ON THE IMMIGRATION “PROBLEM”
April 22, 2924, 9 pm Eastern, 6 pm Pacific
Presenty by: The Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism The Socialist Education Project 4 th Monday Webinar
Woody Guthrie wrote his famous song “Deportees” in 1948 decrying that “All they will call you will be ‘deportees.’” And “they chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.” He wrote at a time when the US political economy depended upon temporary immigrant labor.
Since the 1940s particularly, the globalization of the economy, increased violence and repression within countries (largely involving United States interference), growing income and wealth inequality and poverty, climate catastrophes and the rise of repressive regimes everywhere, emigration has increased. The United Nations has estimated that “the number of international migrants has been robust over the last two decades, reaching 281 million people living outside their country of origin in 2020, up from 173 million in 2000 and 221 million in 2010. Currently, international migrants represent about 3.6 per cent of the world’s population.” And today, they represent a large and growing percentage of the agricultural and manufacturing work force. Now, “the immigration problem” is the issue dominating campaign and election debate. Both parties conceive of immigration as a problem. Is it? What are its causes? What role have immigrants played in America’s economy? How should the left respond to the vicious attack on immigrants and the draconian proposals made by political candidates to address “the problem.”
| 
