The most important thing in having
people integrate into a society is not the immigrant’s attitude, but instead the
attitudes of the receiving country and the people of that country; are there
means for integration in the country? Unfortunately in the U.S. there are not
because of this widespread belief that anyone that enters the U.S. Illegally is
a threat; the main threat being Latinos, especially Mexicans . They are looked
at as terrorists that are here to take Americas land, jobs, and basically
anything they can grab. This ideology of the Latino threat is very real and
many of the beliefs from it continue to this day. These beliefs include that
Latinos do not know how to assimilate, that they don’t learn English, that they
are immutable, and that they reproduce at a very high rate. These ideologies
have made it impossible for a complete immigration reform to be achieved, and
because Latinos are such a huge threat then treating them as subhuman becomes
ok.
There are many fears that make up the
Latino threat; an example of this fear is a study that the Southern Poverty Law
center conducted in which the studies showed an increasing rise of Militia
groups in the U.S after the election of President Obama. There were two reasons
for the rises of these militia groups: One, because of the election of a black
president, and two, because talks about immigration reform were rampant and the
belief of these militia groups was that there was an ongoing huge, secret,
Mexican conspiracy plan to reclaim the southwest of the US. Another fear is
that Latinos do not assimilate. They don’t take in the culture and also they
are immutable, never changing. Above all
though, the biggest fear involved in the Latino Threat is one of Latino women
not being able to control the ability to have babies. The reason for this fear
is this belief that babies of the illegal documents (anchor babies) will
eventually cause a demographic shift, which will eliminate white people, due to
the 14th amendment of the United States, which allows anyone born in
the U.S. full citizenship rights. Many politicians have advocated for change in
the 14th amendment because of this fear with the central idea being
that illegal undocumented people are dropping babies in the U.S. for their own
perverse plot, which will grant them benefits, and legal status twenty-one
years down the line.
None of these ideas are true, as there have
been many studies that prove that immigrants can create their own hybrid
culture, for example having carne asada for the Fourth of July instead of
burgers. Also, studies have shown that people that have migrated here who are 1st
generation, 2nd generation, and 3rd generation Americans prefer
to speak English, and finally another study shows that Anglo women have a
higher fertility rates than Mexican women.
The 1.5-generation is the generation of
kids who have migrated from the US at a very young age. This generation of
illegal immigrants is allowed to go to school by law, but they are not allowed
to work or do much else. Many of them are torn because they have lived here for
most of their lives and have adapted to the American culture and American life,
but yet Americans don’t want them here.
The Latino threat is a fallacy, but yet
this perception of terror that these illegal immigrants bring with them once
they migrate into the U.S. is very real, and important because it creates this
dogma of fear which is then instilled onto the whole nation by mainstream media
outlets, thus making it impossible to have a comprehensive immigration reform
that will treat everyone fairly and end the dehumanization of illegal
immigrants.
