Sometimes the solution to a problem has to start with the problem’s cause. Not all illegal immigrants are from Mexico, or even Hispanic, but many are. Most of this pertains to Hispanics and Mexicans particularly, but it may pertain to other groups of illegal immigrants as well.
Most illegal immigrants don’t come to the U.S. because they are fleeing a terrible situation in their homeland. It isn’t because they can’t make a living at home. It isn’t even because they are desperately poor, although that is what we hear on the news.
They come because they’ve been brainwashed.
If a man earns $10 a day, he is poor. If someone tells him that he can come to the U.S. and make $10 an hour, he’ll want to sign up. Now back to being “poor.” If he earns $10 a day, and his rent is $10 a week, then 20% of his income goes to pay for housing, assuming a 5-day work week. But in the US, with a $10-an-hour job, he can live in an apartment that costs $600 a month, or $150 a week. He makes $400 a week, so he spends 37.5% of his income on housing. Almost every category across the board is the same. Low wages, low prices. When the prices outstrip the ability of people to purchase, the market dries up. Now think about it: Who is poorer, the person who has to spend 20% of his or her income on housing or the one who spends over 37%?
But in America, it’s different. First of all, we have credit. Can’t afford it? Someone will lend you the money, for a price. The poorer you are, the higher the price will be, but they’ll stretch it out so it looks doable on the day you sign your life away.
Don’t think the coyotes bringing people here tell them about the prices, only the money they’ll earn.
When these people come here, they have no idea that bread could cost $3 a loaf. It costs 25 pesos in Mexico. They have absolutely no idea that they are about to get into a situation that is way beyond their control. Ever wonder why illegal immigrants may be living 10 to an apartment? It’s the only way to make ends meet.
Every day while they live here, they are barraged with advertisements, some in Spanish, that tell them that the good life is just one purchase away, just the same as the rest of us. We all hear over and over how we are the land of opportunity, and most of us buy the propaganda as fast as the advertisers can spin it out.
In Mexico, things are different. Women take their children with them to work. Not all of them, but many. Everyone does something, and some people do several things. If you want to work in Mexico, all you have to do is look for a need and fill it. Sell fruit in the market, do laundry, iron for people, clean houses, wash windows. Mexicans are no strangers to work. Children work, old people work, cripples work. And in return, they all have a measure of dignity. A Mexican hotel keeper will sweep the street in front of the property to be sure that it looks clean and cared-for.
For most of them the work pays off. They have what they need, and maybe some of what they want. And, occasionally, like the rest of us, they do without some things. But corporate America is encroaching, and they are being informed of all the things they are missing, like iPods and video games (which are astronomically expensive there), and they are buying into the tricksters’ three-card monty game by the legion.
They think if they can only get that big payday, everything will be better. Can you really say you think any differently? So they come. They put up with our abuse, give up their dignity, allow us to revile their culture, all in the hope that they, too, will strike it rich, just like everyone says they will.
It won’t happen for them, but they know in their hearts that if they just try hard enough, it will get better. Only it never does.
Remember when you were 18, and you wanted to do something stupid that no one could talk you out of? Remember finding out that everyone else was right? It’s like that for them. Some of us never find out, or refuse to see. And as long as corporate America keeps assuring them that the grass is greener on this side of the fence, they’ll keep on coming.
