We need to better understand why immigrants come to America

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Savannah Averitt is an undergraduate student focusing on immigration law and human rights at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. She is spending the academic term working internally at immigration organizations to gain an in-depth understanding of the ways in which these policies and systems affect individual lives.
Many people disagree with policies that allow immigrants to enter the United States. They may subscribe to the rhetoric that immigrants are taking “American” jobs or bringing trouble with them, and that their home governments should deal with their civil, economic and social problems. Others think these people should go to countries other than the U.S. for such opportunities. Though feasible for some, this isn’t an option for all.
It is important to understand that not all people immigrating to the U.S. have the opportunity to actually live anywhere else, the opportunity to complete necessary day-to-day tasks without having their lives threatened. Refugees and asylum-seekers define a group of people persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group, including sexual orientation and political participation. These people are often threatened every day of their lives by unimaginable horrors, simply by existing in their home countries. The distinction between immigrants seeking better opportunities and refugees fleeing persecution is often overlooked — for many, the policies of the U.S. have life-or-death stakes.
Immigration policy has been a hot topic in presidential races for decades and is addressed daily in social media and major news outlets. It is a particularly contentious topic that often strikes fear and defensiveness among proponents of stringent immigration requirements. There’s a lot of hate out there — a lot of anger, a lot of fear. And not a lot of understanding. Immigration cannot be encompassed by the single-story approach that dominates the media — the story that immigrants are bringing drugs and violence, trying to take advantage of U.S. taxpayer-funded social services and stealing American jobs.
When politicians talk about immigration policies in debates, how do those policies really work? When people are being let into the U.S., where do they go? When we hear immigrant, asylum-seeker and refugee, do we understand the differences among these terms?
Each of these labels encompass very different lived realities. An immigrant is someone who comes to a country to take up permanent residence. While this includes people who move for opportunities in employment and education, it also includes those fleeing persecution in their home country. The narratives pushed by major news outlets frame most immigrants as people who seek to enter the country to pursue the American dream for a better life, when the reality is more complicated.
An immigrant may move for many reasons: to take a job that pays better and to support their families; for opportunities in education and employment; or because they like the country. However, they may also move because they are refugees and are unsafe in their home country. This is hardly a choice.
When we talk about letting people into the country, we should make a clear distinction between those who are able to lead lives in their home countries, and those whose lives are threatened, for whom it is unfeasible to seek refuge in any country but the U.S. Most of them would prefer to stay home if they were safe doing so; the journey itself is perilous. In the last 10 years, more than 63,000 people have died or gone missing while migrating to another country. Despite harrowing statistics, someone deciding to make this journey believes that they have a better chance of surviving by fleeing.
When U.S. citizens with the power to vote are considering immigration policies, we must be clear on the consequences for the people affected by those policies. Closed-door policies for asylum mean very different things for people than restrictions on student or work visas (though both reasons for immigrating are important and can change people’s lives). It is crucial to view asylum as a different type of migration — one based on humanitarian reasons. The ability to seek asylum is a human right.
Regardless of one’s stance on immigration for employment or education, it’s our duty to protect this right.