Illegal Immigration
This just keeps coming back to my little brain. I have spoken to many different people on the subject hearing a wide variety of good opinions and arguments both for and against illegal immigration. I was encouraged to think about how Heavenly Father or Jesus would handle this particular situation and base my opinion on that and the following thoughts are a result of that.
First of all, I firmly believe that laws are created for the benefit and well being of us as American’s and those who come into America as guest workers, or on visa’s and passports. They also protect those who have come in the country with the purpose of becoming a citizen of the United States. When a person of any ethnicity or race, comes into our country from another country without following the proper proceedure they will be subjected to exploitation. They are not covered by the laws that protect our own citizens from sub par wages, they have to sneak around, they can’t apply for a social security number, and I would imagine they aren’t protected under our laws if they were to become subject to theft, violence, etc.
I feel that although we are all Heavenly Father’s children and are all equal in his eyes, and even though it seems like a brotherly thing to do to let these immigrants in and work for sub par wages because it is a better life then what they could get back home, if we just shift our view slightly, then we will see it is not. If you consider that American companies like to hire these workers over American’s because they are willing to work for wages that are below minimum wage and that we do have a law such as having a minimum wage for a reason, then we can liken these employers unto slave owners with the immigrants being their slaves. These illegal immigrants are being taken advantage of due to the fact that they have snuck into the country, they are willing to work for sub par wages, and because to them it is “better” then back home. This seems corrupt to me.
I feel that Christ would encourage those wanting to migrate to America to do so as the laws outline, because that way they will have the same freedoms, rights, and protections as the citizens. They will be able to have an even better life because they too will be eligible to receive minimum wage and benefit from that law. He would not have us giving them jobs and paying them poorly just because to them it is a better life. This argument to me seems to provide an argument for big companies outsourcing and paying pennies on the dollar. For instance, if we go into madagascar (I just randomly chose a country for example) and after researching that their average pay is $2.50 a week we offer jobs that pay $3.50 a week, because “it is a better life then what their own country can offer” even though here in America we are paying employees who are doing the same job $5.25 an hour, isn’t that exploitation? Aren’t we taking advantage of them because of their circumstances? This is not a brotherly thing to do, it is not a Christlike thing to do, it is for the gain of the American company and the United States and not to help better the lives of others.
Oi, I have gone on for quite long enough. I hope that my points were made clearly. Ta ta.