The media portray Syrian and other refugees flooding into Europe sympathetically, which is completely different than the way they portray Latino immigrants coming to the U.S.
Why is one group of immigrants/refugees shown as deserving of support, while Latinos are claimed by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump to be rapists and criminals?
It is obvious that the Syrians and Iraqis have been forced out of their homelands by war and Civil War. They are unquestionably fleeing political violence, much of it caused by the U.S. government, directly or indirectly. Many Americans think, “Latinos are coming here to take our jobs and get benefits.” They have been told these hateful lies by their so-called political leaders.
Most Americans don’t know that Latinos have been forced to leave their homes and families by economic violence, also largely caused by U.S. corporations. CAFTA and NAFTA opened borders to U.S. business, crushing small farms and businesses in Mexico and Latin America. Those countries were also opened up to supplying people in the U.S. with drugs and American prison gang culture.
It is now so dangerous in Mexico and Central America that people there must flee. When a local gang threatens to kill a child, where they in fact kill an adult member of the family, there is nothing left for the others but to flee. Like the Syrians and Iraqis who are fleeing war, there is nothing for people to go back to. Yes, members of their families often remain, but life as the migrants knew it is gone. It is not there to return to any more than people can return to Syria.
While there have been problems, both governments and individuals in Europe have on the whole welcomed the migrants there. Young men interviewed on CNN in September said, “The Austrian government handed us blankets, food and drinks. Then they brought in buses which took us to the Vienna train station. They helped us board the trains that took us to Munich, Germany.”
In Europe the human sentiments of the citizens motivated them to reach out to the migrants and help them. But at the same time governments began imposing new limits and restricting entry while nationalist anti-immigrant groupings and parties became more vocal. It remains to be seen how much the people can push their governments to welcome those fleeing violence.
In contrast to European responses, the U.S. government built a fence which funnels people into the Arizona desert with the intent that people would die there – – and some do. The ones who make it through and do the difficult work in the fields, in homes, in the hotels, and on construction sites are being made into scapegoats for the problems of the U.S. economy. As robots eliminate jobs, people in the U.S. are told the lie that jobs have gone to Mexico and China. No, those jobs only went and have been eliminated forever.
