Issue 42 Vol II, June 30, 2007

F O C U S

Immigrants in North America
Gobind Thukral

America is a land of immigrants. From the time Europeans discovered this vast land in the last years of 15th century, waves of immigrants have come and settled and made America, what is today, a land of dreams. The native Indians were killed, tortured and subjugated and their lands taken over by the Europeans. Next five centuries have seen America prosper into a great power in science, technology and above all militarily. This super power status has not been given by the Europeans alone, but immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. They have suffered more at the hands of racists and neo conservatives. Their cheap labour is welcome. But no status or security for them. And since they are no burden on social security network or health and education services, a large number, over 12 millions have been denied any legal status.

The illegal immigrants come cheap. During my recent visit to California it was more than clear that not only immigrants from Mexico, Venezuela and other countries, workers from Asia, particularly from Indian and Pakistan were paid less [sometimes even half ]than the statutory wage and no other benefits like social security and health cover. In case of mishaps there was no insurance available to help the injured or their families in case of death of bread earning undocumented migrants. What the immigrants do once they get into America? They take up as trainers in health clubs? They mow lawns, clean offices or hammer nails and pick tomatoes, oranges and wash dishes, change diapers, pack meat and other products. In one word they make life possible for an average American. And, yet they are abused, pushed around, tortured and even killed in certain cases. It is common for security forces arrest and bundle them either back to Mexico and other countries or put them in jail. Those employers who keep these undocumented migrants seldom face any legal action.

Years ago, immigrants came to this country to begin a better life. They believed in the American Dream: the idea that through hard work, courage and determination anyone could achieve prosperity. This and other work-ethic values were passed on to successive generations.   And American economy boomed with this cheap energetic labour. Many immigrants come to the U.S. to find a better life, while others come strictly for employment, sending their wages back home to their families in the native lands. Foreigners once came to America to become Americans, to be “Americanized.” They instilled this desire in their children as they assimilated into society. Their culture fused into the greater American culture, which became the Great Melting Pot.

The present laws ignore that illegal immigration is integral to the American economy. According to a recent study by Gordon Hanson, of the University of California, San Diego, the undocumented comprise a quarter of farm workers, 17 per cent of cleaners, and 14 per cent of construction workers. After Colorado passed tougher anti-immigrant laws last year, migrant labourers fled and crops rotted.

It is estimated one crore and twenty lakhs illegal foreigners live and work in America with five lakh to ten lakh migrating to America every year. Largely fleeing from poverty and unemployment in their native countries, many are poorly educated and work menial, low-paying jobs that most native-born Americans do not accept. They readily accept these tough jobs even at low wages.

During the past few years, these nameless and faceless workers have been protesting vehemently Emerging from this underground workforce is their collective voice that is demanding its “rights”. They want the right to amnesty, the right to pay in-state college tuition rates and finally the right to citizenship. That loud voice was heard in the streets of Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Phoenix, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and other American cities. Teeming masses of activists—numbered in tens and hundreds of thousands—protested against congressional plans to crack down on illegal immigrants.

Since votes of people from Latin America and Asia are now important for any presidential hopeful, there had been an effort to enact law to legalise these so called illegal immigrants. President Bush realizing that these would help his Republican party has been keener to bring the legislation. This law heavily still weighed against the immigrants where they were to pay 5000 dollars to get a legal immigrant status while they should have been compensated fro low wages and their big contribution, some 1. 2 billion dollars to the American economy as has not been passed by the American congress.

Illegal immigration is a controversial issue that is being hotly debated between—and within—the ranks of Republicans and Democrats. Politicians fear it will be a key issue in the November 2006 midterm elections. Most Republicans seeking re-election must play to their conservative base and call for stronger immigration laws. Yet this will be at the risk of losing Hispanic voters, a key voting bloc for the midterm elections. (In the 2004 presidential election, President George W. Bush received an estimated 40% of Hispanic votes.)

The Republicans also realize that enacting tougher immigration reforms could diminish the support of businesses. With fewer workers available to take on low-paying jobs, wages will go up, and profit margins will go down. The Democrats must also walk a political balancing act. Will they risk aligning themselves with the president, who advocates guest-worker programs and other incentives for illegal aliens—and miss an opportunity to set themselves apart from the current administration?

U.S. congressional lawmakers are divided between two opposing camps, with many liberals and conservatives strangely finding they agree on this issue. Yet even among those who agree, proposals vary as to how to resolve the problem.   President George W. Bush recognizes that immigration is an important political issue for him and his party to win elections and yet he is not able to get his party act together. The  new proposed law supported by the White House to  legalize up to 12 million unlawful immigrants and tightens border security was  stalled in the face of broad Republican opposition.

Regional agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central America Free Trade Agreement have liberated capital while local politicians criminalise labour, and immigration laws seek to imprison the poor in the poverty of the developing world. They should follow the European Union's example of combining the free movement of labour with social cohesion funds to develop poor areas and promote better labour laws and a regional minimum wage.

BACK

A Day in the Life of People of Iraq and Afghanistan
Where is that promise peace and democracy?

FOR the poor and helpless people of Iraq and Afghanistan those war ravaged countries misery is piled upon misery. Each day brings more misery and bloodshed. But courtesy the American attacks that began over three years back, the life has been a simple hell. Consider June 19, 2007 when over 150 killed, 255 injured in a day of violence in four major acts of violence and clashes in various parts of Iraq.

