I have been wondering about the “problem” of too much immigration from the southern countries (Mexico and a lot of others). My first instinct is that there isn’t actually a problem at all, we have a need for the kind of labor and skills that they are willing to provide, and the immigrants are willing to take amazing risks and hardships in order to do it. In addition to assisting to fill our need for “labor” many of the folks that are attempting to immigrate have amazing skills, knowledge, education and points of view that would be extremely valuable in many ways. They are NOT just nuisances, they represent valuable resources just like previous “waves” of immigrants from around the world. There presence enriches us in many ways. They don’t represent a cost to us, they represent valuable resources and the potential for good friends. They won’t be coming if there isn’t an economic, and safety, incentive to do so – it seems pretty obvious that we need each other, we need them and they need us.

But, beyond the question of whether the immigrants are doing good or harm, there is a humanitarian question of why are they coming. When I try to put myself in their shoes I find it almost unimaginable that I would be willing to put myself and my family through what they have to go through to get here unless there were some highly compelling reasons to do so. I can’t fathom what my life would have to be like to give up my home and community, spend all of my savings, expose my family to huge dangers and hardships, traveling for weeks (or months) in order to get to a place where I will be paid almost nothing and be constantly in fear of being found by the police and deported. Not to mention that they know they will be facing fear, hatred and harassment from the citizens of their new country (the USA).

Obviously things are horrible where they are coming from. That horror comes in many forms, starting with poverty, lack of opportunity, corrupt and dangerous authorities (including their police), and the dangers presented by the “drug lords” and drug cartels in whatever country they live in. These all add up to a do-or-die situation for those that finally attempt to enter the USA, with the risk of dying being very high no matter what they chose to do.

One of the reasons for this situation has to do with the presence of the drug lords and vast amounts of profits from the drug business. Without this contribution to their country’s problems the folks that are driven to immigrate would be poor, would have limited opportunities – but would be relatively safe from violence. This condition was their situation until perhaps the mid-1980’s when things really changed for the worse because of the ability for some very bad people to achieve vast wealth by supplying America’s apparently insatiable demand for drugs. This demand results in extremely dangerous and unstable conditions in the supplying countries.

Our out-of-control drug problems are fueling the dangers in “supplying” countries that are largely responsible for causing people to come to the much safer USA at almost any cost. (Even though they are far from being safe here.) This situation will never stop as long as the dangers of staying at their homes are much higher than the dangers associated with attempting to enter the USA illegally. The solution clearly is not tighter security or stronger fences, the solution is to find some way to prevent the reasons that people are leaving their home countries. A big part of that has to do with getting our drug problems under control. In addition, we could help reduce immigration pressures by assisting these countries be more financially secure for the residents. A third part of a solution would be to help these countries reduce the overall level of graft and corruption in their governments.

As long conditions exist that make it worthwhile to attempt to illegally enter the USA it will keep happening and we will remain powerless to stop it. First and foremost we have to find how to stop our fueling the terrible conditions in the immigrant’s home countries through the “market” created by our drug use. So far we have been spectacularly ineffective in doing so. Our efforts of enforcing drug laws in an attempt to stop drug use (the “war on drugs”) doesn’t, hasn’t and won’t work, it just pushes the drug market underground – driving up the profitability of the flow of cash and drugs to the “drug lords” and their co-conspirators (often government agencies and the police). While creating more, harsher, laws is traditionally the first approach that is thought of, it doesn’t work. We need a better solution, one that reduces the drug problem by reducing the conditions that result in people turning to drugs to solve, or hide from, their very real problems created by our dysfunctional society.

That brings us to the solution to the immigration “problem” being one based on our looking internally at ourselves. What is it about our society that is causing us to have such an out of control drug problem? Why are people compelled to use so many drugs? I am convinced that people take so many drugs because it is their escape from overwhelming hardships. A stable and appropriate society doesn’t have these types of drug problems. The problem isn’t with the users, it is with our society/government/economy or a combination of all of them. The “users” are just people reacting as people do to the conditions that they are facing. It isn’t a “failure” of some sort, it is just who we are as people. We have created situations that result in these problems. People react to those situations in very predictable ways, including turning to the use of drugs. The magnitude of this problem is a relatively new situation, one that might have a workable solution if we really take the time and effort, and investment, to solve it.

I am not saying that I know of a solution, I am just pointing out that the problem of immigration isn’t with the immigrants. We need, and should embrace, a “healthy” amount of immigration (whatever that means). The current magnitude of the “problem” exists because we contribute to the creation of the forces that compel people to take such outlandish risks. The solution lies at home (our home – as well as theirs). The advantage of it largely being our problem is that if we can find a workable solution at home, that solution will also be the solution to many of our internal problems. We are faced with the apparently insurmountable drug problem at the same time as we face other apparently insurmountable problems such as global warming and saber rattling by many countries around the globe. The hopeful part is that it seems like the solutions to all of these problems are likely to be the same. It isn’t by use continually stomping out a lot of different fires, it is more like getting one large fire under control. Good luck to us in figuring out what that fire might be, and how to get it under control.

Fixing our economic and social problems at home will go a long way toward resolving the immigration problem by reducing the pressure to escape conditions in the countries of origin – but it will not solve the entire problem. The larger solution will require bolstering the economies of those countries so that we have all benefit from a more prosperous and stable shared (rather than exploited) global economy. That also means working with ourselves to change long standing approaches of economic exploitation of third world (or emerging) economies. Our corporations and government need to work with these countries for the benefit of all, not just the benefit of those that have to power to control.