Nations of Jorgensen Weighs In

Cara's good friend Jenn commented below, and I thought she had some great points so I'm moving it up here, reprinted in big letters where people can read it without having to click on the little "comments" link down below:

Thanks for posting a response to this issue. Can I add a few points? First, did anyone compare the behavior of immigrant teens with resident teens? Is their behavior any different? Probably not, it seems that teenage years are generally difficult as teens begin to understand their relationship with power structures such as educational institutions. Second, people generally see the desire of immigrants to migrant as the only driving force behind illegal moves, with claims that they all just really want to be in the U.S. However, if you do your research about economic and social forces at play behind migration you find a lot of forces beyond the control of individual migrants (devaluation of currency, drought, civil unrest, war, etc). In the case of Mexico (and many other countries) those forces are or were put into motion by U.S. government policy (ex: NAFTA) and IMF/World Bank programs. Many policies have bankrupted Mexican farmers and towns, led to rising costs of food and a loss of jobs. A specific, small example is the case of corn. The U.S. produces it cheaper and has flooded the Mexican market, putting thousands of farmers out of work. Now, if these and other forces were at play in your life, wouldn't you consider moving? Third, it's an old, trite argument for the advantaged to claim that others are disadvantaged because they do not share the values of the wealthy. Mexican immigrants share many American values but oft times do not have the social or economic means to achieve them, so claiming their children are immoral and ungrateful is an uninformed generalization.
Thank, Jenn

Thanks for weighing in! I got an email from my cousin Justin today, too, and he had good insights; I won't copy the whole thing, because he might not give me permission, but I'll summarize by saying that he said the problem is not with immigrants, but with poverty, and that can be found in any segment of the population. He also said that problems arise when cohesive populations within the larger society start to malfunction, and that the society can deal with it in three ways: ignore the problem, isolate the population with the problem, or try to fix the problem. If we ignore it, then it tends to metastasize and spread to other parts of the society, and you end up with more problems than you had to begin with. If you isolate the people with the problem (which seems to be the tack that we as a nation are currently taking), socitey still suffers, with growing unrest and instability. The best strategy is to fix it, but that takes me three seconds to type, while in practice it will take thousands of people years to put into effect. Like any political or social issue, it's the fixing part that people have different opinions on. So, if any of you have good ideas on how to fix it, let me know, whether you agree with me or not, everyone has good points to bring up. And in the meantime, go make some of the Best Cookies Ever (posted March 6, 2008) to munch on while we all think it over.