this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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“Our nation is a nation of immigrants. More than any other country, our strength comes from our own immigrant heritage and our capacity to welcome those from other lands." -Ronald Reagan
It's ridiculous how far right the USA has moved when it comes to immigration. Reagan was a scumbag overall but was right about this. Frankly it pisses me off that even the Democrats are so far right on this.
As someone who has a lot of contact with the right, the conflating of illegal immigration with our past and present as a nation of immigrants is the point of the wedge and why this is so effective. Many conservatives I know are fully in support of legal immigration, and even expanding legal immigration as long as it is not done at the expense of existing Americans like with H1B slaves many tech companies want to import.
The left then paints them as racist for it, saying it is xenophobia and not support for rule of law and protections for vulnerable Americans. Many grew up taking a job cleaning bus station toilets and other jobs to make ends meet or get back on their feet that the left now says "Americans don't want", proving no actual jobs are lost. They, rightly or wrongly, see this as the lowest skilled Americans having jobs stolen from them, and see "Americans don't want these jobs" as "Americans don't want these jobs for that pay" pushing wages down using illegal immigrant labor.
The left enjoys telling business that if they can't afford to pay a living wage for their lowest paid jobs then they don't deserve to be in business, while at the same time decrying the cost increases to food and janitorial if those industries had to pay non-migrant workers enough to do those jobs. It is an easily exploitable hypocrisy that even allowed Brexit to happen.
It allows the Fox News crowd to be swindled more easily, and it allows actual racists to get away with more because the conservative masses can't hear the dog whistles, which is the point of dog whistles.
They are all just people. I don't care if illegal immigrants take my jobs (even though that isn't actually happening, it's fear mongering)
Everyone is just people, even if plenty of people don't seem to believe it or act like it unfortunately. You are correct that much of it is fear mongering, and there is a shit load of propaganda that uses this. There is also a thriving industry of "businesses" taking advantage of illegal immigrants to pay less than minimum wage and break every other labor law and OSHA guideline through the threat of deportation. The most effective lies have a kernel of truth in them. Everyone else also isn't as laze fair about competition for employment, and I can't personally fault them for that.
The best was to combat this is not to claim it's all fake news and tell people who are concerned about it that their internal motivations aren't what they think they are and instead it's because they are racists. Education doesn't work if you berate people, because defensive people aren't receptive to it.