People Immigrate Because They Have To

Why would anyone in their right mind leave their country of origin unless they absolutely had to? While a number of immigrants have financial stability (and success) at home, most come to the United States because they have no other choice. Would you leave your family, your community and a language you know for any other reason than survival? Would you cross a desert, knowing there is a good chance your could die or be raped (men or women) just to have an "adventure?"

Some people who are against immigration agree that things are bad in Mexico and other Latin American countries, but that the U.S. should not pay the price for "helping out." The truth is that the U.S. greatly benefits from helping out. As many of you already know, immigrants bring lots of buying power, productive labor, and pay taxes that will support our aging population (yes of course they pay taxes)

Here is an op-ed piece in the LA Times by Professor Gregory Clark of UC Davis:

Illegal immigration: our best foreign aid
As long as the southern border divides prosperity and poverty, the natural flow of migrants cannot be stopped.
By By Gregory Clark
July 31, 2007

About 160 million people with incomes a fifth or less than the average U.S. income now reside less than 1,500 miles from our southern border. Given this huge income gap, more border agents and more miles of fence cannot prevent substantial illegal migration. But such migration is actually the United States' most effective foreign aid program, helping some of the poorest people in the world. Some believe such migration should be tolerated, not fought to the death.

... since...[1800], the world economy has experienced a process called the "great divergence." Paradoxically, as barriers to the flow of goods and information have declined, the differences in living standards between the rich and poor economies have widened.

The U.S. happens to be located on one of the stark fault lines of the great divergence. Despite the liberalization of the Mexican economy since 1982 and trade liberalization measures such as the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993, income per person in Mexico has recently declined compared with that in the U.S. Per capita income in Mexico now averages 22% of that in the U.S. -- the biggest gap since 1950. But Mexico is rich compared to Central America and the Caribbean. Other countries have seen more dramatic declines and have incomes per capita less than 10% that of the U.S.: Honduras and Haiti at 6%, Nicaragua at 9%. Mexico now has its own problem of illegal migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador...
for complete article: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-clark31jul31,1,3002288.story