[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: [California Greening] Immigration: is a policy of compassion possible?

[Gerry Gras]

Wes Rolley wrote:
>
> http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2011/11/immigration-is-policy-of-compassion.html
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	[California Greening] Immigration: is a policy of compassion
> possible?
> Date: 	Thu, 10 Nov 2011 06:03:13 +0000
> From: 	Wes <wrolley at charter.net>
> To: 	wrolley at charter.net
>
>
>
> In my previous post
> <http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2011/10/thought-experiment-tipping-point.html>
> I mentioned Laurence C. Smith's /The World in 2050/ and promised to
> connect his ideas to Green Party Policies. I still was not sure where
> this was going to take me and therefore, overly ambitious about the time
> frame. It will take a lot more than the two weeks I mentioned.
>
> In the meantime, I did get an OpEd for my local paper out of it. It will
> be run on Friday Nov. 7 in the Morgan Hill Times, but you can read a
> copy at Polizeros
> <http://polizeros.com/2011/11/09/the-world-in-2050-is-what-we-make-today/>.
>
> There are two forces that will drive the movement of people in coming
> decade. One is obviously the mounting pressures from population growth.
> If one has to leave their homelands, then why not to a wealthier
> America? or a more welcoming Canada? The other is climate disruption
> where drought causes famine, where sea level rise floods coastal cities
> and delta farmlands and some places just become unbearable.
>
> Estimates of the number of climate refugees vary widely. We know how
> many people live in affected areas... but it only a guess as to how many
> will chose to leave when not yet forced to do so. Some estimate it to be
> as high as 50 million.

Fifty million?  When?  I think I have read numbers higher than
50 million, but it may have been for later years.

>
> Even if we don't agree to such a high number, still we have to admit
> that there will be some. Pacific Islands will be under water. Increased
> desertification already affects Africa
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2011/nov/01/somalia-drought-camps-map-interactive>,
> the Mediterranean
> <http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/10/27/355639/noaa-climate-change-mediterranean-droughts/>,
> even Texas
> <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v478/n7370/full/478450a.html>
> (sub's req'd). How many will be displaced by this? I don't know but the
> refugee camps in Kenya are already over full.
>
> Along with this climate disruption, we will will have political
> disruption as well. There has always been a resentment against new
> immigrants in the US, even though this country is the product of a
> succession of immigrations. Now state after state, most recently
> Alabama, have passed laws claiming to protect the US from "illegal"
> immigration, but in reality with a strong racist motivation.

I could be wrong about this, but I think that historically
opposition to immigration goes up wehn more people are
unemployed.

Gerry

>
> Then, as I was thinking on this issue, two news items game me the
> impetus to start writing. One is the release of a report by the
> International Energy Agency (IEA) that gives a very sobering assessment
> of climate risk. According to the UK's Guardian
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/09/fossil-fuel-infrastructure-climate-change?CMP=EMCENVEML1631>:
>
>
>     "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the
>     International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried – if we don't
>     change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond
>     what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will
>     be closed forever."
>
> That prettymuch tells us that we need changes in energy policy now. But
> we also need to understand how it will affect immigration here.
>
> Before this week, I might has painted a bleak picture, one of the US
> demonstrating a fortress mentality closing all its borders with Herman
> Cain electric fences or moats filled with alligators. Then, a stunning
> thing happened. Arizona voters successfully recalled State Senator
> RusselPearce, President of the Senate and the author of Arizona's
> infamous immigration law, a law strongly opposed by Arizona's Green
> Party. Arizonans have had enough of militancy and racism. The election
> turned on the fact that Arizonans wanted their legislators to have a bit
> of compassion.
>
> I expect that there will be more political dislocations. If the US
> accepts climate refugees, they will compete for existing jobs. The
> Democratic Party has always tried to make immigrant communities as part
> of their political base. But they also have leaned heavily on labor
> union support that will act to protect their jobs for existing
> membership. This will not sort out quickly.
>
> What does this mean for Greens? Neither of our presidential candidates,
> Kent Mesplay and Jill Stein, seem to have paid much attention to this
> issue. If they were to do so, if they were to focus on building a
> national policy based on compassion, I am sure that they will find
> acceptance in the electorate.
>
> Additional Information: Green Party Platform on Immigration / Migration
> <http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/2010/social-justice.php#1002510>.
>
>
> --
> Posted By Wes to California Greening
> <http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2011/11/immigration-is-policy-of-compassion.html>
> at 11/09/2011 10:03:00 PM
>