On Monday, the 13th of February, we watched a TedTalk in my global
studies class in regards to migration. The TedTalk was by a Dr. Khalid Koser, a
British professor/ author, and an expert in international migration. In the TedTalk
Dr. Koser shed some light on the issue illegal transnational migration. He did
make a few points that I did not agree as his propositions seemed to advocate
for cracking down on migration and didn’t touch on how to make access to
economic opportunities easier for people in developing countries (those who
tend to migrate). However, he gave a different perspective on how migrants and
their smugglers are seen by some people of the countries migrants go to. They
see the migrants as sleazy and subhuman, and the smugglers of the migrants as
even sleazier. However, Dr. Koser argued that that is not the case. He said
that the act of migrating is seen as a good investment in many developing
countries, where people struggle to get visas to more developed countries. He
gave an example of a poor Pakistani family. If they were to save up about
$10,000 the most practical thing they could with that money would be to get
their son smuggled into the UK. The reason for this is because even if in the
UK the son ends up cleaning toilets for less than minimum wage, the value of
that money is worth a lot in Pakistan, and if the son were to send to his
family in Pakistan the money he earned from cleaning toilets, they would get a
return on that investment in just 2 years (TedTalk, Why Migrant Smuggling
Pays).
This aspect of the TedTalk really spoke to me as my parents are
immigrants albeit legal immigrants, and I am very well aware of the fact that
people, regardless of where they come from, leave their homes for a reason. They
are not sleazy or sub-human, but rather they leave their countries for a
reason, even if they are coming into a country illegally. Not only that, but
their reason is the most human thing they can be doing, and that is trying to
thrive. But immigrants, legal, and especially illegal are treated like garbage.
In the second reading of the third chapter in Globalization
The Transformation of Social Worlds, a compilation of numerous articles on
globalization by Stanley Eitzen and Maxine Zinn. Author William Robinson makes
several points on the exploitation of illegal immigrants. He brings up the
point that illegal immigrants come here for better economic opportunities, and
are exploited under the threat of deportation (Eitzen, Zinn, 56). Immigrants
have to do the dirty work and serve almost as slaves dealing with
discrimination, and racism all along the way, and if they try to speak up they
are forced to go back to a place where they have very little opportunities. The system we have dealing with
immigrants, in the Global North, and I would argue, especially here in North
America is problematic, and little did I know that the day after I watched Dr.
Koser’s TedTalk I would directly witness and even experience some of the fear,
and discrimination that this system creates.
About 9 years ago my aunt in Poland
applied for and received a visa to the U.S. She had wanted to leave Poland and
come to the U.S, because even though her life in Poland was not completely
devoid of social and economic opportunities, Poland in Europe is seen as a
second-rate country. Although a part of the European Union it is still seen as
lesser than one like Germany or France. Poles are seen as weaker, in a lower
social class, and Poland itself is not as developed as other European
countries. My parents left for those reasons and nine years ago, so did my
aunt. The visa she received was a tourist visa in which during a ten-year period
she could be in the U.S for six months at a time. She went back and forth from
Poland to the U.S twice, after she decided that she was going to stay here, as
her six months began running out we realized that it was very difficult to
obtain a residency here in the U.S without a green card marriage which she did
not want, and so her friend in Vancouver, Canada, offered to let my aunt stay
with her, where Poles can be in visa-free for up to six months. During this
time my aunt tried to get a Canadian visa, and apply for a residency status.
Her efforts failed, and not wanting to go to Poland she stayed. We had tried to
urge her to go back to Poland, but she refused. We did not condone her staying
in Canada Illegally, but it was her decision. Now six years had passed
with her in Canada illegally, and all of a sudden I get a call from her that
she is seriously ill. She was unable to get a proper diagnosis at the ER
because she wasn’t Canadian resident, and there was a language barrier with her
and the doctors, as her friends abandoned her at the ER out of fear of being
caught harboring an illegal immigrant. She was sent home from the ER unable to
communicate with the doctors, and without a proper diagnosis, she did not know
what was wrong with her. She was especially afraid as she believed she had a
stroke since her face was partially paralyzed. The situation being as drastic
as it was, I and my mother had to come up to her, to at least check on her.
My mother drove up from the suburbs of Seattle where my home is, picked
me up in Bellingham, and we drove to New Westminster BC, where she was staying
now. There we were told that no one wanted to have her anymore, people
were afraid of what would happen now that she was sick. Not sure what to do we
decided to try to get her into the US as her US visa was still valid. We
approached the U.S border around 10 pm on Tuesday, February 14th. I was
driving. I pulled up to the border, showed the border agent me and my mother’s
passports and my aunt's visa. Immediately we were detained and told to wait in
the Border Control office for her to get her immigration form. We walked in and
the first thing I noticed was that the other people who had been detained were
sitting on a bench that read “do not sit down unless instructed to do so”. We
were called to speak with a border officer, and after enough probing, her
illegal status in Canada was discovered. We were told to sit down on the bench
and were not allowed to leave the bench or move too much on it unless we were
instructed to do so. Then the waiting began. I was trembling, and afraid. I had
no idea what was going to happen. I noticed a tv with a video playing in the
background advertising how much of a positive experience crossing a border and
getting one's immigration papers
is, “all you have to do is
cooperate”, the video claimed, everything will be fine, the video implied. At
the end of it a logo for the U.S popped up and the narrator said “welcome to
the United States of America” in English and then in several other languages. I
kept thinking about how inaccurate the video was. The officer called my aunt
several times, about every half an hour or so, and I would have to interpret
for her. After 2 hours of this the officer put on gloves grabbed her hands and
took fingerprints, then he took her picture, filled out a form which I
overheard him call the “suspect alien” form, and called all three of us over.
