This article appears in the February 2018 issue of Sojourners magazine. To subscribe, click here .
Julie Polter: You write that inaccurate narratives about migrants—that they are freeloaders, criminals, and terrorists, or conversely always poor and vulnerable—lead us to ask the wrong questions and seek ineffective or damaging public policies. What is an example?
Tisha M. Rajendra: False Narrative: Migrants only come here because of a simple cost-benefit analysis—they can make more money here than at home. If we just increase the costs, they won’t come, or if they are here without authorization, they will just return home. A Wrong Question: How do we reduce numbers of unauthorized border crossings and convince immigrants to stay in their own countries? Resulting Bad Choice: We treat them so badly—placing them in detention for months or years at a time—that they do not want to risk crossing the border.
What is the relationship between structures of sin and injustice and false narratives about migration? Our false narratives about migration support the structures of sin and injustice. For example, the false narrative I invoked above shields us from understanding how dependent our entire economy is upon the exploitation of undocumented labor. We don’t think it could be exploitation since the undocumented are “choosing” to come here and work. But a system where people contribute to a society through their labor but reap none of the benefits of full membership can only be exploitative.
Why does history matter when it comes to immigration policy? The importance of history in migration cannot be overstated. Migration is not only the result of poverty and unemployment—these factors must be “ignited” (in the words of migration theorist Saskia Sassen) by a certain kind of intervention from the host country. Some of these interventions, like colonialism, happened centuries ago; others, like foreign investment in factories, happened decades ago, but without them, we wouldn’t have mass labor migration.
Currently, the relationships between migrants and citizens are distorted by false narratives that the relationship is one where migrants are demanding goods and services that they have no right to. This is false. The relationships have their genesis in our own economic and foreign policies.
How can citizens “think about their relationships to various migrants in a way that illuminates rather than obscures their responsibilities” when it comes to undocumented workers? Citizens can learn the history. Citizens can also reflect on the myriad ways that our lives depend on the labor of undocumented migrants. Who picks our vegetables? Who cleans our office buildings and homes? Often undocumented migrants fill these jobs.
What might solidarity with immigrants in the U.S. look like? In my book I argue that solidarity involves interrogating the false narratives and creating new narratives that more accurately reflect reality. Concrete practices of solidarity will, of course, differ from person to person, but one thing that is important for citizens to do is to challenge the false narratives wherever they see them. To that end, I hope that my book helps others recognize the false narratives and replace them with truer narratives.
Tisha M. Rajendra is associate professor of theological ethics at Loyola University Chicago, and author of the book, Migrants and Citizens: Justice and Responsibility in the Ethics of Immigration.
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