Michael's Corner

Home or Abroad?

The people who oppose immigration are just being plain mean. But as Howard Beal, a mad prophet of the airwaves, once asked, “What does that have to do with the price of rice?”

Over the past few years, Kathy and I watched as some of our empty-nest friends, although reluctantly, allowed their adult children to move back home. We also watched other empty-nest friends, who have enjoyed their well-earned privacy, lay down the gauntlet.

There’s no right or wrong answer for helping a generation that doesn’t have access to the market the way their predecessors did. Moreover, there are only two solutions: bring them back home, or help them where they live. Kathy and I chose the latter. I don’t believe that makes us anti immigration, as there is something to be said for helping people where they live instead of absorbing them into your bosom.

Is immigration a form of theft? The very notion sounds absurd. Nevertheless, let us run a thought experiment: Nation A welcomes in a portion of Nation B’s citizenry. Who among Nation B would dare unroot themselves based on potential and not certainty? The answer? Its most ambitious, energetic, and capable people. So one could make a case that Nation A enriches itself by depleting Nation B of its best resources. Meanwhile, high-minded Nation A shrugs and says, “Well, maybe if Nation B formed a constitutional republic with some democratic principles, it wouldn’t lose its assets.” When Nation A makes such commentary, it’s based on the faulty assertion that governmental explantations are little more than weekend home-improvement projects. It’s why the study of history is important. For example, if the American colonists had ended up losers in an eight-year revolutionary struggle, they might have found themselves as immigrants, desperately seeking another shore to escape tyranny and oppression.

Pro immigration? Anti immigration? Helping revolutionaries? Looking the other way as bad regimes cannibalize nations? History is complicated. Borders are complicated. And so are the motivations concerning immigration… either way.

Michael DeStefano
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6 responses to “Home or Abroad?”

  1. ~D~ Avatar
    ~D~

    Yes, it is all complicated. There just are no easy one size fits all answers.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Art Hernandez Avatar
    Art Hernandez

    life is very complicated. It has always been. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    1. Michael DeStefano Avatar
      Michael DeStefano

      And no sooner we figure out a few things, the goal post moves.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
      1. Art Hernandez Avatar
        Art Hernandez

        yes

        Liked by 1 person

  3. 000,000,000'Shine Avatar
    000,000,000’Shine

    Seeking a world without borders, a global village is no beans . . .

    ✋️ 😆 🤚

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. abn4eternity Avatar
    abn4eternity

    Legal immigration is one thing. Legal immigration is peaceful and non-intrusive. Illegal immigration is an invasion by any other name. When immigrants enter a nation through proper legal avenues, there is an orderly process. With the global financial issues plaguing every nation, it is no wonder more people are streaming into what appears to be more stable nations. When you add in unstable regimes, dictators, military regimes, socialists, Marxists, and all the power-hungry people of the world, the future looks bleak. Growing up, when children grew up, they moved out of their parents’ homes to begin their own families. Now, children are either moving back in with their parents or not moving out at all. Many will say the reason is that the cost of living has gone up.I agree the cost of living has gone up yet I put forth this peculiar thought, what part of a person’s finances are basic cost of living? A new car? A new cell phone? Designer jeans. Name-brand clothes? Eating out? Ordering in? Cable TV? Internet? Vaping? Cigarettes? Alcohol? Entertainment? When did anything outside of basic needs such as food, water, shelter, and transportation become a basic cost of living? Outside these 4 things, everything else is a luxury. But let’s look back in time when families stayed together, back before the Industrial Revolution. Most families were farmers or ranchers or dealt in between. It was a time that families had to stick together to survive. Native Americans tribes were families sticking together. African tribes were families sticking together. It wasn’t until after Industrial Revoluvtion for the most part that families stopped sticking together. You can still see families sticking together in third-world nations.

    And, how is it that so-called third-world nations can survive on less than a month’s wages that an individual in a first-world nation earns? The fact that an individual’s monthly wages in a first-world nation can sustain a large family in a third-world nation is the main reason illegal immigrants flood into first-world nations only to find that the cost of living in that nation becomes an issue. Then ask yourself, who profits from illegal immigration? Who hires the illegal immigrants? Who exploits illegal immigrants? Then ask yourself who profits from all the social services given to illegal immigrants who may or may not pay taxes? How much money is funneled through social services to illegal programs or fraudulent entities? How many politicians and their groups profit from illegal immigration?

    Just food for thought

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