefully others will comment in discussion.
White people are concerned with how loose our borders are, Mexicans who do not learn English while they live here, immigrants sponging off our welfare system, higher crime rates among the Mexican population, and Mexican kids holding back our educational system.
I have heard teachers complain that Mexican kids are a unique educational challenge. The kids often do not have English-speaking parents, so the lack of parental involvement in learning means they struggle more and teachers must devote more time to the minority. Every learning group has stragglers, but when some kids are multiple grade levels behind in elementary school, it can keep the kids at or above their current grade levels from getting the appropriate challenges that they need to progress.
However, educational theories abound in pulling the stragglers aside to give them the remedial lessons they need without holding back the larger population. If our schools are not providing the resources to deal with the large number of stragglers, doesn’t it reflect more poorly on our educational system than on the Mexican population. The issue then is not just that our educational system is not qualified to handle this challenge, but that our governmental system has not funded the schools to meet the challenge. This is analogous to sending our troops to battle and only half the soldiers get weapons.
I do not know if the Mexican population has higher crime rates. Does anyone have statistics on this? It could be a racial bias to perceive that. It could be that any under-educated group will naturally have a higher incidence of crimes. If it is the case, then it would seem education and better integration would be the solution. In the meantime, Mexicans can work among their population to counsel against committing crimes.
I do not know if the Mexican population generally uses welfare more than the general white population. Does anyone have statistics on this? Since Mexicans are said to work the lowest-paying jobs that nobody else takes, it would seem they are quite eligible to receive those benefits. Some suggest making welfare eligible only for citizens. If this is done, the Mexican population will be with less money, and will either work more or commit more crimes. We would like them to work more, but a natural consequence among any group would be increased crime levels. Immigrants working more than receiving welfare would bolster their image and strengthen their own financial positions, so it seems a win-win scenario.
A big complaint is Mexicans who live here and do not learn English. Many whites say they would not expect to live in Mexico and never learn Spanish. I feel this is a valid point, so if more Mexicans could make the effort to learn, practice, and engage whites in the English language they would go a long ways towards improving their whole image. On the other hand, too many whites over-generalize by claiming none of the Mexicans ever learn English, and this cannot be true.
Whites are concerned with how easy it is for Mexicans to cross our southern border en masse. This is a serious concern, more so for the threat of Islamic extremist terrorists infiltrating our country than for Mexicans working menial wage jobs. I personally think both political parties are full of baloney, but it is ironic how Republicans often pout that we need to enforce existing laws before enacting new ones, and here America is not even enforcing our own border security. Secure the border, and many of the identified issues will be alleviated.
The Mexicans seem to have the perspective that they are just here to make their money and go home rich. Anyone who faults them for this should first castigate all the white people who flocked to Iraq for post-regime jobs. The economic opportunities in America are just exponentially better than in Mexico, and that is a larger issue than employers undercutting wages because they know immigrants will work those jobs. If immigrants didn’t work those low-wage jobs, the goods produced by those jobs would become more expensive and then whites would be complaining about the higher cost of goods.
Mexicans point out that they pay hundreds of millions in dollars into our social security system that they will never collect on. This is a valid point not often brought up. Could our precarious social security system be propped up through the wages of immigrants? Pull out the immigrants and it could be like pulling the leg out from under social security. It would be like taking aim at Mexicans and shotting ourselves in the foot. Again, this is a larger issue than just the Mexicans, it goes to the need for our government to address the social security funding problems.
Finally, I titled this ‘Of Grandmas and Mexicans’, because many of our grandparents were immigrants just like Mexicans. Some say our grandparents were all legal, but do you honestly believe no white people ever duped our immigration to sneak over from Europe?
I heard a great proposal from Newt Gingrich of all people, suggesting that legal guest workers have and extra 10% of their wages taxed and collected in American savings accounts. The funds would be payable when those guest workers returned to their homelands. This would seem to be a great solution, since the guest workers still get their money, and our government earns interest to pay for some of the financial burdens that immigrants incur on our society.
Time magazine has a great cartoon this week showing Indians looking at Pilgrims and saying “They won’t learn the language, they’re not assimilating, they don’t look like us. I say put ‘em back on the Mayflower.”
What do you think?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Vote:
0 
0 I think that Social Security should be stood up to scrutiny. It is broke…and illegal aliens paying into the system to prop it up is probably very true….
Eastern Idaho Tech College runs English and Second Language classes for free. I used to direct Mexicans I dealt with to these classes. It was amazing to see the transformation after a few weeks of these classes. This should definitely be a part of being granted immigrant status. It has a way of really forcing assimilation into American culture and values.
Vote:
0 0 So what you’re saying is we should make English America’s official language?
Great idea, wish I’d thought of it first! 
Vote:
0 0 What the heck this is from 2006. I think that another needs to be brought up for 2007. Yeah I am half native and half white so I think I have more of a reason to scream at illegals than the regular Joe. If a educated WHITE male applies with any of the contractors at the INL the chances of him being hired is low, but if a Mexican with a Technical College degree applies (Male or Female)the chances of the White educated man getting the job is very low. If you can speak two languages Spanish and English, you have a higher chance of receiving employment than someone more educated not bilingual. Has anyone been to the Health and Welfare office lately or to the WIC office you will see my point about the dumb asses that are working for our dumb ass government.
Leave Your Comment
Our Community's Comment Guidelines:- Please stay polite and on topic.
- Your email will never be published.
- No profanity or euphemisms for profanity.
- No personal attacks, name-calls, put-downs, or baiting other guests, races, genders, or religions.
- Express opinions, facts, logic, and reasoning; just don’t argue for argument’s sake.
- No commercial links (unless absolutely relevant to the discussion) and no religious proselytizing.
- No religious discussions (for or against). Go to http://religiondebates.blogspot.com for religious discussions.
- Use the "I" word as much as possible to demonstrate responsibility.
- Limit yourself to using one name per thread to demonstrate responsibility.
- If you think a comment is inappropriate, ask Joe to review it.
Loading ...
Vote:
Has anyone seen the movie, The Second Civil War? depicting Idaho closing their borders to immigrants, and the U.S. Army going to war against Idaho.
I thought it had interesting perspectives.