Immigration and perception.

Its an oft repeated maxim, whether spoken ruefully behind closed doors, or used in media to hype up a perceived crisis.  Immigrants are overwhelming our cities.  With current projections, by the year 20XX, they will comprises half of the population.  These stories and rumours spread discontent throughout the population, and quite frankly, enforce an artificial divide between the settled population, and those attempting to join in.

The concept of “us versus them” has been around before nationalism was even an idea, and will probably exist for some time.  When magnified by the resentment towards immigrants, however, it provides a breeding ground for radical ideologies on both sides, and makes any crime or act of aggression from one group towards another charged with a political dynamic that does not need to exist.

Instead, let us look at the factors that are causing the perception of immigrants overrunning the country, and why they may not be as threatening as people perceive.  It is undeniable in the western world that immigration is encouraged.  There are many programs that exist to help people along, from welfare to job retraining.  Perhaps the biggest obstacle for new residents is to understand the services open to them.  The government is not exactly forthcoming in the information they provide, and are prone to wanting to avoid funding anything that doesn’t appear to have an immediate payoff.  So we have a huge issue with new arrivals not knowing that they can retrain or upgrade, and instead fall into the easy cycle of driving for a living, or working multiple minimum wage jobs to make ends meet.

The fact is, this cycle has repeated many times.  Earlier in this century, it was the Italians and the Irish who were stepping onto our lands and taking odd jobs to make ends meet.  The cycle repeats, as opportunities open for new people to take their chances at finding fortune in the western world, and that is admirable.  Unfortunately, since some immigrants do take advantage of the system, they are sensationalised, and general resentment builds towards the whole population.  Lets look at this another way, if we took an average teenager, perhaps even one with a substantial interest in Japanese culture, and dropped them off at Tokyo airport, they would need considerable help to survive.  Even if they had taken classes in the language, there are still subtle nuances in culture they would have to master.  The opposite is true, immigrants do need their “hand outs” because they are struggling to survive in a foreign land.  Just imagine how well you would do if you suddenly found yourself in Tibet, with nothing more than a few suitcases, and maybe a dictionary to translate phrases.  It would be difficult indeed.

There is a disproportionate amount of immigration going on in the country, but, it is actually quite localised, and focused on specific areas.  Since the reader quite likely reads English, and is already located in the western world, let us arbitrarily imagine that they are going to emigrate to Japan.  The first thing that you would need to decide is where you would want to live.  Aside from Tokyo, an average person would be hard pressed to name many more cities in Japan.  The same is true in the  western world, while names like London, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles readily come to mind, Tulsa  and Orillia are cities that would be unlikely to be a choice for the new arrivals.  So, naturally, however they get into a country, quite likely the bigger cities would not only be the first point of contact because of where air lines travel to, but, also because of their name brand and recognition.  So, big cities attract immigrants simply due to the fact that they are known far and wide, and would be the first place someone new would try their luck.

Secondly, big cities have resources in place that smaller cities lack.  Not only are the job opportunities generally better in a big city, but, the infrastructure exists to handle immigrants.  Lawyers who specialise in immigration law are more likely to set up shop where there are airports and shelters than in a small town at the end of the road.  The odds of finding someone from your own community are greater in a major city than in a town with a few thousand residents.  Most importantly, in big cities, everything you need is there.  You don’t have to drive 4 hours just to attend a hearing, or to turn in some documents, the office is a bus ride away.  So, major cities, simply by nature of their density, are natural magnets for the new arrivals.  After all, wouldn’t you want to give yourself the best start possible in a foreign country?

This brings us to the problem.  Immigrants are also somewhat more exposed in major cities, as compared to smaller towns.  Naturally, people with similar backgrounds will group together, and this leads to a pseudo-ghettoization of people, with Little Chinas popping up the world over (just as one example) People are intuitive with this, and notice that the ethnic population of one area skews towards one group or another.  Naturally, this makes for easy identification of the self versus the other, and more importantly, provides easy material for the media to work with.

The media definitely have a stake in this issue.  Its easy to sensationalise whatever the latest stage of immigration might be.  In 40 years, we have seen an increase of immigrants from Asia, but, that should be anticipated.  The largest land mass with the largest population is naturally going to have the most people looking to go somewhere else.  Unfortunately, since western culture generally thinks of itself as white and Christian, this means that the original population feels like they are being ignored when holidays like Diwali are celebrated.  The exposure in the media is a double edged sword, it is intended to bring about understanding and tolerance between groups, but, it can tear a community apart when it showcases too much.

More alarming is when you hear articles about “In year 20XX, half of the population will be (name a religious or ethnic group of your choice)” – these reports are unfortunately based on sheer paranoia and terror.  Yes, given current trends, those projections hold out, but, they usually don’t factor in the fact that immigration is cyclical.  As stated before, earlier in the century, it was Italians and Irish people who were seen as moving into the country, taking jobs away from natural born citizens, and associated with crime.  We see the precise same thing happening, just with different faces.  By whatever year the reports point to, it is fairly likely that another demographic shift will happen, and instead of the current batch of immigrants, another area will be more prominent in looking to move to the major cities to seek their opportunities.

The main fact is, that as people settle down, they tend to assimilate into the original culture.  Yes, they maintain their religion and festivals.  Yes, they may have beliefs that contradict what we see as acceptable in the western world.  However, we must use education on both sides of the fence, because within a generation or two, most of the immigrants children are proud of their heritage, but, still embrace western ways.  You can’t expect a 50 year old from Algeria to understand why hunting Pokemon is so important, just like you would have difficulty convincing a 50 year old from Toronto to do the same.   The younger generation will eventually give in, and become part of the mainstream culture.  Eventually, they will even move away from the big cities, and into the suburbs.  Ultimately, they will complain about how hard their parents had it, and they had it, and how the immigrants of 2150 are abusing the system, not respecting their new found western traditions, and grumbling about how the areas they grew up in are being overrun with whatever is the new group of migrants.

So, the cycle of immigration is cyclical, and we need to steer clear from paranoid reports that cry havoc when new people with new traditions come knocking on the door.  The fact is, virtually every single tribe of humanity has moved from one location to another, due to population, food, war, or other factors.  Some simply moved across the river, while others picked up and walked until they couldn’t go any further.  From the first nations to the latest arrival, the western world has always been one where people have been moving towards, and indeed, this is true of nations in Africa and Asia too.  They also have their share of people moving there for work, and who choose to set up their families there.

The ultimate point of this is that we all have been in this situation before, and we will be again.  When we have a moon colony, there will be settlers complaining about the fact that the new arrivals don’t have to struggle with assembling bulky equipment, and how they have comfortable living quarters.  No matter how far humanity goes, no matter where the centres of attention may shift, there will always be new people looking to establish themselves in already settled territories.  Lets work to try and ease their transition into our society.