If close the “Door” can really solve the problem we have…
A friend of mine, she loves to spend her time on people-watching. She loves setting in the coffee shop to watch pedestrian. One day, I was with her, and she said, “It is really cool and interesting to see people who is different race then me. I’m wondering where did they come from.”
Needless to say, when you walk around in the New York City, Washington D.C, or any other big cities around the world. You will immediately realize that we are sharing our living environment with many people who has different skin tone, different outfit and different language. After you talk to them you find out that these people might come from different area, different city, even different countries. We call these group of people immigrates.
Some people who has strong opinion on nationalism, they think foreigners and immigrates are unwanted outside interference. They think, they are here for taking their jobs and land. Most of nationalist think that because of immigrates, the unemployment rate keeps increasing. On the contrary, I have different thoughts on migration and immigration.
When we looking back and reviewing our human history, we would realize that the birth of the nations has significant connection with these huge human movements. However, the huge impact from migration and immigration cannot be merely ignored by ourselves, by our societies, our governments and our history.
Either from science viewpoint or Biblical viewpoint, both authoritative resources all proved that our world and our societies are made by human kind migrate movement. They were move from one continent to another continent, and also they move from on countries to another country. From the science viewpoint, the migration of human history could traced back to million years ago. According to Yuval Noah Harari’s book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” he claimed,
“Human first evolved in East Africa about 2.5 million years ago from an earlier genus of apes called Australopithecus, which means ‘southern Ape’. About 2 million years ago, some of these archaic men and women left their homeland to journey through and settle vast areas of North Africa., Europe and Asia. Since survival in the snowy forests of northern Europe required different traits than those needed to stay alive in Indonesia’s steaming jungles, human populations evolved in different direction.”
Also from many other science’s research, we also knew that many thousands of years before Christopher Columbus’ ships landed in Bahamas, a group of the nomadic ancestors of modern Native America who cross over a Bering Strait as known as “Land Bridge” from Asia to what is now Alaska more than 12,000 years ago. Therefore, according to conclusive evidence from the science research, we able to approve that our nations now is made by migration.
The word of God is the ultimate authority for us. In the Bible was also talking about the migration during the early period of human history, especially in the first two books. Human migration actually happened when we fall from the Garden of Eden, and this is our very first migration in the early period of human history, Genesis 3:23 says “Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” (English Standard Version) And after that the second migration we can count from the Bible is God call His people, especially Abram go from his home to the the nation was bless by Him, In Genesis 12:1–4 says “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in your all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran” (English Standard version). Therefore, I can use another authoritative conclusive evidence to prove that nations are made by migration.
Like I mentioned before, a lot of nationalist are the biggest force want to keep the “external forces” out of the country, and the biggest reason from nationalist is frequently attack from the terrorism. Definitely the damage from them had significant impact for our society and for civilian. But on the bright side, the contribution from the immigration also has significant influence for the nations, especially for United States. Base on an article name How Immigrants Positively Affect the Business Community and the U.S. Economy from Center for American Progress proclaim that,
“Immigrants added $ 1.6 trillion to total U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP. Economists have found that immigrants complement native-born workers and increase the standard of living for Americans…Although immigrants’ economic contributions are significant, they could be even greater. If congress enacts a legislative reform that includes a pathway to citizenship, then more unauthorized immigrants could participate in the formal economy.”
Also in addition to expanding labor supply, immigration can also increase the demand for labor. Migrants expand consumer demand for goods and services. In the medium to long turn, immigration can be expected to lead to more investment.
Yet, unfortunately, when new President Trump took the chair from Obama, he issued two new executive orders. On January 25, President Trump announced to build a wall between Mexico and US, this action is to fulfill his promise during his election. An article from The White House name Executive Order: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements report that “Secure the southern border of the United States through the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border.” Also, in January 27, President Trump issues the executive order banning entry for 90 days by citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The order also indefinitely halts refugees from Syria. From the executive order, a lot of foreigners inside and outside the United States have been affect, and become to victim of the travel ban. The impact of travel ban could affect with different groups in different ways. We already know that the ban would impact citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Also impact dual nationals, those who hold passports from more than one country. Ban would also impact Green card holds, and those who have legal residency in the United States, and last it would also impact some frequent travelers from another country.
So my question is what should we do with it? Should America keep all the legal and illegal immigrants out of country forever? If so, what’s the benefit from it or do we even get benefit from it? Look around the world, cooperation has play a significant role for our world and for our society. from the small side, people cooperated with people. From the big picture, the prosperity of international business and world trade cannot leave without the cooperation. From these two angles, America might need to rethink their action on “Closed-door policy”.
Works Cited
Azam Ahmed, Manny Fernandez and Paulina Villegas. “Before the Wall: Life Along the U.S.-Mexico Border.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Feb. 2017. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.
Harari, Yuval N. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Toronto, Ontario: Signal, McClelland & Stewart, 2016. Print.
Laya, Patricia, and Austin Weinstein. “Trump’s Immigration Policy Makes Jobs Goal Even Tougher to Reach.” Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 09 Mar. 2017. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.
Parlapiano, Anjali Singhvi and Alicia. “Trump’s Immigration Ban: Who Is Barred and Who Is Not.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Jan. 2017. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.
Staff, National Immigration Forum. “Press Releases.” National Immigration Forum US Needs to Welcome Immigrants Not Turn Them Away Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.
