an essay on the illegal alien- by yours truly

Who Are the Illegal Aliens and How Americans Perceive Them

" From my point of view, we have always had an immigration issue"
-A sign seen outside a Native Americans home in rural Vermont,

Once upon a time a First Nations people gazed out upon the eastern sea and
welcomed the original arrivals from Europe. If one were to maintain their
perspective, immigration has meant the loss of culture, history, land,
livelihood, even food and shelter. Over time, much was taken and little, very
little given back. Why? A simple summation would be that the time has come for
another society to become dominant. As Jared Diamond in Guns Germs and Steel
explains, there never has been one dominant culture that has not, over time been
overtaken by another. Mr. Diamond goes on to explain that in any given set of
variables, on group will thrive and another will fail. It is the way the human
race has honed its ability to expand, conquer and assimilate. And so, with the
influx of Europeans, their technology, disease and sheer numbers, supremacy over
the First Nations Peoples was assured. It may seem a bit odd that we were in
open conflict with them just a short while ago, and now we are defending that
very same turf instead from another invader of sorts.
In the past one hundred years the Euro centric population of America has
begun a slide down the backside of the bell curve while the Hispanic culture has
begun it's run up the hill to becoming the top of the heap (Mulder, sec. 3).
The current problem with the American perception of this change lies not with
those immigrating to this country legally, as there is little to be done about
that, but in that some come here illegally. This much smaller portion of the
entire immigrant pie is a still life painted in a very ungenerous light. From
the American point of view, illegal aliens cause a general unease in cultural
identity for the angry American. No one wants to see his or her place in
society diluted by the presence of any new subgroup. Regardless of how hard the
work may be, at the end of the week, the illegal alien puts it in his pocket,
whereas the good citizens pay their fair share of civic duty and have little
more to show for it. Compound this with the courts mandating that children of
illegal aliens must go to school or that we provide medical care at no cost and
one can see where the spark of resentment begins.

This small voiceless group is powerless to dispel the myths and
misconceptions that largely control how the mainstream population perceives
them. True, Americans by and large prefer to let the mass media determine their
opinions for them, and the fourth estate has done little to portray the illegal
alien population in an honest and unbiased manner. Perception is a lens whose
focus relies on family values, cultural influence, education and economic
achievements and other inputs. Any element within this lens can cause an
aberration, and can no longer represent the truth.

Today, pieces of the immigration puzzle have changed in terms of who, but the
reasons why remains the same. It is how those who are already here perceive the
new arrivals, which will mark their place on the scale of humanitarian acts. Who
among us has not known someone of European or African descent that has some
direct connection to the racial and cultural oppression that has occurred in the
past 100 years? These kinds of events, regardless of the native geography in
which you or your family stood, shape the attitudes and guide the response to
any particular group or culture. Think about it. Any group that is dominant
will naturally assume all other groups to be subservient. Any group that
experiences an oppressive or dominant culture will respond with either fight or
flight. On this side of the border, we unfortunately only see the flight. For
the illegal alien, coming to America, could mean more subjugation but America
also means opportunity. Perhaps the problem lies with Americans fearing the
illegal alien for being employed in a position that otherwise would be filled
with a citizen in good standing from solid European stock?

Americans need a thorough understanding of how their individual
experiences and those of their peers influence the portrayal and perception of
illegal aliens. For instance, in a cramped inner city region where there are
few jobs available and an influx of immigrants, competition for housing and jobs
can become heated. Those who have already established themselves in this country
would naturally be cautious and perceive this new wave of immigration as a
threat. It would only take a handful of people to be displaced, and a few
mistruths spoken and a whole social group will form an opinion, albeit an
incorrect one. Or in some more unfortunate instances, act on it. Jay Cocks when
writing the screenplay for the film The Gangs of New York makes excellent use of
this as the underlying theme. In real life, cultural similarity in unfamiliar
territory provides group cohesiveness- have you ever watched little clusters of
tourists shoulder to shoulder, scurry about like a flock of flightless pigeons?
Neighborhoods are often formed along ethnic lines as they share a common
language, traditions, and provide a most important ingredient for
self-preservation, familiarity. For all the similarities between any two
groups, the differences are what gets noticed and no one; especially illegal
aliens do not want to be noticed. It is this desire to not stand out in a crowd
that has taken so long for white/ European and black/African America to see the
illegal alien population. Because of the aberrations in the lens and the
distance from which they are viewed, that view is shortsighted and rather
narrow.

