Teresa Circle, one of Druid Hills's United Methodist Women groups, met last night to discuss Aviva Chomsky's book "They Take Our Jobs!": and 20 Other Myths about Immigration.
Chomsky's book challenges the following ideas:
Myth 1: Immigrants take American jobs.
Myth 2: Immigrants compete with low-skilled workers and drive down wages.
Myth 3: Unions oppose immigration because it harms the working class.
Myth 4: Immigrants don’t pay taxes.
Myth 5: Immigrants are a drain on the economy.
Myth 6: Immigrants send most of what they earn out of the country in the form of remittances.
Myth 7: The rules apply to everyone, so new immigrants need to follow them just as immigrants in the past did.
Myth 8: The country is being overrun by illegal immigrants.
Myth 9: The United States has a generous refugee policy.
Myth 10: The United States is a melting pot that has always welcomed immigrants from all over the world.
Myth 11: Since we are all the descendants of immigrants here, we all start on equal footing.
Myth 12: Today’s immigrants threaten the national culture because they are not assimilating.
Myth 13: Today’s immigrants are not learning English, and bilingual education just adds to the problem.
Myth 14: Immigrants only come here because they want to enjoy our higher standard of living.
Myth 15: The American public opposes immigration, and the debate in Congress reflects that.
Myth 16: The overwhelming victory of Proposition 187 in California shows that the public opposes immigration.
Myth 17: Immigration is a problem.
Myth 18: Countries need to control who goes in and out.
Myth 19: We need to protect our borders to prevent criminals and terrorists from entering the country.
Myth 20: If people break our laws by immigrating illegally, they are criminals and should be deported.
Myth 21: The problems this book raises are so huge that there’s nothing we can do about them.
From Jean Wynn - "Immigration is not just an American issue, it's a worldwide issue, and xenophobia seems to have been a constant in human societies since the beginning of time. So we can let those who are most xenophobic, most angry, most afraid, make all the noise and make bad laws. Then the rest of us - what? - just quietly forgive, while hoping that leaders will emerge among the (often darkskinned) immigrant communities? - or support organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which target hate crimes?"
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