What do you tell to those people who say “immigrants are stealing our jobs”?
Typically I respond with the obvious “they’re not” answer - but even if they were - it’s important to realize who the real enemy is in that situation. These people are often coming from war-torn or poverty-stricken countries, primarily BECAUSE OF U.S. CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM. They wouldn’t even be here if they weren’t forced by horrific material conditions.
I ask the person to consider if they would want to leave everything, their family, common language, homeland, for no reason other than “my life might be a little better there” and the answer is obviously no. The immigrants they are concerned about (the poor, desperate brown ones - not the rich French or x “white” ones) are coming out of absolute desperation and taking shitty jobs that often aren’t even ones they’d be doing in the first place. They are the most exploitable and therefore most exploited people. They have much more in common with you (the x ignorant or racist person) than you do with any of these people you see on TV. Why don’t you stop blaming them and punching down and focus that energy on uniting with others like you - working class people - and take some action instead of posting racist memes on Facebook?
Well said.
i like this framing
Capitalism creates poverty and misery and exports it abroad: Immigration is often caused by Imperialism, the highest stage of Capitalism. People from third world countries find themselves unable to live a proper life due to the shackles of Western Imperialism and decide to move to the Imperial Core, in search of a better life. They are then exploited as a cheap labor force and used as scapegoats by the same people that exploit them to justify all the issues and contradictions of the Capitalist system.
This is where the “immigrants are taking over our jobs” narrative comes from.
To add, propaganda and legal policy around immigration and border policy always has to do with capitalists demand for labor, and their ability to socially control the groups they’ved turned into migrants.
When there’s a labor shortage, immigrants are welcomed. When that shortage goes away, or is only needed in smaller amounts, they restrict immigration via the law, and demonize them publicly.
Thanks for your input! I forgot to mention that
I’d say it’s the capitalists who are fucking you, not your fellow workers. Especially not those who are the most vulnerable, exploited and poor.
As for a “Marxist-Leninist take on immigration”, well there isn’t one. This is too broad of a framing. You need to ask more specific questions and the answer will differ on a case to case basis. As materialists we understand that different circumstances call for different policies. You cannot adopt a universal position on a political issue that is independent of material reality. The notion that we can arrive at a policy, an ideological stance or a “take” that is always correct simply by virtue of some intrinsic moral or philosophical universality is pure idealism.
End goal of our project is the complete disolvement of all borders and a universal wage for labor. Untill then anti-imprealism, anti-colonialism to prevent the exploitation of the underclass/3rd world liberals love to do by bombing countries then exploiting the workers and creating racial tensions through there media.
Just the rich pitting the poor against each other.
