Week Eight: Immigration I – “Pull”
Diplomats, policymakers, and other experts generally think of international migration as taking two forms. The first is “Pull” migration in which something positive, such as family or greater economic opportunity, “pulls” migrants toward a new place of residence. The second is “Push” migration in which something negative, such as extreme poverty or danger, “pushes” migrants away from their original home. Over the long history of the United States, our experience has primarily been one of receiving “pull” migrants and so our immigration laws and procedures have been designed with that in mind. Receiving a significant number of “Push” migrants arriving overland from within the Americas, however, is a newer and more complex phenomenon that our immigration laws and procedures were not originally designed to address.
Because of the importance of immigration among the challenges facing America in the summer of 2021, we are devoting two weeks to immigration. We begin this week with “Pull” migration and finish our consideration of immigration next week with “Push” migration.
In a story for PBS NewsHour, Paul Solomon visited affluent Mt. Kisco, New York to look at what he called, “America’s thirst for undocumented labor” and consider the economic arguments both for and against, a less restrictive immigration policy. Solomon interviewed undocumented workers as well as people who employ them. He also spoke with advocates on both sides of the question who agreed about little aside for one thing; the current situation has created a “second class” of labor within the United States that is ripe for exploitation. The PBS video below runs 8:51.