• Yes, the people who barely have clothing, risked human trafficking and perilous sea crossings are after my job, livelihood, or whatever.

    Fucking conservatives and their mental gymnastics all to serve capitalism

      • I think people raised under conservatism, like people raised under capitalism in general, have a counterintuitive and antisocial instinct to “punch down”.

        Capitalism teaches us wealth and power come from hard work and merit, if people are poor it’s because they don’t work hard and have no merit, and that poor people are fundamentally bad people.

        So if they have to choose between blaming poor migrants who are willing to work for low wages - or are forced to work for low wages, because the law doesn’t allow them to work legally or access the legal protections of citizen workers - or blaming rich, powerful business owners who decide to exploit these poor migrants, that instinct overrides logic.

  • I wished fascists could read, maybe then we wouldnt need a meme lile that to explain a very simple thing.
    But here we are, people so dumb they believe any shit that comes out of a Russian fake-news-farm.
    And please dont give me the “but but but they are like us! Giving names doesnt solve a thing!” Bullshit.
    If they were like me, i wouldnt need to write this shit in 2024.

  • So y’all don’t see a connection with overwhelmed local community infrastructure, the lack of affordable housing, not investing in enough in schools and healthcare, and a tidal wave of immigrants at ridiculously high levels?

    Yeah, not all problems are connected, but some are. And while it’s ultimately the fault of the politicians for creating the immigration policies, immigrants still have free will.

    •  poVoq   ( @poVoq@slrpnk.net ) OP
      link
      fedilink
      11
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      There is no “tidal wave” of immigrants anywhere in Europe nor in other “developed” countries. All the problems you mention exist on their own and would affect the local population just as much if there were no immigrants. Edit: we could argue about “immigrants” Vs. “refugees” here, but the regular immigrants don’t come in small boats.

    • So y’all don’t see a connection with overwhelmed local community infrastructure, the lack of affordable housing, not investing in enough in schools and healthcare, and a tidal wave of immigrants at ridiculously high levels?

      No. I don’t.

      The problem is not immigrants.

      The problem is a broken government system that fails to allocate resources effectively.

      The problem is whole ass political parties are incentivized to keep the system broken so they can blame immigrants and leftists/liberals and get votes.

      I mean, if you make it illegal for an undocumented immigrant to get a driver’s license, you don’t get to complain that undocumented immigrants are driving without licenses. If you make it illegal for undocumented immigrants to work legal jobs, you can’t complain that undocumented immigrants are working under the table for sketchy employers at shit wages. You know?

        • I disagree. Countries don’t have to “handle” people. Most people can handle themselves - if the laws and government allow it. Immigrants don’t want to live in poverty and dependent on welfare any more than citizens do. They want to work, they want to have homes, they want to support themselves and their families. And if they get forced into accepting welfare or engaging in illegal work or criminal activity, it’s because a broken immigration system doesn’t allow them to live or work legally.

          Ninety percent of the “border crisis” in the US or the “refugee crisis” in Europe could be solved if countries just let people in and gave them work permits.

          Some people need help, I realize. And if social services in Western countries weren’t so overloaded and underfunded by bad government policies they’d have room to help immigrants as well.

          I mean, one in three calories produced in the United States is thrown away. Wasted. When you complain about food banks being overloaded by hungry immigrants, don’t blame the immigrants, blame the stores that dump millions of dollars of product straight into dumpsters covered with bleach, and the laws that allow it.

          Ten percent of homes in the United States are vacant. When you complain about housing costs being driven up by immigration, don’t blame the immigrants, blame the landlords who let houses and apartments sit empty to keep rents high, and the laws that allow it.

          And so on and so forth. If immigrants are “straining” our systems - and that strain has been much exaggerated in the media - it’s not because we don’t have enough resources. It’s because we badly mismanage the resources we have. It’s not a resource issue, it’s a policy issue.

  •  SkyNTP   ( @SkyNTP@lemmy.ml ) 
    link
    fedilink
    4
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    I generally agree with the sentiment, and I generally view immigration as a positive. That being said, to suggest that immigration doesn’t put any kind of pressure on housing, employment, and social services (at least short term, probably not long term), will defeat your argument before it reaches the ears of the people who need to hear the rest of it.

  • Immigrants are not only not a detriment to society, they are in fact a positive. Even the ones people in my area get mad about despite being hours and hours by interstate from the nearest border. More workers means more shit can get done, everything you’re mad about is because the system sucks and is designed to keep us in poverty.

    •  grte   ( @grte@lemmy.ca ) 
      link
      fedilink
      2
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      People act like jobs are a non-renewable resource that, once filled, that’s all you get. This is a total misunderstanding of how consumer based economies work. Economic activity is demand driven. More consumers = more demand = more jobs. This is obvious if you think about it. It’s why cities can exist rather than collapse once hitting a certain population because all the jobs are taken and no one can work anymore. It’s why you find way more opportunities in cities rather than podunk rural villages.

      Where the trouble comes in is that the population growth and job opportunities growth doesn’t necessarily happen at exactly the same rate at exactly the same time. There can be pain in the transitional period between when the population growth happens, and when the new demand stimulates the new job opportunities. That isn’t a reason to try and stifle the population growth. It’s a political issue. Something like universal basic services (or UBI), or a universal jobs guarantee where the government puts people to work on infrastructure projects (social housing in particular seems like a good idea) or the like, like New Deal era USA did until they can find something more to their liking would do a lot to soothe that pain.

      Ultimately, the new economic activity that’s created from the growth is a good thing and ought to be embraced.