Talking Point: Immigrants

Dear comrades of the CPDA,

As of late, there has been intense focus on Syrian (and other) immigrants to Europe. The divisive issue has some, especially in Hungary, calling for very harsh measures against the would-be asylum seekers. Other nations, notably Germany, have called for the fullest efforts possible to aid those seeking shelter from war and terror.

In the United States, the issue of Latin American immigrants has once more become a political hot button. The standard arguments have been dusted off, and much like in Europe, Conservatives want to seal the border and expel the illegals. The Liberals want some path to citizenship, regardless of how one has entered the nation.

In the Pacific, Australia and others have had the same migratory issues with the "boat people" that arrive on their shores. And again, there is dividing opinion on the matter.

The common thread in all of these cases is the want of people to leave their homelands in search of security, stability, and possible prosperity. The Right's solution is to deny the filthy freeloaders and send them packing. Or worse. The Liberals, by contrast, are either in favor of finding some accommodation or passing the buck to a neighboring country. The mass flight of terrorized, oppressed, and tortured peoples from Latin America, North Africa, and the Middle East is not going to go away. The building of barriers, something we Communists have had some experience with (with not very good result), has been proven relatively ineffective in stopping those who have nothing to lose. The building and monitoring of these barriers costs a country time, money, and certainly some amount of human resource. Often, such barriers end up exasperating the crisis by forcing would-be immigrants into the hands of traffickers or smugglers. This tends to be a rather lethal business, as various tragedies have shown.

Some have argued, perhaps not unfairly, that the industrialized nations of the world should be doing something to help improve conditions in the afflicted nations that people are fleeing from. In many ways, various powers have been trying in various ways to do just that for years. In some cases, like Iraq and Syria, America has either had a critical role in causing the crisis or doing little when the problem was still manageable. Europe has it's responsibility too. A long history of colonialism has, suffice it to say, been responsible for some of the issues that have festered for the better part of a century. Even the more stable neighbors of war-torn or crime-riddled nations have a stake in these crises.

This is not a political issue, comrades. It is a social issue. A humanitarian issue. It is one that needs to be answered if there is any hope of limiting the damage done to various peoples. The human cost has already been too high.

Please feel free to discuss the topic.

In solidarity,

The-Necromancer
CPDA General Secretary