The Unspoken Fear Behind the Immigration Debate

I once lived near a street lined with multimillion-dollar houses. I myself was crammed into a tiny apartment a few blocks away. What can I say — it was a socioeconomically schizophrenic neighborhood.

In any case, I was in a store near one of these mansions when I overheard the shop’s owner trying to calm down a woman on the phone. After hanging up, the store owner mentioned that the caller lived in one of the upscale houses. The caller was furious that so many people were parking near her mansion. “She also counted the cars driving past her place,” the store owner said. “Spent all morning doing it.”

Yes, this woman had achieved a rarefied level of economic status and comfort. Rather than enjoy it, however, she spent her time glaring out her window, furiously documenting all the commoners who encroached upon her world.

She was, of course, terrified of losing her wealth or status. In her mind, it was just a matter of time before the riffraff broke in and looted her mansion.

This mindset — the more I have, the more I can lose — permeates the immigration debate.

As I’ve pointed out before, the loudest and most aggressive political movement today is the Tea Party, whose members tend to be richer than average Americans. It strains belief to say all those well-to-do individuals are sincerely concerned with Constitutional rights and democratic ideals. A lot of them are just pissed off that their taxes might go up.

Similarly, many of the people who rail the loudest against undocumented individuals are in pretty comfortable positions, economically. They are simply scared that if immigrants climb a rung up, it will be because they’ve slipped a rung down. The middle and upper classes fear losing what’s theirs, or more accurately, what they perceive to be theirs. Such individuals are, more often than not, trying to hold on to their stuff.

Immigrants, in contrast, are trying to get their own stuff in the first place. It’s difficult to stop this drive. In fact, harnessing this ambition is the American way.

As such, citizens who have already been shaken by the worst economy in generations are now eyeing the newcomers, realizing that the immigrant work ethic is superhuman, and getting scared. They fear that immigrants will leapfrog them. They see how impossible it is to deter a person who has nothing to lose. This, of course, leads to spreading hatred and clamoring for the head of everybody who’s undocumented. However, like most fears, it is misplaced.

Yes, we will always have people who want to start a new life in America. But that doesn’t mean everyone else’s quality of life will disappear into their pockets.

I'd like to speak to these fearful people for a moment: Your house and car and spouse are safe, and you will be allowed to speak English in public for the rest of your life. Nobody is stealing your country club membership or confiscating your sailboat. For your own health, try not to spend your life clutching your possessions, giving in to the fear that someone is coming for them. That just leads to an empty existence looking out windows and counting cars.

Photo Credit: Randy Son of Robert