Considering Change:  Immigration

by Jody Alyn
from Be the Change:  A Newsletter for Diversity Leaders 
March – April 2010

Immigration is poised to take over the airwaves again.

...as if derivatives, unemployment, education, two wars, two earthquakes and the vitriol over healthcare don’t keep us wound up enough.

On March 11, Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) discussed a bipartisan blueprint for immigration reform with President Barack Obama.  The President called their work “promising” and lauded their efforts to "find common sense answers to one of our most vexing problems."  Within days, however, conflict emerged among them.  Meanwhile, the immigration reform movement gains momentum.  Organizers of the March 21st immigration reform rally in Washington, D.C. estimated attendance at 150,000.

Immigration is a continuing source of misunderstanding and polarization.

Everyone has an opinion and most of those opinions are loosely related to some truth. Consider these two examples (edited for length only) from  comments in the Greenville Herald Online:

		ChristianAFvet wrote: Illegal immigration is a very serious issue. Every illegal who is working is stealing a potential job from an AMERICAN or LEGAL resident. Illegals cost billions in tax dollars through public benefits which they recieve. These include welfare,public education, getting health care without insurance..... Nothing is being addressed as far as illegal immigration. It does not make any difference if Bush or slick willie addressed the issue. Hundreds of thousands of illegals are living here costing AMERICANS and LEGAL residents BILLIONS of dollars. In these hundres of thousands included a member of the Presidents family. Go to most construction sites and you will find illegals doing substandard work. This while more qualified AMERICANS and LEGAL residents are out pounding the pavement looking for work.... We need to take AMERICA back.  3/14/2010 5:06:49 PM
		Grnvlle Is Great wrote: Immigrants were not the ones that maniuplated the derivatives market causing the financial collapse. Immigrants were not the ones managing the banks that manipulated their balance sheets, managed themselves poorly and then needed bailouts. Immigrants were not the ones that ran the mortgage companies that made bad loans and didn't care because the mortgages would be sold on the secondary market and they would get their bonuses. (Coincidentally, illegal immigrants have one of the lowest default rates on mortgages of any specific group). Immigrants were not running the rating agencies that knowingly rated all the mortgages AAA even when they knew they were garbage so they could get more contracts.... Graham is trying shift attention away from those that caused this mess who have largely ended up wealthy and received no punishment. 3/14/2010 2:29:52 PM

To quote Max in Where the Wild Things Are, "Let the wild rumpus begin."

Unexamined opinion drives misunderstanding.  Comment without critical thought strengthens stereotypes and creates conditions that leave us all ripe for manipulation and conflict.

Immigration is changing the face, faiths and facts of U. S. life. 

In recent decades, the United States has become the most religiously diverse nation on earth.  Fueled by immigration from Latin America and East Asia, the U.S. will soon also be comprised of a social mix in which there will be no racial or ethnic majority.

According to the Migration Information Source, foreign-born people represented 6.2 percent (14.1 million) of the total US population in 1980. By 1990, the percentage had risen to 7.9; by 2000 it was 11.1 percent.  As of 2008, immigrants comprised 12.5 percent of the total US population, or 38 million people. While many were not, the large majority of these individuals were legally authorized to be in the United States. 

In 2008, immigrants also accounted for 15.7 percent of the 156.2 million workers engaged in the US civilian labor force (24.5 million).  Twenty-eight percent worked in management, professional, and related occupations while just 12.5 percent worked in construction and maintenance and 1.9 percent worked in farming, fishing, and forestry.

Historian Aviva Chomsky says the idea that immigrants take “American jobs” is of little use because the contemporary economy is so globally integrated. Companies take jobs and locate their operations wherever labor is cheap. Chomsky notes, “Immigration plays a much more complex role in the employment picture” (p.3) and she identifies ways in which immigration can actually expand existing local economies.

Among other contributions, immigrants open small businesses and pay sales tax. As employees, they pay federal employment and social security taxes.  Unauthorized immigrants may actually pay into the system and never receive benefits. Economists have found that immigration actually boosts wages, creates jobs for Americans and "will be crucial for the nation’s economic recovery” (Jacoby, 2010).

How can we maintain civil discourse and keep our companies and communities focused on productive, collective problem-solving?

Addressing the needs of immigrant employees and customers is an essential element of all good diversity practices. Ideally, you will integrate the topic into policies, practices and educational processes in your organization. Start by asking yourself these questions:

• How have we made non-discrimination, including national origin, both an organizational policy and a real, behavioral practice?
• How have we embedded fully inclusive diversity practices – no exceptions –  in all of our operations?
• How have we equipped executives and employees with the knowledge, skills and awareness they need to perform well  – with each other and with the talent and customers we need to attract and retain in a tenuous economy?
• How do we ensure our policies and people comply with applicable laws? How do we help our people achieve proper authorization?
• What structures have we put in place to back up our policies and programs and ensure individual and institutional accountability?

People who come to the U.S. through immigration contribute to every sector and industry. When our companies and communities take up the challenge of civil discourse through education, critical thought, bias reduction training and fact-based engagement, we are more likely to achieve those common sense answers to vexing problems for which we all long.  

More - A Personal Reflection