In this age of anti-immigration sentiment, many of the fears raised by its proponents can be traced back to money.
Other causes for this sentiment can be associated with culture and religion. However, dig a little deeper and I can assure you that money will often edge culture and religion to second or third place.
So why is money at the source of most of anti-immigration sentiment in the world today?
If 100 jobs were newly created in your town and there were 100 able-bodied residents to do them, how would you feel if 20 immigrants arrived in your town just as those new jobs were announced? What if 5 of those immigrants were equally able-bodied, but ready to work for less wages than the current residents? What if a resident was not hired because an immigrant got the job instead?
Would it matter what religion that immigrant practiced? Would it matter what hometown she came from?
Religion and culture would likely have no impact on the residents’ feelings of resentment toward the immigrants.
Quite simply, some residents will have lost out on potential wages to these immigrants. Potentially, no money for food or gas, no new clothes or a vacation to somewhere warmer. Perhaps no money for basic necessities.
With no income, lifestyle suffers and stress increases.
Who cares about culture and religion at this point? These residents just want to survive.
So the grumbling and complaining begins, the new arrivals are resented, and talk of preventing new immigrant arrivals gains traction.
All for what? To put more money in their own pockets because that is how the system is run.
Take money out of the picture and all those problems dissolve away.
Those jobs may still be there, but anyone is free to take them and to help contribute to the smooth running of their society. There is no competition for resources or wages.
At this point you must be thinking: “What the heck is the point of money anyway? Why is it so frequently at the heart of our social problems?”
Why indeed?
