Witch Hunts vs. Illegal Immigrants, Research Paper Example

Drawing a Comparison between the Witch Hunts and Illegal Immigration Problems.

Illegal immigration is the one topic you see frequently in the news nowadays. As I’ve been searching for a current topic that demonstrates some common behavioral features and characteristics of the European Witch Hunts, I began to think back to a conversation I had once had with my 12 year old daughter. She was asking me about the illegal immigration. She had heard stories on the news about how the illegal immigrants where taking over our jobs, and became very concerned that this might as well happen to me and my current employment. I spent a few minutes reassuring her that this would never happen to me and that the types of jobs most illegal immigrants are taking are those that many Americans do not want in the first place. Reflecting back on this conversation I started to observe similarities between the current topic of Illegal Immigration and the Witch Hunts that took place in Europe in 1600s. I believe people to have similar fears and thus to behave in similar ways in both mentioned situations.

I have recently found a curious article in The New York Times, telling about a crime committed by two white teenagers: they were charged with the cruel and eventually fatal massacre of an illegal immigrant from Mexico. The fact was they actually beat him up to death. One of the young men faced “the most serious charge, criminal homicide”, because, according to the prosecutor, “he kicked Mr. Ramírez in the head as he lay unconscious on the ground after being punched by another of the six youths. That kick proved to be the fatal blow”. The mere cruelty of the crime committed by two young men shocked me. What was initially regarded as a street fight eventually transformed into the intense national debate over immigration. The lead prosecutor Mr. Frantz declared that “They called Mr. Ramírez a spic… They told him to go back to Mexico. They told him: ‘This is Shenandoah. You don’t belong here”.

If looking at these statements superficially, they seem to be plainly related to the issue of racial discrimination. At first glance the conflict is all about hatred to the representatives of other races, to immigrants with different color of skin. However, if looking a little deeper into the essence of the conflict, if analyzing the subject and considering the history of this particular area, another picture seems to emerge. What if the mentioned quarrel is a sort of culmination of the economic problems the communities in the area are having? An article in the Northern Virginian Daily Newspaper of January 2009 states that the Unemployment in Northern Shenandoah Valley has spiked to 5.1 percent, which is the greatest since 1996. Many of the unemployed are in the process of applying for seasonal jobs. Naturally, the seasonal positions are as a rule occupied by temporary labor that is mostly represented by illegal immigrants. The fact is they often have no other choice but to hold down jobs that only provide seasonal earnings. If analyzing the situation, it is no wonder the relations between natives and immigrants are rather strained, sometimes even transforming into hatred.

Recollecting what we have learned about the economic problems and strains the community has been going through during the times of witch hunts, as well as the anxiety the society has been experiencing, I can’t help observing similarities between social moods typical for both situations. In the current case the illegal immigrant from the Shenandoah Valley is the victim of cruelty provoked by social unhappiness and economic distress. If looking at the data provided by statistics, we can only imagine how great a dissatisfaction of the natives is. The young men “charged in the fatal beating of an illegal immigrant from Mexico” probably heard their parents frequently discussing at home how the illegal immigrants are depriving local community members of the possibility to work and to earn their living by taking at least temporary jobs, especially in case they have just been fired. Similarly, in 15th century midwives came under much the same community’s scrutiny for delivering the newborns and providing healing, which signified their being in control of human’s life and death. People at those times failed to understand any type of scientific innovations, they would normally attribute any sort of physical problem such as disease or even death to the devil’ involvement. Moreover, suffering the repeating epidemics of plague, undergoing famine and severe poverty, people were typically looking for someone to blame for all the troubles they were going through. Midwives turned out to be at the top of the list, transforming into handy and easy targets of the overall angry attacks, just the way illegal immigrants seem to do now, when thousands of people are looking for reasons for their not having a proper job and struggling to make ends meet for their families.  Just the way some hailstorm that destroyed the community’s crops and contributed to an overall misfortune would trigger a round-up of all suspected witches, we presently fight and brawl with the illegal immigrants for the financial problems originally caused by ineffective state policy.

Being truly interested in people’s feelings and opinions over the issue, I have decided to take a look at the comments posted on some of the discussion group web sites related to the problems of illegal immigration. I would like to list some of those here in the paper, just in order to show people’s mood with regard to the discussed topic. For example, one of the posted issues related to the subject of illegal immigration I found was New York’ plans to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants: “Virginia County Votes to Deny Services to Illegal Immigrants. Our administration is trying to get at one of America’s favorite instances of tolerated lawbreaking: our de facto guest-worker program, created by the non enforcement of immigration laws”. Here are some direct comments to the question: How do you think the US should handle illegal immigration? :

“My wife is a legal immigrant. Immigrants are great, if they are legal. Ship the illegals back to wherever they come from. “ 

“They are depleting our welfare system and they don’t even pay anything into it. Everyone that checks out at a store in front of you can’t speak English and uses their little food stamp card. Enough already.”

“All illegal immigrants should be deported just as President Hoover did in the past. America is for legal citizens. America’s jobs are for legal citizens. The country is in a huge mess right now and Americans are losing their jobs, homes and pensions. If there were jobs for them, which they have a right to over an illegal alien, then they should get the position. Unfortunately our government seems to think it is more important to have the illegal vote for most politicians. Isn’t that sad; greedy and self-serving.”

The above comments are just examples of what you observe when a topic of this nature is posted. How easy it would be now to get wrapped up in a situation like the one in Europe, when times were tough, people’s property was being plundered by state in order to support and protect the country in the times of wars, continuing international conflicts and domestic problems. Today we are facing the times of economic decline, when the needless, cruel war is costing us unexpectedly large numbers of lives and amounts of resources, when the problem of scarcity of natural resources is s topical as never, and unemployment is reaching its record numbers. Nevertheless, should we not think of whether it is ok to go back to the 17^th century and repeat the mistakes of our ancestors? Should we allow ourselves to fix the problems by killing innocent people, illegal immigrants being made scapegoats for causing many of our troubles? Directing own dissatisfaction toward the areas of racial dissimilarities and misunderstanding is dull and thoughtless. No type of killing or cruelty can be excused. I believe people just have to learn to coexist as peacefully as possible, learning to avoid misunderstandings, and being able to make distinction between true and false reasons of troubles, directing their efforts to fighting the problem, not each other.