Various Perspectives

This week was a little unusually quiet in the immigration debate. It seems that the debate on immigration has gone down the list below energy and the health of the economy. The major news outlets did not have much to offer on the subject. I found the following website that has links to immigration stories from across the country http://idexer.com/. The website has a notable anti-immigrant bias, but it is not my position to question the intents of the people who publish this website. Henry Bonilla in an article in The Pueblo Chieftan said that he felt insulted that Democrats automatically assume that Latino voters are going to vote for them. I do agree that no party should automatically assume that all Latinos or Hispanics are going to vote one way or another. This is frankly because, as I have stated before, Hispanics are a Heterogeneous group of people. About the only trait in common that most Hispanics have is that they are Christian. That being said there are Hispanics from all sort of Demographical backgrounds. His next comment seemed short sighted "Don't you think it's insulting that they assume they have your support if your skin is a few shades darker?" By saying this Henry Bonilla is automatically assuming that all Latinos are of Mestizo or Native American ancestry. Congressman Bonilla is forgetting about all the other Hispanics which are of White, Black, and Asian ancestry.

The next article of interest was an article talking about a small town in Alabama which went on a recruting trip to the Phillipines to find teachers for their community. The article talked about successful programs which have been integrated into schools which have had problems finding qualified teachers locally. It also points to the demand in the United States for qualified workers and the willingness of employers to go overseas to find them. Another recent report showed that Congress is considering raising the amount of Guest Worker Visas to 550,000. The current unemployment rate in the United States are estimated to be at 6.1%. Ever since studying Economics at my University I have seen how the forces of supply and demand shape movement of captial and resources throughout economies. Human capital is not immune to these forces. In fact the very capitalism that many people of conservative political ideologies follow is what allows employers to look at the global market place to find the most suitable employees. Emotionally many Americans feel slighted by businesses and politicians that allow immigrant workers to take jobs from "hard working Americans". Still the declining U.S. educational system, especially in Math and Science, is pretty much guaranteeing that American businesses, Hospitals, Universities, and Schools are going to need to look overseas to keep providing quality services and remain competitive at a global level. In conclusion I believe that we need to look at all the issues that relate to a particular subject. In this case I believe that Immigration can be influenced by Economics and the current state of Education in this country. Therefore instead of blaming immigrants we should look at the problems that need to be fixed.