No such thing as an "illegal alien"
There’s an online cafe whose theme is about calling for the deportation of “illegal aliens.”(*) An example of one of the comments you find on the “Good News” BBS there says, “Heck yeah! They deported ten Bangladeshi mari,” mari being a counting word for animals. The thinking and activities of those calling for the “extermination” of “illegal aliens” are reaching dangerous levels. Members are operating a page for reporting the “illegals,” and they even share reports on crackdowns and physically go to sites where the authorities are arresting people to report on location.
While they have been reported in the media before, their open hate as expressed in their words and deeds is not something that should be taken lightly. We are seeing a typical case of racism and xenophobia, in the sense that you have social frustration in the form of job anxiety turning into aggressive hate against certain groups.
They claim their actions are about “protecting domestic laborers by deporting illegal aliens,” and they say all they are doing is informing the public about “the foreigner question,” mainly about crimes on the part of foreigners. That, however, is just an excuse that attempts to justify prejudice and hate, and it is being followed by errant diagnoses and solutions.
For starters, their claims fail to note that immigration and migrant workers are here as a result of our social problems and not a cause. Agricultural communities are in collapse; society is no longer participating in child-rearing and so there is a lower birthrate; industry has experienced big business-led, deformed development; and there is serious socioeconomic disparity in the labor market. This, combined with global inequality, is resulting in immigration and migrant labor.
Their one-sided claim that foreigners are “taking our jobs” is also problematic. There could, of course, be debate about whether there is job conflict over jobs between migrant and domestic laborers. Many studies, however, indicate that jobs are not determined simply by the number of workers there are, and that the industrial development that comes with migrant labor actually contributes to the creation of more jobs. Also, the current “employment permission program” provides for various ways to make sure there is no conflict over the same jobs. It is hard to accept the claim that migrants are taking “Korean” jobs under this program, designed as it was to fill the vacuum created by the fact there are certain types of jobs domestic individuals would rather not take. Making those kinds of conclusions is close to racist mobilization of the masses by creating an “enemy in our midst” to deal with the social discord that comes with the lack of job security of these neoliberal times.
It is of course a fact that at construction sites and with undocumented migrant workers, there can very well be conflicts over jobs. However, the fundamental responsibility for that discord lies not with migrant workers or domestic workers. The responsibility lies with a system that distorts what the discord is. With employers using workers to have them compete on the floor for low wages, we need to be thinking about ways to prevent, by law, that kind of thing from happening.
Which is why we need to be saying there is “no such thing as an illegal alien” instead of calling for their “extermination.” Unions need to see how, if there is increased exploitation of undocumented migrant workers, that increases unfair competition with domestic workers. The only way to prevent falling wages and worsening labor conditions would be to protect the right of (undocumented) migrant workers to organize and their rights as workers.
We are “fighting with other poor people because we don’t have the strength to fight poverty.” The anger of people living in an uneasy society is making others into scapegoats. The social anxiety being turned into attacks on outsiders must not be allowed to grow. It is time for the Minju Nochong, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, to get actively involved in this issue.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_opinion/310878.html
There’s an online cafe whose theme is about calling for the deportation of “illegal aliens.”(*) An example of one of the comments you find on the “Good News” BBS there says, “Heck yeah! They deported ten Bangladeshi mari,” mari being a counting word for animals. The thinking and activities of those calling for the “extermination” of “illegal aliens” are reaching dangerous levels. Members are operating a page for reporting the “illegals,” and they even share reports on crackdowns and physically go to sites where the authorities are arresting people to report on location.
While they have been reported in the media before, their open hate as expressed in their words and deeds is not something that should be taken lightly. We are seeing a typical case of racism and xenophobia, in the sense that you have social frustration in the form of job anxiety turning into aggressive hate against certain groups.
They claim their actions are about “protecting domestic laborers by deporting illegal aliens,” and they say all they are doing is informing the public about “the foreigner question,” mainly about crimes on the part of foreigners. That, however, is just an excuse that attempts to justify prejudice and hate, and it is being followed by errant diagnoses and solutions.
For starters, their claims fail to note that immigration and migrant workers are here as a result of our social problems and not a cause. Agricultural communities are in collapse; society is no longer participating in child-rearing and so there is a lower birthrate; industry has experienced big business-led, deformed development; and there is serious socioeconomic disparity in the labor market. This, combined with global inequality, is resulting in immigration and migrant labor.
Their one-sided claim that foreigners are “taking our jobs” is also problematic. There could, of course, be debate about whether there is job conflict over jobs between migrant and domestic laborers. Many studies, however, indicate that jobs are not determined simply by the number of workers there are, and that the industrial development that comes with migrant labor actually contributes to the creation of more jobs. Also, the current “employment permission program” provides for various ways to make sure there is no conflict over the same jobs. It is hard to accept the claim that migrants are taking “Korean” jobs under this program, designed as it was to fill the vacuum created by the fact there are certain types of jobs domestic individuals would rather not take. Making those kinds of conclusions is close to racist mobilization of the masses by creating an “enemy in our midst” to deal with the social discord that comes with the lack of job security of these neoliberal times.
It is of course a fact that at construction sites and with undocumented migrant workers, there can very well be conflicts over jobs. However, the fundamental responsibility for that discord lies not with migrant workers or domestic workers. The responsibility lies with a system that distorts what the discord is. With employers using workers to have them compete on the floor for low wages, we need to be thinking about ways to prevent, by law, that kind of thing from happening.
Which is why we need to be saying there is “no such thing as an illegal alien” instead of calling for their “extermination.” Unions need to see how, if there is increased exploitation of undocumented migrant workers, that increases unfair competition with domestic workers. The only way to prevent falling wages and worsening labor conditions would be to protect the right of (undocumented) migrant workers to organize and their rights as workers.
We are “fighting with other poor people because we don’t have the strength to fight poverty.” The anger of people living in an uneasy society is making others into scapegoats. The social anxiety being turned into attacks on outsiders must not be allowed to grow. It is time for the Minju Nochong, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, to get actively involved in this issue.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_opinion/310878.html
