In the book I'm reading, I came across a story by a young Ecuadorian illegal immigrant and the hardships she endured growing up in a largely conservative community in the US. It got me thinking.
Since I'd rather not speak to a situation whose particulars I'm not privy to, I instead tried to put my self in a similar position. Romania doesn't have much of an immigration problem at the moment. We have some immigrants, but few compared to Western Europe. Not many people want to be here. (And honestly, witnessing the trouble and increasing danger levels in Western Europe atm, I'm grateful for that.)
In fact, people already from here are going to great pains to leave. I ve spoken to various people like workers and drivers who were simply astounded at the 2-3 thousand Euros that they were offered for backbreaking jobs in places like Germany or Spain.
And I get it. For a Romanian person, still, 2 thousand euros is a lot of money. The average monthly salary here is 925 euro (roughly). Many people working in the restaurant industry, cleaning, and other similar areas average only 500 euros a month.
You show them 3000, and that's their salary for half a year. And you say they could make it in a single month? Fuck my back and my health, I got kids to feed.
So while we're not dealing with immigration issues, we tend to be the immigrants who get shoddy looks abroad. For years, when non-EU immigration was trickier, Romanians were the pest of Europe. We were thieves to be shunned and ostracized at all cost.
And of course, I'd like to know those Romanians who've chosen to go abroad in search of better futures wouldn't suffer discrimination, that they'd have access to basic Healthcare, insurance, etc.
Just like I hope the people immigrating here now to be Glovo delivery boys and work in the hotel industry and whatnot would get access to the same.
All of us in search of a better stay...
Do all my compatriots agree with me? No. I'm sure many of them are vaguely racist people who cross to the other side of the street when they see a group of immigrants coming their way.
They have their reasons, mind. Much as we may be sympathetic towards little Ahmed, we can't turn a blind eye to the many vicious attacks, rapes, etc. taking place across Western Europe.
So some people here are content with shoddy immigration laws. They hear about these people living in cramped, dirty homes with little to no money and think "serves them right maybe they'll go back home". With Romania hopefully entering the European Schengen area soon, many of my compatriots hope this will lead to immigrants leaving our country and heading west.
Does it matter? What my compatriots think? Not really. It's not because of them that these people are left to live in shit.
If the government that be decided to introduce stiffer legislation to provide immigrants with basic rights and lead to a more pleasant stay, there may well be protests. The local right-wing party would probably roll out the trucks as they have before.
They did during the pandemic. I was there. The streets were lined with protesters. Did anything change?
We've got to watch the tendency to alienate and turn on our neighbors. In reading the immigrant girl's story, I kept noting hints of reproach, even hatred, towards the conservative community she'd grown up in. And while I have all the sympathy for the hardships that must've presented, I keep remembering they are not the main enemy here.
Liberal types say they are. Liberal types will default to the harebrained logic that immigrants have bad lives because the laws can't change because right wing closeted Nazis would oppose them.
The closeted Nazis think the same. That the country's in the dumps because liberal types are supporting and insisting on pro-immigration laws.
Yet I struggle to remember the last time anyone actually asked the people what they wanted. I mean for real, not that masquerade we call an election once every few years.
If hoards of protesters had any sway, the pandemic would've been over a whole lot quicker. Remember Trudeau s truckers? Or the protests against the Vietnam war?
Don't get me wrong, legislators do occasionally appear to do the bidding of the people, which is deceptively gratifying. But just because it suits someone's personal goals to do what you want doesn't mean they think highly of you. They treat you, as ever, as a useful idiot.
In immigration,as with so much else, it's important to avoid falling into overly simplified thinking. It's not the fault of your conservative neighbors. Or of your liberal neighbors. The lawmakers could, if they wanted to, find a way to create safer, better lives for the "good" immigrants (because let's face it, when we campaign for this, we're always thinking of little Ahmed and his three sisters, of girls like the one in my story, and not of gangs of goons who go about raping young women). So the government could craft that, while also limiting the entry of thugs, goons, murderers and rapists.
They just don't want to. Because what we have already suits them fine. Neighbors hating and attacking each other? That's just dandy.
It always has been.
In Europe, at least, before non-EU immigration was a thing, everyone hated Romanians and Albanians and whoever else was the official scapegoat. Sometime before us, it was Jews. Now, we're fine because someone else has donned the robe of official boogeyman. Are you starting to see a pattern here?
When someone tries to convince you it's the fault of your crazy neighbors, look twice, for you may be looking at a crazy despot.
