In the article below, Dr. Wheeler takes on the stand of a social scientist, satirist, and observer of politics to express his view on the sensitive issue of U.S.-Mexico relation and its impact on American lives. Blog VNAM invites Vietnamese American readers to speak analogously on the issue of U.S.-Vietnam relations.
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LỜI CHÚ CỦA BLOG (cho độc giả Việt):
Tiến Sĩ/Nhà Khoa Hoc David Wheeler dùng bút pháp mỉa mai để đặt lại vấn đề chính trị liên quan đến nước láng giềng Mexico và Hoa Kỳ, cùng những ảnh hưởng của vấn đề này trong lòng nước Mỹ. Ông mỉa mai đề nghị rằng Mexico nên trở thành tiểu bang mới của nước Mỹ!!!
Câu hỏi dí dỏm nên đặt ra: còn liên hệ giữa Mỹ và Việt Nam thì sao? Không phải là láng giềng, nhưng ảnh hưởng qua quá khứ chiến tranh và lịch sử, và nhất là sự hiện diện của khối người Việt hải ngọai trong lòng nước Mỹ, cũng như những đe dọa gây ra bởi anh láng giềng khổng lồ của Việt Nam và đối thủ đáng kể của Mỹ: Đó là Trung Quốc...Xin mời bạn đọc VN suy nghĩ.
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The dialogue on the problem of Mexico and Central American immigration has worn threadbare. Those "against" have no more creativity in finding a solution than to put up a wall on our Southern border. Those "in favor" profess heart-rending sympathy for their heroic sacrifices.
Like all the major issues
confronting modern society--global warming, abortion, health care, gender
equality--the lines of opinion on the Mexican immigration problem are drawn
down political party lines. As a result, creative and lasting solutions to the
problem are drowned in political expediency to the detriment of all
concerned. Republican realization that
they can't control the White House without solving this problem is causing the
needle to lurch spasmodically toward liberalization. The so-called "pathway to citizenship,"
a modern version of Ronald Regan's "amnesty," looms on the
horizon.
Teasing out all of the
sociological and economic forces at work in the Mexican immigration problem is
darn near impossible, but one thing is sure, any solution arrived at in the
current political climate is likely to fail.
Without understanding and addressing the roots of the problem, how can
we solve it? Here are two questions that
no one is asking, and without answers to them, we can only rearrange the chairs
on the Titanic.
First, why are so many people
so anxious to leave a country, Mexico, so abundant in natural resources and
natural beauty? Estimates on the number of Mexicans in the US range from 11 to
20 million. Having just come through a
recession making money unusually tight in the US, we are probably closer to the
low end of the range right now. The current population of Mexico is estimated at
112 million. Assuming for simplicity the
majority of the illegal immigrants are Mexican, we're hosting 10-20% of their
population. This can't be regarded as
anything but a colossal failure on the part of Mexico, their political and
economic structure, education system, and society as a whole. The status quo on immigration allows the ruling
class in Mexico to sweep their problem under the rug. Today, the richest man in
the world, Carlos Slim, lives in Mexico City. What's wrong with this
picture? In an ironic twist Felipe
Calderon passed legislation liberalizing illegal immigration in Mexico while he
was president. It was a nice gesture Sir, but honestly, the Central Americans
are just passing through anyway. That political creativity is totally lacking
in the US.
Second, what would happen to
the cost of labor, if all the immigrants were visible? The US is addicted to
cheap labor--just as addicted to cheap labor as we are to illegal drugs from
Mexico. The poor in America refuse to do the work the poor in Mexico are glad
to come here and do. (How did we get to that state of affairs? But that's
another story.) But there's no end to the addiction. We love our Walmart
prices, inexpensive fruits and vegetables, clean-cut lawns and cheap
construction--all of this enabled by immigrant labor--cheap abundant illegal
immigrant labor. The illegality enables exploitation and low wages: The reason
the labor is so cheap is that the workers are illegal. If we suddenly pull the curtain back on
American prosperity, and expose the sea of illegal workers, their wages will
rise, and they'll be outcompeted by the next wave of illegal workers. What do we do then?
The US is obviously an
attractive place for Mexicans. But
getting here is dangerous. Why not
simplify: bring the US to Mexico! Six northern Mexican States border the US.
Article 4 of the US Constitution provides for the admission of new states. A
given territory has to vote to be admitted, the US House and Senate pass by
simple majority vote a joint resolution accepting the territory and the
President signs off. The new state must
adopt a form of government and constitution that comply with the US
Constitution.
However, the form of the vote
taken by the new territory is not specified.
One proposal would be to take all the illegal immigrants as having voted
with their feet. With the benefits that
would accrue to residents of the Mexican states of Baja, Sonora, Chihuahua,
Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, who are left behind it would be a
no-brainer. Their children would have
free schooling through high school, wages would rise, the drug lords would be
swept away and both the former Mexicans and US citizens could come a go across
the Rio Grande as they please. US snow birds would have expanded winter
roosting, property values would rise, economic development would ensue. At five-
or ten-year intervals, each next layer of Northern States could be subsumed in
this process.
Impractical you say? Look where we're heading. Mexican's are fleeing a bad life by the
millions. Liberalization of Mexican
immigration policy will only accelerate the trend, as it did after amnesty.
Mexico is coming here, or we can go there.
Let's do both.
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