Immigration

After watching the film in class, Little Alien, it made me think what would I do if I was in their situation...  Illegal immigrants is a highly associated topic in today's news all around the world.  We hear about it more around the U.S. with the border of Mexico and Arizona as well as local immigration laws in our state of Georgia.  However, immigration happens all over the world as people try to flee from their countries in which they live in poverty and do not have a chance to grow or be free.  They have a dream of living in a place of freedom and living their life being able to grow, work, and just live without having the fear of getting killed. 

There are huge arguments about the issue of illegal immigrants and how they should or should not be able to travel and live in another country.  There are laws abandoning it and also highly enforced border regulations, such as the ones we saw in the movie where there were literally 5 or 6 different traps and fences set up to disallow crossing the border (not to mention the video cameras watching some of the borders, even being able to see at night from long distances). 

The Center for Immigration Studies in 2008 tallied the total of illegal immigrants in the United States to be around 11 million people which was 12.7 million in 2007.  According to their studies, the top three highest immigrated states are California, Texas, and Florida. 


Back to the film, the harshness that these immigrants went through is absolutely crazy.  Some of their testimonies of getting beaten and injured before sending them back was very brutal.  As well as some of their tactics to try and get to other countries.. Some of the immigrants would ride hundreds of miles under tractor trailers where spare tires are kept in order to reach it to somewhere where they dreamed to live freely and start another life.

The question that should be asked is if it were you, would you do the same?  If you lived in poverty and had no hopes of growing and being able to work and provide for yourself, would you try to go somewhere else to start a better life?  Being born in the U.S. and growing up in Georgia, i haven't had to try to immigrate somewhere and try and start a better life.  However, if i was in some of the places these people were in the movie i believe i would try and start a better life somewhere.  Who is to tell me i cant live somewhere in which i want to grow and live freely without harsh governments and wars on the streets everyday. 

The only argument that could seem to be legit is that of tax dollars.  That is a highly mentioned argument dealing with illegal immigrants today in the U.S.  If governments would consider having start up programs for these immigrants to become legal and get a job so they could pay taxes before forced out, then it would be better. 

What would you do if you were in their situation....