Citizen Brand

Immigration and the Economy

If the immigration debate results in a tightening of the borders, some of us had better be prepared to take a second job as a farm worker.  If we don't, some American farmers will be out of business.  This is not a simple issue, yet some would have us believe it is.

The story in the link quotes fourth generation vegetable farmer Will Rosseau, pictured above.

"Illegal immigrants make up about 53 percent of the nation's roughly 1.8 million farmworkers, and cutting off the flow of willing workers — legal or not — to the fresh fruits and vegetables that need picking would spell the end for many farmers, Rousseau said.

"We know local folks won't take those jobs, at any price," said Rousseau, who hires up to 700 seasonal workers to harvest his crops in Phoenix."

In any stage of American history, immigrants from all over the world have made up the working class of this nation.  It is no different today.  The economy will not function with only account executives, vice presidents and CEO's.   Just ask Will Rosseau.

Meanwhile today, hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets of cities large and small to continue to make their voice heard.  And they deserve to be heard and treated with respect.  It's an election year and this editorial in the Dallas Morning News should be in every candidate's briefing book for the rest of the year.  Consider the close of the editorial:

"The U.S. Senate failed last week to reach a compromise on immigration reform, lengthening the odds of any progress on the issue before the November elections. If yesterday's march showed anything, it was a hunger to be heard and to be treated with dignity.  It's a message our political leaders would be wise to hear."

We are witnessing something this country has not seen in a long while.  History is being made before our eyes.  And let us not forget, each of us is in this country because of immigration. 

Immigration protest

There is a great back-story to Monday's protests in Los Angeles regarding the immigration debate raging away in the USA right now.  FastCompany.com tipped me off to it.  The story is how it is that 500,000 people knew where and when to go for the protest.  Half a million people learned primarily from two sources: radio and social networks.

I checked out Blogging.LA to learn more about the protest itself and the great thing about it was there were no arrests, no violence but lots of passion for this hot button issue.  The reason it is a hot button issue is because like so many other major issues of our day (social security; health care; poverty etc.), immigration has been ignored until it (and the other issues) reach some sort of crisis point and everyone rushes to judgment.  That is not the way good laws are made.  I believe we have a simple guidepost regarding the immigration issue in the US and that is the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.  "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free."  End of political comment.

I do want to return to the protest and how it was organized.  Half a million people in one city were mobilized via Spanish radio and via web based social networks.  In this election year, if I'm running a political campaign, I am paying a lot of attention to what happened in Los Angeles on Monday.  A candidate on the wrong side of a hot button issue might find themselves staring out at a half a million people who are not there to support him or her, but rather to remind the candidates who is their real boss.

And from a non-political communication point of view there are two take aways.  Radio still works and the new social networks are finding their voice.