A car bomb killed at least 75 people and wounded 130 near the Shi'ite Khilani mosque in central Baghdad. The mosque was badly damaged in the blast.

In Baquba, the U.S. military admitted said it had killed 22 suspected militants in the early hours of a major offensive against al Qaeda in Diyala province. The offensive involved 10,000 soldiers and is one of the military's biggest against the Sunni Islamist militant group in Iraq.

On the other hand, two days of fighting between gunmen loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police have killed 35 people and wounded 125 in Nassiriya. The Iraqi army killed 15 suspected insurgents and arrested 65 others during the past 24 hours in different districts of Baghdad.  Gunmen attacked a Kurdish army unit and killed five soldiers and wounded 15 near Baquba. Meanwhile, the bodies of 33 people were found shot in different districts of Baghdad.

Or take June 28 a car bomb has killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The bomb was left in a parked car at a bus terminal in the mainly Shia district of Bayaa in south-west Baghdad.

Elsewhere in Twenty headless bodies without identification have been found on the banks of a stream near the Tigris River close to Baghdad; Three British soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in Basra. In Baghdad, about 40 vehicles, including buses, were set alight by an explosion between 20 and 25 people were killed and at least 40 injured.

This is the time when the US has poured thousands of extra troops into Baghdad and the surrounding area in an effort to curb bombings and sectarian killings.

There has been heavy fighting in the city of Baquba,  the  US military claimed that  at least 60 suspected al-Qaeda militants had been killed. Separately, the US military   helicopter had killed 11 men and wounded eight others believing them to be al-Qaeda militants. But survivors according to BBC and residents of the village, Khalis that all those killed and injured were guards, recognised by local authorities.

Same day [ June 19] Taliban overran and occupied Miya Nishin district in Kandahar province and are pushing for control of another key area, sparking fierce clashes with NATO and Afghan forces that have left more than 100 people dead over three days. 16 policemen and a Dutch soldier also died.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters had launched raids on police posts near the strategic town of Chora in Uruzgan province and NATO, backed by fighter jets responded in a ruthless manner as usual. Fighting continued for three days and the result was dozens of innocent civilian casualties. An official estimated that 70 to 75 civilians were killed or wounded; while more than 100 Taliban and more than 35 police were killed.

This forced a protest even from a puppet president Hamid Karzai.”Afghan lives are not cheap”; Karzai told a press conference in Kabul. And what happened to this statement. A day after an agitated President Hamid Karzai reprimanded foreign troops for unnecessary civilian deaths; the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) shot dead one Afghan and wounded two others in retaliation for a roadside blast that damaged their vehicle. on June 28 two NATO soldiers were killed in Kabul area.

On this same fateful day, explosions at a suspected militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border caused several casualties. Three missiles fired from across the border destroyed a training facility, killing 17 militants and wounding 10 others.  Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad gave the usual explanation that the explosions were caused when bombs militants were making at an isolated compound accidentally exploded. But an intelligence official said it was a local Taliban militant training facility, housed in a big mud-brick compound in the border village of Mami Rogha, about 40 kilometers west of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. He maintained the compound had been hit by missiles fired from Afghanistan. Lahore’s influential newspaper, The Daily Times reported that a madrassa reportedly used by the Taliban as a hideout in North Waziristan was attacked by a US-controlled drone killing over 20 militants and wounding 15. “Two missiles were fired from a pilotless spy plane at around 10am and initial reports say 17 people were killed,” The Daily Times quoted the security officials.

The newspaper also wrote, “In December 2005, an Al Qaeda suspect Abu Hamza was killed in similar fashion. The government initially said he was killed by an explosion inside a house and not by a missile fired from a US drone. However, photographs by tribal journalist Hayatullah Khan contradicted the government claim. The journalist was kidnapped five days after the incident and was found dead on June 16 last year.” Facts speak louder indeed.

This air strike was the deadliest since September 5, 2006, when the government reached a peace deal with local Taliban.   In fact, the peace deal lies in tatters. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [ NATO] has often accused Pakistan and its President Pervez Musharraf of doing little to control the Taliban whom it finds unequal in the fight in Afghanistan, a country already back to stone age courtesy first the Soviets till 1988 , Talibans later and  now NATO.

As civilian deaths spiral in the widening conflict in Afghanistan, there is anger on the streets against the government, and foreign security forces. Anti-U.S. and NATO protests have rocked Kabul, and the eastern and southern provinces. In July last year, the death of civilians in Kotal-e-Khairkhan, in Kabul, sparked riots.

Last week, public resentment erupted on the airwaves. An independent radio network stopped regular transmission to go live with a spontaneous, two-hour discussion following a suicide bomb in Kabul on June. 17. At least 30 police instructors were killed when the bus taking them to work at the Kabul Police Academy exploded in front of the heavily fortified police headquarters.

Security has sharply deteriorated in Afghanistan since late 2004 when many U.S. troops were evacuated to Iraq. A resurgent Taliban has made deadly strikes on government services including schools, and on foreign troops. The nearly daily attacks, which began in the southern provinces along the country’s border with Pakistan, have spread to the east. There is neither peace nor development.

BACK