Immigration laws around the world
For the second part of my presentation I decided to add my personal opinion about the global attitude against undocumented immigrants. This topic is very important to me because I know many people I grew up with who are undocumented, devoid of a reasonable pathway to citizenship. This second half of my presentation will focus on some of the most inhumane immigration laws here, and abroad.
Arizona and Alabama have, in most recent years, been subject to extensive media coverage in regards to their implementation of strict anti-immigrant laws. Arizona’s SB1070 law makes it legal for local policemen to act as immigration agents, detain anyone who they believe may be an illegal immigrant, and arrest anyone who gives work to undocumented immigrants. Governor Jan Brewer enacted the law back in 2010. However, since then, the Supreme Court has worked to block some of the main provisions. It is important to note that Gov. Brewer cited federal inaction, overpopulation, a lack of jobs for citizens, and increasing crime rates that allegedly included dozens of beheadings in the desert. It was later found that the governor was fabricating some of the claims because only one case that included a beheading had been investigated since her time in office.
Gov. Bently of Alabama implemented an even tougher law in 2011 that also coincided with many of the provisions of the Arizona law, but goes a step further and requires public schools to disclose the information of undocumented students. It also gives local police the ability to check the status of students in public schools, and determine whether people are in the country illegally.
I was surprised to learn that although the United States has in most recent years established very harsh laws against undocumented immigrants, it is not the toughest. Australia has 5.5 million undocumented immigrants. Their law requires that all authorities immediately detain non-citizens without a visa and deport them. Between 1999 and 2003 they had several thousand child refugees from South East Asia and the Middle East deported.
In the United Arab Emirates, who’s population of almost 4 million undocumented immigrants makes up 85% of the popuation, they have one of the toughest laws in the world. Their country is a hotspot for foreign investors because there is an abundance of cheap labor available. Ironically, the strict immigration law prohibits anyone from being active in any sort of labor union. This means that an 80-hour week is a common occurence as are terrible living conditions, back-breaking works and no access to clean water. Most of these immigrants live in makeshift huts.
Journalism and the war against the I-Word
As journalists we have to carefully select our words when talking about minorities in the media. Our words have the power to sway political opinions and inspire violence against racial groups at the same time. When it comes to the issues of illegal immigration, the media is split on what term to describe people who reside in a country illegally. Some argue that “illegal immigrant” is the correct term. Others, say that “undocumented immigrant” should be used.
Why is this debate pertinent to our society one may ask? Currently there are 12 million undocumented immigrants who reside in the U.S; these are 12 million media consumers who may feel offended by how they are portrayed in the mainstream media.
AP Style recommends the use of the the term “illegal immigrant” as long as the word “illegal” isn’t used as a noun however, Fox News uses it without discretion.
The AP Style Guidelines state that “illegal immigrant” is the preferred term. However, it also states that illegal should not be used as a noun. In fact, I argue that this is the most recognized term. I searched these terms using the Google News database. The search produced 16, 200 results of news articles using that said “illegal immigrant” and 1,550 results for the other.
Colorlines, a magazine published by the Applied Research Center, which describes itself as a “a racial justice think tank using media, research, and activism to promote solutions” believes that the “I-word” (illegal) is a derogatory statement that promotes discrimination against immigrants regardless of their immigration status. Their campaign, Drop the I-Word, strives to eradicate the term from the mainstream media. Spanish-language media agree. In an article by New American Media, it states that Spanish-language media do not use the I-Word and instead prefer to use “Undocumented”. Chinese media, on the other hand, strictly uses the I-Word.
Unfortunately, our media market in the United States is not a stranger to bias. Some news organizations conceal their political intentions diligently, while others like Fox News do not. Fox News and CNN are considered by many to have completely different approaches to their media coverage, especially in regards to politically sensitive issues such as immigration. Fox News tends to have an openly conservative bias especially against stories about illegal immigrants. Their online search database revealed 35,955 stories with the term “illegal immigrant” versus 6,311 that say “undocumented immigrant”. CNN, considered to be at the opposite political spectrum as Fox News had 4,385 stories with the I-Word and 685 with the other in their most recent archives.
Undocumented immigrants are of different ethnicities, however, Hispanics are usually depicted as “Illegals”
The I-Word has a negative connotation that not only discriminates against immigrants, but also damages the credibility of the news organizations that use it. Most importantly however, is in what context the word is used, and what images are associated with it. The United states is a melting-pot of immigrants from all over the world, yet, Hispanics are often associated with the I-word.
Four Seventy 