Myth and mystery often surround the idea of immigration and the reasons for the mass migrations of people from places of suffering and lack, to places that perhaps offer an easier life or more beneficial conditions. Migration is part of human history, as the consensus of scientific information surrounding the Out of Africa theory of original human migration, indicates.
Myth-busting, as a source of truth dissemination, though, can liberate all, not the least those who spend much of their time in defensive stances, guarding, forever guarding, against the infiltration of those "violent, nasty, criminals" otherwise known as immigrants. It is all too easy to forget the conditions that compel immigrants to face the unknown. Driven by a current threat from all they hold dear (families, their birth lands and all that is familiar) to eke out an existence among unknown people who may revile them, fear them, wish them to disappear, and who speak a "foreign" language, but are willing to exploit their labor for corporate or personal financial return, they are, for the most part, courageous and hard-working.
While one must acknowledge that there will be the exploiters among the numbers of immigrants, just as there are exploiters among native born citizens, and exploiters in corporate guise, as well, they are in the minority. Holding the hard line against immigration is to refuse to recognize where social responsibility lies. Within the least of these, could have been our parents, aunts, and grandparents, within the least of these in the future, could reside our children, our grandchildren, ourselves. It is so easy to pretend, from the complacency of our relatively comfortable lives, that we will never be the victims of circumstances beyond our control that may cause us to have to relocate. Perhaps our imaginations lack the capacity to envision ourselves in their shoes, or perhaps we are afraid to take a deeper look at choices we would make under similar circumstances. We are blessed, we are complacent, we are lucky, by a simple act of being born in the United States
to our own parents.
According to Peter Stalker, author of the book, No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration, there are a number of categories of immigrants. As Stalker writes, "Each migrant has different circumstances and motivations. Poverty, adventure, calculation, desperation. People uproot themselves to work in foreign lands with all kinds of hopes and plans" (http://pstalker.com). I tend to believe that Stalker's explanation of the structural perspective of immigration to be closest to today's actuality, "The structural perspective, on the other hand, sees people's fate determined ultimately by structures, social, economic, and political, that shape their lives," the deciding factor, for most immigrants has been economic. They would have dearly loved to have stayed home, but through life's vagaries, they were forced to move to better their conditions.
World-wide, immigration will continue to be a hot topic as the ecological impacts of global climate change become more apparent, and environmental refugees seek new homes. A basic respect for all people, coupled with an understanding of the motivations behind immigration, will lead to socially responsible and humane immigration policies that consider the ramifications of all those involved.