Immigration - Continued Thoughts

Effective questions are ones that take a long time to answer. Even if we don't find a solution, they help us to pay closer attention, to dig a little deeper.

Yet in the end, if we don't become the answer to the questions that we're asking, then it doesn't matter how good those questions are, because nothing will change.

“The US should send those immigrants packing back across the southern border.”

This recent statement from someone impassioned me to write my last blog. I wrote with the hope to bring some humanity to the issue, rather than firstly jumping into the legalities and statistics of immigration.

So let us firstly be aware of the importance of human dignity in approaching this issue. And with this compassion present, now I’m wondering what the realistic and effective solutions are for this phenomenon.

The U.S. cannot harbor all of the world’s impoverished and marginalized peoples.

And that’s not to say that immigration should be illegal.

Nor is it to say that the immigrants that come here to escape the poverty at home are even the most destitute. No. The poorest people have no way out. So, in some sense, the immigrants that are journeying here are “the better off ones.”

If that’s the case, then are we really making an effective impact by allowing a certain quota of immigrants to enter the U.S. each year? What about all the people that were turned away from our borders? And what about all the people that will never gain the resources and ability to even try to leave, or to change the deprived and distressed situations of their lives and country?

And nor am I intending to judge, accusing the U.S. of not making efforts to reach out and to help those that reach to us with their hands open, asking and waiting.

I’m simply writing, because I don’t have all the questions or answers, but as a combined force, I think we could. And I’m hoping to encourage further debate and awareness on the subject.

How can we fulfill our responsibility in this world issue? How can we foster a positive impact of change and humanity (and not one of paternalism) within these impoverished countries, striving to make a better life for those who have been cast aside?

What power of change is the U.S. capable of in this situation?

“Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for—because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.” ~Peter Marshall