Dealing with illegal immigration has become a rallying-cry for right-wing political parties and the associated press. The plethora of headlines that appear in our newspapers and dominate during elections is all too frequent. In Britain, illegal immigrants conform not as asylum seekers fleeing war; but as lazy, defrauding, dirty and ungrateful scumbags who come to supple of the state and remain for an eternity. It is believed that there could be up to one million illegal immigrants in the UK.
In America, attempts to monitor and police immigration has become controversial over the past decade, particularly the border with Mexico. In recent weeks the state of Arizona has had a controversial new law struck down as 'unconstitutional' by law-makers. The proposal was that law-enforcing agencies would hereby be able to stop certain citizens if they suspected they were working illegally and ask them to provide legitimate paperwork or ID. The obvious analysis of the law would infer that any 'latino' could be stopped and asked to provide documents, purely because they aren't white.
One could compare this treatment to that of black people in America and even extend it to gypsies and Jews in Nazi Germany. From my perspective it does reflect an 'identity schizophrenia' and what America wants to be. The New World when it was discovered was an amalgamation of cultures, nationalities and religions, it defined itself through this new civilisation, and through history it has developed into the country that most of the world loves. (Think - "We hold these truths self-evident...") Spanish and Latino influence is not new to America, but it is the fast paced change and confliction to the established ideals and history that worries many. The people coming from Mexico and beyond aren't the criminals and gangsters as portrayed by the Tea Party, they are the same people who have come to work and adopt American values for generations. Immigration is a tough policy to formulate and eventually ratify, but Arizona's attempt appears to be a desperate roll to cling on to the status quo.
In America, attempts to monitor and police immigration has become controversial over the past decade, particularly the border with Mexico. In recent weeks the state of Arizona has had a controversial new law struck down as 'unconstitutional' by law-makers. The proposal was that law-enforcing agencies would hereby be able to stop certain citizens if they suspected they were working illegally and ask them to provide legitimate paperwork or ID. The obvious analysis of the law would infer that any 'latino' could be stopped and asked to provide documents, purely because they aren't white.
One could compare this treatment to that of black people in America and even extend it to gypsies and Jews in Nazi Germany. From my perspective it does reflect an 'identity schizophrenia' and what America wants to be. The New World when it was discovered was an amalgamation of cultures, nationalities and religions, it defined itself through this new civilisation, and through history it has developed into the country that most of the world loves. (Think - "We hold these truths self-evident...") Spanish and Latino influence is not new to America, but it is the fast paced change and confliction to the established ideals and history that worries many. The people coming from Mexico and beyond aren't the criminals and gangsters as portrayed by the Tea Party, they are the same people who have come to work and adopt American values for generations. Immigration is a tough policy to formulate and eventually ratify, but Arizona's attempt appears to be a desperate roll to cling on to the status quo.
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