The discussion among conservatives about the motivation of the wave of migrants to developed countries tends to focus on economic considerations. Jonah Goldberg wrote recently (“Goldberg: Reasonable politicians need to take immigration more seriously,” June 24) that “untold millions of poor people want to be richer and they believe that they make it happen simply by moving here and to Western Europe.”
This ignores or downplays the fact that the major waves of immigration from the earliest times to the present were always fueled by more pressing needs. Whether fleeing religious or racial persecution, climate changes that lead to flooding, drought and wide-spread famine, drug wars, civil wars, ethnic cleansing, overpopulation, rape, torture for divergent political views or other circumstances, migrants were and are driven to leave their homes behind for sheer survival. They face daunting journeys, only to end up treated as pariahs and criminals in the havens where they seek asylum.
They are willing to take on the most back-breaking and menial jobs, which are going begging because Americans don’t want them, and millions of them have thrived and though hard work and education have become respected members of society, sometimes in as little as one generation.
And finally, a word about unaccompanied minors, who make up a percentage of parentless children in detention. No parents, no matter how poor or uneducated, let go of their children, sending them off alone into an uncertain and frightening future, unless they have serious reasons to fear for their safety and lives, as did many Jews in countries invaded by the Nazis, when they had their children adopted, hid them in convents or sent them abroad. So, to downplay incarcerating minors who flee to this country without their parents, is to willfully ignore the desperation and love behind this act.
Engaging in a trade war with a poor country like Mexico, limiting “guest” visas for seasonal workers, without whom American agriculture and other seasonal businesses cannot survive (and who go home again, leaving everyone better off!), and a long and torturous asylum process, during which asylum seekers are not allowed to work, is clearly counterproductive. Not addressing climate change is ruinous, to support intolerance destructive.
Until our world becomes a better, safer place for all people in all countries with a minimal economic basis for supporting themselves, refugees will keep coming, driven by their need to survive.
Sabine Streiff Oishi, Baltimore
The writer is a psychologist and retired child, adolescent and family therapist.
