05-04-2010, 11:45 PM
My thoughts? Legalize drugs. Enact generous, low-restriction guest-worker programs, and clear routes to citizenship. The upsides are huge, the downsides are exaggerated. An open border is, all else equal, a happy border.
I don't know what would happen to an American who tried to live illegally in Mexico, but I can only imagine their circumstances would have to be fairly unique. Mexicans have obvious motive to migrate to the US, the same as migrants have always had: high-paying jobs. Americans have no similar incentive to move to Mexico.
The US does deport a lot of illegal migrants every year. But you get a lot more of them, and most stay under the radar. Partly, this is because they're good at staying unobtrusive, but mostly, it's because employers are happy to have them, and so have no incentive to report them.
In Europe, they have the European Union, which means more or less free access for guest workers anywhere, no questions asked. Gordon Brown recently got into some trouble regarding popular opinion and one woman's comments about the number of Polish and other Eastern European workers in the UK - there are quite a lot, but many are going home due to recession. Unsurprisingly, despite their perfectly legal right to live and work in the UK, there is still substantial resentment at their presence. As Matt and Trey once put it: "They took our jerbs!"
-Jester
I don't know what would happen to an American who tried to live illegally in Mexico, but I can only imagine their circumstances would have to be fairly unique. Mexicans have obvious motive to migrate to the US, the same as migrants have always had: high-paying jobs. Americans have no similar incentive to move to Mexico.
The US does deport a lot of illegal migrants every year. But you get a lot more of them, and most stay under the radar. Partly, this is because they're good at staying unobtrusive, but mostly, it's because employers are happy to have them, and so have no incentive to report them.
In Europe, they have the European Union, which means more or less free access for guest workers anywhere, no questions asked. Gordon Brown recently got into some trouble regarding popular opinion and one woman's comments about the number of Polish and other Eastern European workers in the UK - there are quite a lot, but many are going home due to recession. Unsurprisingly, despite their perfectly legal right to live and work in the UK, there is still substantial resentment at their presence. As Matt and Trey once put it: "They took our jerbs!"
-Jester