• stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
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    5 months ago

    I disagree. Countries don’t have to “handle” people. Most people can handle themselves - if the laws and government allow it. Immigrants don’t want to live in poverty and dependent on welfare any more than citizens do. They want to work, they want to have homes, they want to support themselves and their families. And if they get forced into accepting welfare or engaging in illegal work or criminal activity, it’s because a broken immigration system doesn’t allow them to live or work legally.

    Ninety percent of the “border crisis” in the US or the “refugee crisis” in Europe could be solved if countries just let people in and gave them work permits.

    Some people need help, I realize. And if social services in Western countries weren’t so overloaded and underfunded by bad government policies they’d have room to help immigrants as well.

    I mean, one in three calories produced in the United States is thrown away. Wasted. When you complain about food banks being overloaded by hungry immigrants, don’t blame the immigrants, blame the stores that dump millions of dollars of product straight into dumpsters covered with bleach, and the laws that allow it.

    Ten percent of homes in the United States are vacant. When you complain about housing costs being driven up by immigration, don’t blame the immigrants, blame the landlords who let houses and apartments sit empty to keep rents high, and the laws that allow it.

    And so on and so forth. If immigrants are “straining” our systems - and that strain has been much exaggerated in the media - it’s not because we don’t have enough resources. It’s because we badly mismanage the resources we have. It’s not a resource issue, it’s a policy issue.