September 12, 2009

Serving and Deserving

There's a movie that I've never seen called "A Day Without a Mexican" (2004):

One morning, California wakes up to find that one-third of its population -- the Hispanic
third -- has disappeared. A strange pink fog envelops the state, and communication outside
its boundaries is completely cut off. The economic, political and social implications of this
disaster threaten California's way of life, and for a group of disparate people (all white, except
for one Latina), the cracks in their private lives are forced wide open. [Netflix]

The pink fog is a little ridiculous, but the premise is interesting. A significant portion of the nation's economy is dependent on undocumented workers willing to do incredibly difficult work. It's hilarious to me that people fear "illegals" stealing their jobs. Picking fruit isn't exactly luxurious work, and I've never heard anyone lust after washing dishes in a restaurant. You can argue that undocumented workers depress wages, and I would agree with you, but our nation is so incredibly dependent on its supply of cheap food and manufacturing that I would also argue that those workers people like to scorn and hunt down on the borders do us a bigger favor than some might appreciate. Look around: something in your immediate vicinity was most likely picked, prepared, manufactured, or served by an illegal immigrant. If you enjoy your quality of life, you enjoy illegal immigration.

All the talk about whether or not illegal immigrants (and I assure you, this is always code for Mexicans and a subtext for a pernicious kind of racism) should have access to the proposed public option in the current healthcare reform legislation has had me thinking a lot. If you want to throw out the ultra-liberal notion that healthcare is a human right, that's fine. If you want to argue that illegal immigrants don't "deserve" access to our health care, you're flat out wrong. I find the "they don't pay taxes" argument completely spurious. They may not pay income taxes (because we legally bar them from doing so) but they do pay local sales and property taxes. (And by the way, the business owners who hire them are also skipping out on taxes.) There are plenty of Americans that don't pay income taxes, and guess what they're not all unemployed, lazy welfare moms (another coded kind of racism). Peace Corps volunteers, a largely college-educated middle class bunch, don't pay taxes, are completely supported by the federal government, and even qualify for the Earned Income Credit. But I think that most people would say that PCV's are serving their country (which is true) and so deserve that kind of support. And so I ask, how are illegal immigrants not serving us?

No comments: