Global Capital and Immigrant Rights, Research Paper Example

The issue of discrimination of migrant workers has been a subject of discussion in many debates especially in the U.S. Migrant workers face a lot of problems in the countries that they inhibit today. Although migrant workers face a lot of discrimination in their new homes and work places, their number still rise despite the abuses met on them. This is because the problems that they faced in their native home are far much worse than the discrimination and victimization they experience in the countries that they live in now. With this realization, many individuals and organizations have volunteered to ensure that migrant workers are not subjected to so much victimization. Such movements were witnessed in the U.S in the spring of 2006.

William Robinson documents the events that led to the rise of immigrant right movements in 2006. He provides that the rise of immigrant right movements were catalyst by the rise of the anti migrant repressions and racism in America. There were also several reported cases of migrant abuse along the borders and also in their work places. There was also escalation of reports that migrant workers were not allowed to possess valuable documents such as driving license an issue that subjected them to a lot of trouble as they were unable to access many services without the document. Although all these problems contributed to the rise of the immigrant right movements in the United States in 2006, the major reason that increased demonstrations was the passing of HR4437 bill by the House of Representatives introduced in March 2006. The bill criminalized anyone living in the United States without proper documentation. It also proposed the construction of 700 mile militarized wall in the borders of U.S and Mexico. It further provided that anyone, organization helping an immigrant would be treated as a criminal. The bill also provided that anyone living in U.S without documentation should be deported.

With the rise of the immigrant right movements, there were demands that were universal in all movements. Forming the heart of the demands was the call for the bill not to be implemented. Also, besides call for the abandoning of abuse (sex, and others) of the immigrant workers, the movements also demanded that they (immigrants) be allowed to work on eight hour shifts and that their pay to be increased. They also demanded that they be allowed to own permanent work Visas in the U.S.  Robison provides that the economic and political elites in the U.S were those behind the call for deportability of migrant workers because they feared the change in global capitalism ways which will not allow them to control labor force and that the migrants can control the economy. They feared that new investors can use the cheap immigrant labor to challenge their economic power.