At a meeting to save social services, someone threw immigration in our face.

[KamaAina]

Here in CA, Arnie has threatened to "terminate", or at least decimate, a program called In-Home Supoortive Services (IHSS), upon which tens of thousands of people with disabilities and senior citizens rely to stay out of nursing homes.

The IHSS caregivers here are represented by SEIU Local 521, which organized a town hall meeting yesterday featuring several of our local assemblymembers. During the open mic session, some guy comes up and asks how much money California spends "supporting illegal immigrants", clearly implying that the "savings" from rounding all the brownies up and sending them back where they came from :sarcasm: could be used to save IHSS and other social programs.

Now SEIU is known within the labor movement as being extremely aggressive in organizing immigrants. Information at the town hall was available in (at least) English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. We managed to boo the guy off the floor. One of the assemblymembers joined in and told the guy "Your time is up"!

But the fact remains: people looking for a quick fix to CA's budget crisis are looking for a scapegoat rather than actually trying to come to grips with the problem (or as we say out here, the "issue" :-) ), by raising revenue, for instance, by enacting an oil severance fee: we're the 4th=largest oil-producing state, and the only oil-producing jurisdiction in the world that does not tax oil production! And, as we've seen here ad nauseam, undocumented immigrants are a made-to-order scapegoat.

[chaska]

1. Hate to say it, but....

In bad times (at least the last thirty years) people scapegoat. It's just a fact. And it will only get worse.

The vast majority of people will at best only tolerate multiculturalism of any sort. And then only as long as it's largely unseen and not viewed as in any way threatening.

I'm afraid that because of this I've come to agree with them that multiculturalism is unworkable. Damn me if you will, but I'm just facing reality. You can't change human nature.

My search for truth has lead me to this position.

[EFerrari]

2. Well, we seem to be doing fine with multi-culturalism here in San Jose

Our Latino community predates the United States and our Vietnamese community is thriving, has added only gawd knows how many jobs to our economy.

Multiculturalism is not a choice that can be made. It is a fact of American life.

[KamaAina]

12. I hate to tell you this, but this meeting took place in San Jose

worse still, we haven't managed to hook up yet! :hi:

[EFerrari]

20. Oh, of course it did. I have a good ol' boy living right next door.

If he manages not to shoot any of us, we'll be in good shape. But he doesn't mean anything by it. He just gets nervous sometimes.

lol

:hi:

[Gormy Cuss]

6. I agree with you that people look for scapegoats in bad times.

However, the multicultural framework isn't the problem. There will always be some group to scapegoat even in the most heterogeneous of communities. Low income people, for example. Single or divorced parents for another. There's always someone who can be blamed.

[William Z. Foster]

19. oops

No one told the Swedes, the Germans, the Irish, the Poles, the Italians...

Too late now. They assimilated.

Guess "human nature" can change.

[EFerrari]

3. I sure didn't know that about oil in CA.

That's unbelievable.

:wow:

[jtuck004]

4. How much do immigrants spend in food, cars, car parts and repairs,

clothing, home mortgage or rental (both of which provide taxes to the state), social security and unemployment taxes they will never collect, and a thousand other things?

Maybe instead of booing the guy off the floor someone could find out if there might be an economic disadvantage to
thoughtless xenophobia?

Maybe, just maybe, the state doesn't pay out more in services than it takes in? I do understand that might not be true when our government is not doing enough to stimulate the economy, but focusing on immigration is just another distraction from our real need - jobs.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0428/Arizona-immigration-law-painful-lessons-from-Oklahoma

[pinboy3niner]

8. Excellent link! Five stars. nt

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[KamaAina]

14. It's been well documented, so to speak,

:-) that undocumented immigrants create a windfall for the federal government, mostly through Social Security; without them, the system would be much closer to collapse than it already is.

But at the state level, where the crisis is happening, I don't know. We have to educate their kids (or risk creating a permanent underclass), treat their illnesses -- thanks to repukes in Congress who deny them, and even legal immigrants!!, Medicaid, usually in the ER -- and so forth. And the feds don't kick in a dime: your basic "unfunded mandate".

The fault, though, lies not with the immigrants, but with the feds -- especially the repukes. But you already knew that, right?

[county worker]

16. A lot of immigrant services are funded by sales tax, vehicle license fees and federal and state

grants. I work as a cost analyst for a county alcohol, drug and mental health services dept. We serve all who have nowhere else to go. The costs that are not paid for by the clients are covered by those revenue streams that I listed. Also we get money from the general fund which comes from property taxes.

[jtuck004]

18. Nice word play ;) At a state level

many of them pay rent or toward the payments for a home, and the owners pay property tax. In every state I have lived in that is what pays for schools, city government, and sometimes medical care.

The things they buy usually involve sales taxes, including the money transfers they make to their homes.

But I think hospitals do depend on a lot of federal money, and I am sure they don't get as much as they spend in a lot of cases.
And that goes for unemployed citizens as well.

[w4rma]

5. Many people would rather scapegoat the weak than fight against the strong. (nt)

[EFerrari]

7. I'd pit our freepers, toe to toe, with any freeper anywhere

for ignorance and simple minded meanness.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Simple minded meanness

What an excellent choice of words! So so true.

[Cleita]

9. Did any body ask, how many elderly and disabled will

not be cared for when all the brown people, who look after them, are gone?

[pinboy3niner]

11. Good point! Reminds me of "A Day Without a Mexican"

One day California wakes up and not a single Latino is left in the state. They have all inexplicably dissappeared, chaos, tragedy, and comedy quickly ensue.

A thick fog surrounds California's borders, communication beyond state lines is cut off, and the Mexicans disappear: workers, spouses, and business owners are missing. Cars are abandoned in the street, food is left cooking on the stove. We meet the wife of a musician who's gone, a state Senator whose maid doesn't show up for work, and a farm owner whose produce is ripe and unpicked. A scientist asks any Mexicans who haven't disappeared to volunteer for genetic experiments: a female newscaster and the daughter of the musician may be the only missing links around. Why them? And where have all the Mexicans gone? Even the border guards grieve. The state and its economy grind to a halt. Written by <[email protected]>

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377744/

[Shireling]

10. SCAPEGOATING

IS SO INCREDIBLY IGNORANT. IT ALWAYS LEADS TO BAD THINGS. MUST HISTORY CONSTANTLY REPEAT ITSELF? WHY CAN'T WE MATURE SOCIALLY AND SPIRITUALLY?

WE ARE ONE. :hippie:

[KonaKane]

13. When times get tough, they always go for the immigrants

It's a time (dis)honored tactic of a tightening autocracy fueled by nationalism, fear and racism.

[pinboy3niner]

17. +100! In hard times, it's ALWAYS immigrants who are the "usual suspects" for scapegoating

That's our history, and it ought to be taught in History 101. Then, some may be prepared to think more critically (and skeptically) when it "rears its ugly head" again. It might also help to innoculate many against the great-SOUNDING rationalizations for anti-immigrant initiatives.

It's not a sometime thing--it's ALWAYS the SAME scapegoats.

Thanks for calling it out for what it really is. :thumbsup: