Photo: Examples of Notable American Immigrants

The New Intifadah and The Reconquista

In the recent past France and the United States have seen large demonstrations or riots related to immigration and economic opportunity. These have been dubbed by some as the “The New Intifadah”, “The Whiney Student Brigade” (OK that one is mine), and The Reconquista. For simplicity’s sake I will combine the first two into “The New Intifadah”.

“The New Intifadah” started as riots in the Paris suburbs by youths of mainly North African or Arabic heritage and a Muslim religious background. Initially it was feared the riots were the first wave of an effort to establish a new Muslim homeland in Europe. As they played out it developed that although there were some religious overtones the main driver was inept social policy relating to immigration. Following the collapse of the French Colonial Empire, France allowed a large wave of immigrants to enter the country. These immigrants mainly hailed from Muslim North Africa, and were moving to a predominantly Caucasian and Catholic / secular country. They didn’t fit in immediately and so they were warehoused in the suburbs, where they sat for thirty plus years. No real attempt was made at integration, and job and educational opportunities were scarce, at the time of the riots the suburbs had unemployment rates upwards of 25%, and no one cared. That is no one cared until the anger exploded and cars started burning. Suddenly France felt the price of years of social and economic isolation. As Stephen Hawking would say, “Hanging at dawn tends to focus the mind.”

In response to those riots the French government vowed to address the underlying causes. One of the first measures was a new law which made it easier to fire workers under the age of 26 with less than two years on the job. The theory is that this will give the employer more flexibility in dealing with his work force and actually increase employment, but this past week new demonstrations started. (Now being fair, I think that riots and demonstrations have been a French spectator sport since the Revolution. If they can work in a little beheading while they are at it so much the better. ) Apparently in the minds of French workers it is better to have a permanent under class perpetually on the verge of rebellion than to have to be productive at their jobs.

Currently in the US we also have an issue with a non-integrated underclass, but ours may actually be more problematic. Years of lax border controls and lack of employer sanctions have depressed wages in some occupations to the point that native workers are unwilling to take the jobs. This has fueled a growing population influx of illegal immigrants, who have begun isolating themselves in enclaves. In addition it has lead to a growing dependence on these workers in lower level service and agricultural jobs. These have combined to decrease then need for a new immigrant to learn to speak English. All this has combined to produce what is becoming a perpetual underclass.

Besides the problems among the immigrant population, there is an increasing strain being placed on the general population, mainly in rising costs of social services, education, and medical care. In addition the wage depression is leading to increasing unemployment among those who traditionally would be entry level workers in places like California. There is also a general drain on the economy caused by the outflow of money as illegals support family members at home, who can not join them here in the US. And finally there is the strain placed on an already burdened criminal justice system, with 33% + of all prisoners in California being illegal immigrants and comparative rates in other areas with high percentages of illegal workers.

Recently politicians in America have decided to tackle this problem. They have begun passing legislation that increases border security, makes it a felony to be in the country illegally, establishes a guest worker program, and targets employers for increased enforcement. As in France many of the protectors of the status quo have begun demonstrating, amid shouts of “Mexico, Mexico” and calls for the establishment of Aztlan. Joining them are the employers who value cheap labor over social and economic stability. So far we have avoided nightly car burnings, but hey this is America we have better TV so can get our entertainment that way. Besides we drive good cars not those damn Citroens.

Reading the above it may seem that the smart thing to do is just shut down immigration from south of the border entirely, but there are other factors at play also. The United States currently has an aging population and a falling birth rate. These two factors are rapidly combining to make supporting our social programs prohibitive. The additional workers immigration attracts are needed. Additionally in order to maintain our economic edge in the world we have to stay at the forefront in innovation and the development of new technologies. By attracting the brightest students to our universities and the brightest graduates as employees we can do that. Finally as America becomes a better educated society fewer native born Americans are willing to take low level service jobs and these jobs must be filled. For these reasons it is in our interest to develop a well regulated immigration program that allows adequate numbers of workers, both permanent and temporary as needed, to enter the country. Rapid integration then becomes necessary, both to maintain our culture and to develop good will in the source countries.

What does all this mean? It may be that this debate is a flash in the pan that will pass, and both populations will just go on as before. I don’t think so however, I think this is going to serve as a wake-up call to both countries, France is learning their lesson now as the demonstrations continue and are turning more violent, the US will get it’s chance on April 10th when activists have called for total work stoppage.

tags: immigration

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 9:31 am by Chad and is filed under Big Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.