Immigration, a politic football, is - in actuality - a crisis that needs to be solved or have at least have a plan to respond to the crisis. Immediately. It will only get worse. There are a lot of immigrants - a millions more soon to come - that are products of: climate change, destructive national policies because of climate change, and victim of displacement by wars - over scarce resources and habitable land.
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| Not Really the CAUSE of the Problem |
Earlier immigrants were attracted by jobs and opportunities. And often they were welcomed, as job creators or skilled labour. Welcomed along with our dependence on undocumented as cheap labour in farms and the slaughter business. But these new immigrants are driven by completely different factors.
Take the current huge numbers of Haitian refugees. Let us forget - for a moment - our tragic handling of these immigrants. And look at why they are coming.
One reason is the earthquake. But an even greater problem is the near yearly devastation caused by hurricanes. Hurricanes which are increasing in numbers and strength due to climate change. The combination of a horrible infrastructure, political incompetence and world wide apathy contributed to the severity of the exodus, but not the exodus itself.
Therefore, in addition to opportunity for advancement, the United States is seen as a reasonably safe haven against climate change. Or country will be, (and is) being affected by Climate Change, but the combination of wealth, location and a responding politic (albeit slowly) draws immigrants.
As: excessive heat imperils parts of Central America, increased hurricane strength and frequency imperils the Caribbean islands - made worse by rising sea levels, and crippling drought attacks Paraguay, Brazil , Argentina and Chile, demands to come to America will only grow. And that is only in our hemisphere. Europe, Australia and China face the same dilemma.
The idea that developed areas caused historical Climate Change and they should therefore respond by opening their borders; this will not change minds in rich countries. It may be true, but it has occurred primarily in the past. And the growth of carbon will be treated as historical, not current problem. Similar to how we (America AND Europe) acknowledge historical slave trade, we do not respond to it today, since those actions are thought of as being in the past.
Climate Change is even worse, since action by any one nation can be seen as futile if other countries continue to produce more and more greenhouse gases.
Since present and historical factors don't drive much in the way of change, the migration of people out of very effected regions will drive even less change. Migrants - both legal and illegal - can be dismissed as greedy and ready to take our jobs, or a sad result of nature.
How will we respond to millionsof climate refugees? Australia has agreed to take in a few that live on some Pacific Islands that are flooding. Europe has agreed to take a "few" fleeing from Civil War and drought from the Mid-East. The United States, before Trump, was taking in thousands (which is a small portion) from around the world. Any thousands more that already had families here.
These current results assuage a few migrants, and a lot of domestic citizens, it does nothing to address the future issues. We need to actively debate and decide how to deal with millions of migrants in the future, because this problem will onoy grow.
Outside of the Americas, Bangladesh alone will have millions of refugees from the flooding 40% of their land. Their population is 163 million. Jakarta Indonesia, a city of 10 million, is sinking from both rising seas and subsiding land. Africa is suffering from massive droughts in some places and debilitating tropical storms in other places. Refugees are coming, despite the doubters of climate change. Their local climates are degrading, with or without Jim Infofe snowballs in the Senate.
What should we do, if we concede the western developed regions cannot accept all of them?
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