A wall will not solve this problem just like a band-aid does not solve cancer.
We have to look deeply at the roots of the crisis and work as a global community to solve the problem.
I am not an immigration specialist, but I have some possible solutions.
In general, I believe that most people like to live near family and friends. They enjoy the habitat that they grew up if they are able to live there with peace and opportunity. The reason immigration exists, in a large part, is the fact that people cannot live with peace or opportunity in their homelands. How do we solve this problem?
Crimes Against Humanity
As we see in Syria, grave crimes against humanity force people from their homelands. The world leaders have to work together to rid our world against crimes like these. I believe there are peaceful solutions to this problem, and those solutions arise from studying the money made and spent as well as the affiliations behind these grave crimes, and working to right the situation with as much peaceful process as possible. Without fear of oppression, criminal behavior, imprisonment, or death, many people would choose to stay in their homelands.
Resource Protection and Management
Another reason people leave their homelands is because the resources are not sufficient to sustain opportunity and good living. The world leaders can work on this problem by finding ways to manage, protect, and sustain the natural resources that enable good living--resources such as clean air, clean water, and fertile soil are integral to good living and I believe the world leadership can utilize resources to work on this problem with success.
Education
We know that when people are well educated, they lead their countries well. When only some have the opportunity to be educated, problems arise. Too many in the world are not allowed to be well educated or do not have access to that education. Girls particularly suffer from this. We should work to uplift education in every corner of the world in meaningful and powerful ways.
Opportunity
There is a natural curiosity amongst people to learn about one another, and by providing more comprehensive world exchanges, I believe we can provide opportunities for people to stay in their homelands and live well too. For example universities throughout the world can be encouraged to create satellite campuses in places where there are great resources, amazing history, wonderful geography, and good people--places where students would have the opportunity to learn with depth and interest. This would bring money, opportunities, and valuable exchanges to underserved communities around the world.
Similarly world leaders could work together to legalize and manage the trade of goods, presently legal and illegal, to lessen crime and increase opportunity. For example could we dismantle the illegal drug trade by legitimizing that trade for prescription cures and scientific research. Is it cheaper to simply pay those who work in illegal trades now and train them for other fields of work than to spend the money on the kinds of law enforcement and espionage it takes to combat the illegal trades that create so much havoc in countries.
Better world wide regulations about who makes money all over the world, how they spend that money, and the ways they treat workers will also help to better opportunity for people throughout the world. One reason immigration is a crisis now is because so many over time have reaped the benefits of oppression. Stories today even show that the President of the United States' family profits from the back breaking work of low wage earners around the globe--how do we better support people everywhere so they have the conditions of good living which means fair wages, safe and healthy living environments and standards, and opportunity?
There are experts in every country that can work together to make change, but first we have to acknowledge that there is no place for the excessive greed that continues to feed the cycles of poverty, oppression, and crime that foster a need and desire to leave your homeland.
Immigration Procedures
As we see Donald Trump continually seek to solve the immigration crisis with inhumanity, we understand how ill-directed this attitude and actions are. It's a quick fix that will only back fire with greater hate, violence, and crime against the United States and its citizens. Since Trump can live in one of his namesake hotels almost anywhere in the world with substantial security, this probably does not worry him. He feeds off of oppression so it's not difficult to imagine why and how he does what he does.
Instead though, perhaps we could deal with the crisis in the following ways:
- Giving all current illegal immigrants a five-year window to become citizens and accessible avenues to citizenship. This would create jobs and opportunity for many.
- Changing the procedures at the border with a better intake process that truly looks at each immigrant with humanity and thinking about how to provide the opportunity they are seeking. Working with countries around the world to create avenues to that opportunity that are humane and that include paths to better living.
If world leaders work with one another with as much peace as possible to elevate opportunity for all the world's citizens we will find that we are making progress. This requires new perspectives including a shift from survival of the fittest to collaboration and care for all. This requires the acknowledgement that to love and care for one another with compassion, empathy, generosity, and opportunity lifts everyone up. This also requires that we look at power, power as money, power as time, power as connections, and power as resources, and decide how we can well share all that power amongst the world's people. We can definitely do better.
Our President is mired in images of success born out his nightly reading of Hitler's speeches, deal making in Atlantic City, New York City, Long Island, and around the world, the privilege and power of being a white, rich male in a culture that has esteemed white wealthy men over all others, and likely from a habit of watching television shows that narrowly report what's happening in the world rather than reading books, consulting experts, and reflecting on the broad, deep facts of matters and situations.
We have a quick fix President and his tribe of family members and cronies who appear to want the same power and privilege the President enjoys. We can certainly do better, and we have to do whatever we can to better our circumstances and the circumstances of all people in our world with humanity, empathy, creativity, intelligence, collaboration, and compassion.
Immigration Will Always Exist
Ideally I imagine a world with open borders where people are free to move around and live as they like where they like. The better we treat each other and afford everyone opportunities for good living, the less we will have to worry about immigration and the problems of humanity that often go hand-in-hand with the immigration crisis.
Immigration Will Always Exist
Ideally I imagine a world with open borders where people are free to move around and live as they like where they like. The better we treat each other and afford everyone opportunities for good living, the less we will have to worry about immigration and the problems of humanity that often go hand-in-hand with the immigration crisis.
