Immigration and the "Empties"

From a Google Image Search - Empty Factory -LoveExploring

In the 1980s and 1990s our factories started a Great Migration which ended in Southeast Asia and China for most of them. Attracted by cheap labor and billions of new consumers, CEOs left American cities with empty factories and left American workers bereft. There were few jobs available for factory workers that paid as well as the jobs that left America.

In the early 2000s (2008) the housing bubble burst and we learned that rules were stretched or broken. Bad mortgages were written, bundled with good mortgages, and sold as valuable investments. When the bad outweighed the good we had empty houses all over America. No banks took pity on homeowners, even though banks caused the crash. Those houses were seized or sold for pennies on the dollar.

Now, as Paul Krugman reminds us on his recent Substack newsletter, we will have empty fields, crops rotting without the immigrants we rely on to harvest them. You may have difficulty next time you want to renovate your house or your property. Many contractors rely on immigrants for things like roof installations, flooring, and building in general. Empty fields and empty jobs that Americans no longer wish to occupy will give us that same feeling that America is in a downward slide.

The problem is that one of the main tasks Trump's Americans are avid about is ending immigration. They love the whole project. America has experienced many waves of immigration and immigrants were often subjected to negative attitudes. As each wave of "aliens" was assimilated America gained access to foods, products, customs, art, and music, things that were adopted by all and made our culture richer. Perhaps there is a feeling that this time there will be no assimilation, instead American culture will become unrecognizable. It will be something "other." This message has also been delivered ad infinitum by right-wing media and spliced into the American psyche.

In addition, times changed. Americans lost the stability of home ownership and reliable jobs. They grew angry. They turned their anger on affirmative action programs. They saw new hires with darker skin and accents taking jobs once held by white folks. Sadly, these opportunities, offered to level the playing field, soon left these new hires stranded by the Great Factory Migration. Soon the new hires were out of work once more with only a taste of prosperity. Affirmative action became the province of colleges and universities. Jealousy once again inspired backlash. DEI was coined for equal opportunity projects in the world of work and business. Again, white folks, many fallen on hard times, argued that those hired as "DEI" workers were taking their jobs, although it is unclear that white workers wanted the jobs that were offered.

DEI became the policy in public positions also, like police officers, firemen, politicians, judges. DEI has been effective in giving more ethnic groups jobs that they can take pride in. Some got a degree through affirmative action and so they benefited from two programs that became unpopular with white folks.

Trump, a racist, with contempt for people of color, non-Europeans, understood how to exploit the "racial" jealousy of white workers. So did Talk Radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Steven Bannon, and Alex Jones. They commiserated with truckers over the radio through the long nights and with the unemployed and retired in their garages. By the time Fox News came along these talkers had already created a ready audience for their extremely right-wing news content. Americans who had lost so much, who had a case of the "empties," were happy to hear voices that championed their pain and sense of loss.

If America still had an economy that was booming, jealousy might not have turned Americans against new immigrants. However, the economy was not booming, many of these immigrants did not go through proper channels to enter the country and, to prevent the chaos mass homelessness and poverty would cause, there were funds made available to give these new residents a start. Although some people were having a good old time in the global economy, hoarding away money hand over fist, others were not having that kind of economic good fortune. Families were being split apart as children had to leave homes in one state to find work in another. Grandchildren couldn't stop by every day or every weekend. Grandparents couldn't be at all the birthday parties and celebrations. And, although traveling to visit grandchildren has given many older Americans wanderlust, it does not make up for having to let go of the close-extended-family fantasy, you-can-go-to-Grammas-after-school-until-I-get-home childcare system.

This is not to say that Trump's immigration policies will make America great again. The chaos of uprooting immigrants who have jobs and run businesses, who attend our community events, and pay taxes will take a toll on America. There is no way to accomplish all these deportations that will not be disruptive. There is no way that we will not notice that 11 million or more people are suddenly missing. Many may believe that this is only justice, that entering a country illegally is wrong. However, what if most of these immigrants are not criminals but just took advantage of the fact that America never devised a great plan for dealing with mass migrations of people? Imagine what you might be willing to do for your children, for your own survival.

A recurring case of the "empties" may explain the jealousy, but it doesn't make it right. A brand of politics that decided that exploiting the woes of American workers was a means to gain power has produced a strategy of cold calculation and decadence that is far more damaging to our republic/democracy than our immigrant neighbors (here legally or not). Trump's policies are bad for America because they will help no one. The Americans aroused to anger over "others" will be surprised to find some of these others were their next-door neighbor or their hairdresser, or the guy who built their deck. It will be the "empties" all over again. On top of it will be an empty heart, a moral hole, that could contribute to the fall of a country we have loved dearly. Mass deportation will leave America morally (and perhaps financially) bankrupt.

Trump is doing immigration first because he and the Republicans have hyped the issue and convinced a good share of the American people that deporting our immigrants will give them back the 1950s - the post-war American dream. It won't.

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