According to one U.S. Census Bureau estimate, of the 225 thousand illegal
immigrants who entered the U.S. in 2002, the highest percentage is of Hispanic
origin. The number of illegal aliens entering has since slowed some but
continues despite the federal focus on the issue at the moment (Mulder). To be
sure there is a trickle of Asian, European, Near and Far East as well as persons
from the African continent that enter this country as well, but it is no
surprise of the majority, given our neighbors to the south and in the Caribbean
basin. Conditions in some countries in Central America and their proximity to
the U.S. make movement here an obvious choice via the U.S. - Mexican border.
This literal line in the sand is unguarded for the most part and it is sparsely
populated. And thus we see how the average American would form the erroneous
opinion that all who cross the border from Mexico, are Mexican. Little is said
of the Central and South Americans who travel up to Mexico just to cross the
border; they just get lumped in with all other Spanish-speaking cultures. Which
brings up yet another misconception that the popular press does little to
dispel, the distinction of the various Spanish-speaking cultures.

In America, English is the common language. It is also the common language
of such far-flung places as New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. To each country,
there are some very distinct differences. It is a common thread, but by no means
binding between the cultures. The same could be said of the Spanish speaking
countries, like Honduras, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama and of course
Mexico. Americans are, by and large ignorant of geography and social
anthropology. Speaking in very general terms, the average American hears someone
speaking Spanish and assumes they are from some poor down trodden country and so
too they must be poor and luckless to have come here. If that same average
American could name the Secretary of the Treasury, the U.S. Attorney General,
the Secretary of Commerce, Director of the Peace Corp, the chairperson of the
EEOC or the administrator for the Small Business Administration perhaps it may
cause the realization that poverty and ignorance are two difference things
(Cabral).
Never is any thought given to the fact that there are cultural differences
that make a Mexican distinctly separate from say a Honduran. Americans hear
Spanish, see brown people and think the same for all. For all that is said in
the local communities across this country about cultural diversity, and all the
educational programs our public schools support to embrace differences, the buck
stops when it comes to being an illegal alien. It's a classic example of being
on the team or off. Illegal aliens are not afforded the typical social and
economic embrace reserved for people who arrive on our shores in the more proper
and socially acceptable manners. In the case of illegal aliens, Americans are
not shy about having very strong preconceived ideas. For anyone from a Spanish
speaking culture, it is most likely this prejudice will not be favorable. It
should be mentioned here that preconceived ideas about illegal aliens do not
follow an expected geographic distribution. In Texas for instance, where the
cultures have mixed for multiple generations, the attitude is quite positive
when compared to the reception an illegal immigrant population receives in a
northern tier state like Minnesota, where the social cost is not balanced
against the economic benefits we derive from that workforce.

Let us back up for a moment. In the above paragraph, it is mentioned that
cultural diversity programs are a prominent part of the public school programs
across this nation. Why would we need such programs? Surely the newly arrived
immigrants realize they are in a new culture and that to assimilate, they would
have to learn about what it is to be an American. The need for these programs is
to address the lack of understanding on the part of the Americans. The point to
these programs is to defuse any issues that begin to smolder when two cultures
share the same space.

The circle of parents, family and friends have the strongest influence on
the development of an informed opinion on things that are not congruous with
what goes on inside that circle. Cultural diversity programs aim to douse those
smoldering circles with education and knowledge. These programs will never
supplant the influence of the former, but can, in time, provide some context by
which future generations can respond to perceived differences. In theory, they
serve to lessen the aberration when focusing on the issues and remind us all
that we were once all immigrants here.

In the United States, immigration has become a hot button topic for many
reasons, but mainly economics and national security. Our current national
leadership has led a fair crusade against terrorism but, unfortunately allowed
some of that patriotic fervor bleed over into a long overdue and poorly thought
out domestic policy. When the Sunday morning talking heads try to relate the
images of terrorism to our illegal alien population via the debate on how to
secure our borders, how can one logically relate the two? An informed person
could not. One subject is terrorism and the other is someone wanting to feed his
family. All recent debates over the illegal alien issue stem from the war on
terrorism. The lack of being able to sort the wheat from the chaff as it comes
over the border is the true issue. Our political pundits have spun it out so
that no matter what track the U.S. policy takes, the illegal aliens will be the
ones who lose. America will always try to create the appearance of righteousness
when it comes to public opinion and to that end uses the laws it creates to
support that agenda. On the subject of illegal aliens, they fall outside the law
and can be rightfully removed.

By the mere geography under their shoes, the illegal alien becomes persona
non-g-rata allowing the opinionated fringe to speak a bit louder, tweak
perceptions, and down play the contributions the illegal alien provides this
country. They get marked as different, labeled because of the language they
speak, and are not invited to integrate with mainstream America. Natural
suspicion and the values we develop as a community prevents us from
understanding the true predicament the illegal alien is in.

Let us not forget that majority of legal immigration that occurs is of Hispanic
origin which at some point will become the dominant population. In the mean
time, as the numbers dwindle and the power shifts, there will always be those
who will maintain a mindset of prejudice. It would be better for Americans to at
least recognize some of the smears on the lens through which they view the
illegal alien, as some day, they may use that lens on us.