Migration and Social Exclusion

MIGRATION AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION
By Alcides Hernández
The topic of migration is actually one of the biggest problems of our world, which has resulted from the crisis of the capital accumulation process. The social exclusion due to the poverty of southern countries and the labor exclusion due to the economic crisis of the northern countries have both coincided making migration come to a dead end. This evil without apparent alternatives has created a great fear, fundamentally to the Hispanic people living in the United States where most migrants from Latin America reside.
The social exclusion generated from a historical structural crisis has increased because of globalization. It has increased the motivation of poor people from the developing countries to reach the first world countries where they expect to find an employment paradise. Unfortunately having achieved their goal they are confronted with the reality of unemployment. Anyone who is poor and satisfied in their countries, assumes a great risk to go to a destination where they will be refused. Nevertheless, unemployment and the lack of opportunities to improve the quality of their lives are factors that induce many families to migrate. We also have to mention that in the poor countries the younger population expects migration to be their solution. They expect a migratory opportunity and this has become a collective conduct that is very difficult to change and control. The only way to stop this is to offer development in their countries which will offer opportunities to all.
This problem goes beyond the economic vision. It has now become a big political problem and is straining the relationships between the people of the United States and Latin America. The case of Arizona, for example, has made Latin Americans have strong views regarding law 1070. If the politicians have the interest in offering the best alternatives to long lasting solutions this will depend on the important decisions they make, the news media reflects that it is a fact that migration has been considered as a marginal subject in the controversial politics of the United States.

Politicians in Washington have rejected dealing with this issue, considering it a hot potato that will reduce their political capital. The extremes are very dangerous and in the case of the American right wing have become an invitation to racial profiling. Some of the measures being taken in the application of the Immigration law are destroying families made up of immigrants and citizens. We are on the verge of a collective psychosis.

The New York Times, dated July 1st, 2010, published a synthesis of a speech made by President Barak Obama who made important references about the migratory problem in the United States. This is the first time that an American President refers to migration as a national problem. Before other political leaders only refered to the issue with indifference and limited apathy. Mr. Obama has engaged with the Hispanic people since his political campaign to help solve the problems of the undocumented and to legitimize their status.

President Obama has accepted that the immigration system is failing, and is seeking solutions to try to find ways of solving, this problem. “Our Nation”, he said, “has the right an obligation to control its borders, but sealing off the vast space with troops and fences alone is a fantasy. And no amount of security at the border does anything, about the 11 million undocumented who have already crossed it”. Mr. Obama called for enabling these potential Americans to “get right with the law,” and for fixing the system of legal immigration, which is too inefficient for the country’s own good.

The president commented on the extremism of Arizona, where the law 1070, emitted by the current Governor, took effect on July 29, 2010. According to it any authority of the police can check the papers of anyone they suspect to be an illegal immigrant and to have discriminatory treatment. According to the President, it makes a crime out of being a foreigner in the state without papers — in most cases a civil violation of federal law. He confirmed what was expressed by the Mexican President, Felipe Calderón, who said that the Arizona Law is an invitation to racial profiling. The argument Mr. Obama talked about was an impediment to effective policy making and usurpation of federal authority. He said, evoking a future where “different rules for immigration will apply in different parts of the country”. The circumstances call for an independent state inside the Federal State.
According to the comment of the New York Times, “Mr. Obama has presidential powers, and he should use them. He has given the border more troops. Now he should seek to lift the burden of fear from peaceable immigrant communities. His administration is widely expected to bring a lawsuit soon challenging the deeply unjust Arizona law. He is a constitutional scholar, and could have written the complaint himself, but his address did not mention a lawsuit”.
The problem has been formulated meanwhile the Hispanics are waiting for an effective answer.
August, 2010