Immigration continues to be a very divisive topic. Too often, we don’t hear a basic point–most people don’t choose to leave their homes and travel thousands of miles to find work, often times at great risk to their lives. They are forced to. Today, at the SEIU convention, Gerry Hudson, a union executive vice president, lead the discussion on the topic. Gerry is an old friend of mine–meaning, we’re both old(er) and we’ve done a lot together over the years–and he is one of those people who I always leave a conversation with having learned something or having my mind provoked to think about something.
Yesterday, we talked a bunch at lunch about the moment we are at, and the possibility of creating a lasting progressive politics. We are both optimistic but also worried that there are elements of the potential progressive coalition that won’t talk about race, about immigration and about power. And we have to do that to forge a lasting movement.
Anyway, here’s a snippet from his rap on immigration that is worth remembering:
The U.N. estimates that 191 million people are international migrants.
Very few people on this earth want to leave their homes, their communities, their loved ones – and start all over in a strange land.
But for many reasons, millions of people have no choice.
Natural disasters shatter lives and devastate economies…
Countries are torn apart by war…
Repressive regimes persecute people based on ethnicity or religion…
But the biggest single reason for migration all over the world is extreme poverty that results from inequality of wealth and power.
We don’t like to think about it.
We don’t like to talk about it.
But for hundreds – or really, thousands of years – the great wealth that some people enjoy has been made possible by the poverty of others.
Billions of people on this planet are not just “poor” – they are exploited and even enslaved.
The natural resources that could sustain a higher standard of living are controlled instead by global corporations and billionaires.
Trade agreements open up markets and protect property, but not people.
This migration is not a new phenomenon.
I bolded the sentence above in particular because it’s a crucial point–"great wealth" is relative. The obvious standard of "great wealth" is the billionaire class and the upper one-tenth of one percent versus the rest of us. But, we need to also remember that our general place in life in this country is also "great wealth" relative to hundreds of millions of other people around the globe. Most hard-working people in America, as stretched as they are, have a roof over their heads but that is not true for millions of people in other countries who have slaved for pennies an hour to provide a lot of the stuff we take for granted.
My point is not that we should walk around with our heads in hands in shame and guilt. Rather, it is to remember that point when we think about whether we should fight for a policy that welcomes people who come to this country.
