Thursday, May 8, 2014

Issue 331 Radical right on Immigration May 8, 2014





 The radical right has immigration confused with invasion, or at least some do.  Let us look into why they believe this notion.

Radical rightist view on immigration:  Here they believe immigrants steal the average American workers jobs (same in any country).  They also see a bunch of people unwilling to conform to the culture, learn the language or even embrace the same values as those already living in the country in the first place. But why believe this way.  Why should these people be rejected from working at businesses where they are legitimately hired and work?

Fear:  One reason they are rejected is fear.  Some people see them as a form of invader that corrupts the culture of the country.  They are used to people living in a certain way and when a person of another culture comes in, they experience a cultural clash which may make them question their own values.  People do not like feeling uncomfortable and so they reject these people.  Another reason is because of language.  There are those who automatically see an immigrant speaking in their mother tongue as scary for they cannot understand what is being said.  In essence the loss of that sense of security of knowing what the other person is saying makes others uncomfortable.  And finally the thing that makes people fear immigrants the most is reputation.  If they come from a crime ridden country or the people are from a country with a certain reputation, people will stereotype them and thus fear them based off of that stereotype.

Economic crunch:  Whenever times are ruff economically, people look for a scapegoat.  And the immigrant, legally here or not, is usually the one labeled the one responsible or as contributing to job losses.  Truth is they do not as they were hired in good times where there was plenty of jobs in the first place, but people who are angry and upset over losing their own jobs simply wish to vent.  (This can be characteristic of both the political left and right).

War time:  People also fear immigrants or those who look like them when in times of war.  So during WWII people feared the Japanese, the Germans, and to an extent the Italians in the country, which resulted in internment camps (concentration camps) to keep them away.  Similar fear and actions have happened again with respect to 9/11 and radical Muslims who turned to terrorism being responsible.  Again it all relates to fear. 

Goals:  The radical right does not really have an ideological component here with some leftists joining into their cause.  In this case it is all about alleviating the fears of the populace who feel this fear.  Though the only thing that makes it a political rightist radicalism is by it being usually being associated with them.  So they typically choose to alleviate the fears by getting "tough" on immigration and hope enough time passes until the fears and what caused it blow over.

  Conclusion:  Immigration is a complex issue with these fears having to be addressed regularly. They seek a balance between meeting the needs for new people (immigrants) to enter the population that will make our country better and making the newer voter base happy, while satisfying those irrational fears of those already here.  This is not to say that infiltrators cannot get in, but others should not be punished because of that. As such, the right typically sides with those who fear first as a knee jerk reaction and thus why they are usually blamed for being anti-immigrant.

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