He told us that he could not let her into the U.S as she was illegal in Canada,
and told us to report at the Canadian side of the border, where Canada will
handle the problem. I was disappointed but relieved that we weren’t arrested
right then and there. I was also shocked by his response as he did seem
genuinely sorry for us.
After that, we crossed back into Canada where we were detained at their
border office. It was already around midnight. The Canadian
border officer who was handling our case was somewhat professional about it,
but he was visibly not pleased with her staying in Canada for so long under the
radar, and I thought that was very unprofessional of him. He took our car keys
and told us that we “dodged a bullet” and that we should have been arrested by
the US border patrol, and that he had “a lot of questions for us”. He then
directed us to a set of seats and told us to wait, thankfully we weren’t
restricted to just sitting in the chairs this time. He also offered us some
water. After about 2 minutes he called us up and began asking the questions. He
asked for names, addresses, phone numbers, and everything that my aunt did in
the last 6 years. I had to answer them as I was the acting interpreter for my
aunt. This process took about an hour. After that, he disappeared into his
office and we were instructed to wait again, and so we waited nervously. I was
still uncertain of what was going to happen, and that uncertainty was scary.
While we waited I witnessed an even worse situation unfold for someone
else. A young man, around my age was detained. His skin was darker, he looked
like he was from south eastern Europe. I hear a border officer speaking sternly
to him “who are you? You’ve been caught with a fake Romanian passport. How much
was the passport?”. The man speaking quietly and with a thick accent said
“10,000 euros”. “You paid “10,000 euros for a fake Romanian passport? Why? Who
are you?” the border officer said, but it was almost like he was yelling at
this point. The young man was quiet and looked terrified. The officer handling
our case came up to the counter. “You can come over here,” he said. I came
forward with my aunt. He gave back me and my mother’s passports “I don’t need
these he said”, and then left to finish the paperwork. We went back to our
seats. I turned my attention to the young man. “I did not get visa,” he said.
The officer shouted “So you paid 10,000 euros for a fake passport?” I couldn’t
help but think of the Khalid Koser TedTalk, in which Koser explained that
$10,000 was a good investment to get your son into a different country. I
looked at the man, he was so young and from a poorer country. "Could he be
someone's son trying to make money for his family"? I thought to myself. I
then saw them pat the man down, and look through all his things. They continued asking him
questions which I couldn’t hear, but they were continuing to shout at him. I kept
thinking about the language barrier. The man was scared and probably couldn’t
speak or understand English very well, which was why he was quiet. But the
border officer’s response to that was to shout even louder. I kept thinking
about how stupid that was. If a person can’t speak a language, you don’t cross
the language barrier by shouting, that will only make things worse, yet that’s
what they did, and the man remained quiet and terrified. After that ordeal they
seated the young man and told him he was going to be deported immediately, and
that he was banned from entering Canada for a year.
Hours went by, it seemed like every time I’d look at my phone to check
the time another hour had passed. It was already almost 3 am. I had begun
pacing around the room. I asked a border officer what was taking so long and he
told me that their system had broken down but that now it was fixed. I then saw
a ford van pull up. The officers grabbed the young man put him in handcuffs and
led him outside. He was placed in the back of the van. It was probably going to
the airport. Soon after we
were called to the desk and our officer returned our car keys to us and had
some paperwork which he proceeded to explain to us. My aunt’s passport was to
be confiscated. She had copies of her passport given to her. She had one week
to leave the country, or else a warrant for her arrest would be put out. On the
day of her flight she would have to arrive at the airport, report herself to
CBSA (Canadian Border Services Agency), return the forms that were to be given
to us signed, and then she would be giver back her passport and escorted to her
flight. ‘That is more than enough time and you can do this right now” he said.
Which kind of pissed me off my family doesn’t just have $1500 just lying
around. My family members are immigrants, most of them work lower paying jobs,
and struggle with payments. But we were thankful to leave that place. My mom
had a friend in Surrey BC, who she immediately called. We were able to spend
what was left of the night there. It was past 4am when we arrived, and we spent
the next day trying to figure things out.
We
were able to pool together the money to send my aunt back to Poland. She is now
living with my uncle getting the medical care she needed. She thankfully did
not have a stroke but rather Bell’s Palsy a kind of serious infection that
spreads to the face and paralyzes it. I don’t think I will ever forget what
happened that night. It will always be ingrained in my memory. My aunt and
especially the young Romanian man were both illegal migrants. Both were caught,
and they both suffered the consequences. My
aunt was not a bad person, (all thought maybe a little irresponsible), and I
don’t think the Romanian man was either. Yet the system that is in place with
migration and borders treats them as such. Although there are a lot of bad
people in the world, this system doesn't stop them. Rather it ends up harming a
lot of good people, as countries can have any reason they want for keeping
someone out. This only perpetuates discrimination, division and inequality in our world.
TEDxTalks. "Why Migrant Smuggling Pays." YouTube. YouTube, 24 Sept. 2013. Web. 26
Feb. 2017.
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