my thoughts exactly, except much better researched and thought out, and therefore far more authoritative
There is an excellent immigration essay you can see now-- go and read it before it gets archived and the greedy NYTimes makes you pay for it.
The basic premise is the irony inherent in much of the current anti-immigrant discourse considering the fact that the Spanish colonized in what is currently the U.S. before the English did.
Another thing that comes to mind, Congressasswipe Tom Tancredo is quoted toward the end of the piece implying that "multiculturalism" (whatever that means) will lead to the downfall of "Western Civilization." Since much of the fuss is over language and country of origin and ethnic heritage (although some pretend it is over more tangible political issues) this puzzles me. To me, Spain (and by extension all of Latin America; you have to accept this if you also accept that the U.S. is a manifestation of "Western Civilization") and the Spanish language and culture are every bit a part of Western Civilization as English is, if perhaps not more so (by being more closely related to Rome/Latin.) What a fucking retard.
Which reminds me, many times when I am connected to a call for which I am going to interpret, the English speaker informs me that they have "a Spanish person on the line." Of course, the person on the line is almost certainly NOT Spanish but instead Mexican, Guatemalan, Cuban, etc. I realize what they mean to say and I'm not trying to be obtuse, but consider how many of us would not hesitate to correct someone if they referred to us as "English."
As I almost always point out before I get too far along on rants like these, especially when I am simply spouting out various ideas only loosely connected, politics and history are not my strong points. (Which is why I have refrained from further commentary on the Mexican presidential election.) I welcome debate and correction. It seems to me that, as so many have pointed out, the current fuss over immigration is just typical pre-election wedge issue bullshit. I don't think that illegal immigration will ever end in the U.S. without some major changes to our economy and the world economy. Many (not just hotels and restaurants but all kinds of businesses) businesses, some of them huge, have come to depend on immigrants both "illegal" and legal for the bulk of their workforce. Not only that, but they hire undcoumented immigrants knowingly, completely on purpose. This lets them save tons of money, (and presumably some of that savings is passed on to the consumer.) Until these companies are either forced to comply with the law or until they do so willingly (neither of which is very likely), all other factors remaining equal, there will continue to be much illegal immigration.
The basic premise is the irony inherent in much of the current anti-immigrant discourse considering the fact that the Spanish colonized in what is currently the U.S. before the English did.
Another thing that comes to mind, Congressasswipe Tom Tancredo is quoted toward the end of the piece implying that "multiculturalism" (whatever that means) will lead to the downfall of "Western Civilization." Since much of the fuss is over language and country of origin and ethnic heritage (although some pretend it is over more tangible political issues) this puzzles me. To me, Spain (and by extension all of Latin America; you have to accept this if you also accept that the U.S. is a manifestation of "Western Civilization") and the Spanish language and culture are every bit a part of Western Civilization as English is, if perhaps not more so (by being more closely related to Rome/Latin.) What a fucking retard.
Which reminds me, many times when I am connected to a call for which I am going to interpret, the English speaker informs me that they have "a Spanish person on the line." Of course, the person on the line is almost certainly NOT Spanish but instead Mexican, Guatemalan, Cuban, etc. I realize what they mean to say and I'm not trying to be obtuse, but consider how many of us would not hesitate to correct someone if they referred to us as "English."
As I almost always point out before I get too far along on rants like these, especially when I am simply spouting out various ideas only loosely connected, politics and history are not my strong points. (Which is why I have refrained from further commentary on the Mexican presidential election.) I welcome debate and correction. It seems to me that, as so many have pointed out, the current fuss over immigration is just typical pre-election wedge issue bullshit. I don't think that illegal immigration will ever end in the U.S. without some major changes to our economy and the world economy. Many (not just hotels and restaurants but all kinds of businesses) businesses, some of them huge, have come to depend on immigrants both "illegal" and legal for the bulk of their workforce. Not only that, but they hire undcoumented immigrants knowingly, completely on purpose. This lets them save tons of money, (and presumably some of that savings is passed on to the consumer.) Until these companies are either forced to comply with the law or until they do so willingly (neither of which is very likely), all other factors remaining equal, there will continue to be much illegal immigration.
posted by Model Consumer at 16:57
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