Perspective for November 2024
A Monthly Inspirational Viewpoint of Life’s Journeys with Sonia Wignall.
Episode Twenty – Eight
I woke up very early this morning and read the news on who won one of our most consequential and historic elections in US history. I was not stunned, I was just meditating on what to say to the weekly prayer group I lead, which would begin in an hour. My soul began to stir. The immigrant in me stirred even more.
The challenge was not the news, but the consequence of it in my life as a leader, and specifically their leader. I had to remain focused on the fact that although we were all women of faith, we had different experiences and different candidates we were supporting. Regardless of the outcome, we were in agreement, that all power, knowledge, wisdom and understanding belongs to God alone, we and whomever was President was only a vessel. We agreed to move forward in one accord. Fortunately for me I pray with amazing women of faith and wisdom. These women support and guide me in my life and leadership. We honor and celebrate our differences.
My candidate was Vice President, Kamala Harris. I did not share all her ideologies, but I was neither deterred nor concerned about what her leadership would mean for our country.
We had a shared experience. Although she was born in this country, she is the daughter of immigrants. She too had to overcome many obstacles as a woman of color and a daughter of immigrants to arrive at her current position. Through strength, wisdom, faith and perseverance, this daughter of immigrants had risen to the 2nd in command in the US Government. Nothing about this could be denied.
I trusted that she would be guided by the wisdom of her journey, her team, faith, counselors, experts and other tools available to her.
The Immigrant Narrative
The issue of immigration became one of the focal and calculated stress points in this election.
There were claims that many immigrants are criminals. We as immigrants were described as economically burdensome and a danger to the social foundation of the US. References were even made to the purity, (or lack thereof), of our blood.
These false narratives were strategically repeated. They were crafted for maximum impact and were specifically targeted to trigger a cord of fear in many voters, and it did. It was also used to put the immigrant population on notice that some people felt that some of us, undocumented and even legally documented, were an unwelcome group in the United States.
Unfortunately, not widely acknowledged, or even spoken is that many people living in the US, that consider themselves the “real Americans” have a percentage of immigrant heritage, current or dating back many generations. Even the families of the political parties have “immigrant blood” in their veins. My heritage is Panamanian, Cuban, Jamaican and Chinese. I am 100% cocoa in color. I am an American citizen, and speak like a gringo. I came to the US as a child from Cuba, (read my article “Freedom”). The US is my home, and I will be eternally grateful for the opportunities afforded to my family and I in this country.
Our family, like other immigrant families, came here to open economic, social and educational corridors for ourselves and our children to go through. Many of the corridors we passed through were opened before our arrival. They were pried open during the civil rights movement, through blood, tears and pain.
Laying aside the false narrative, we can analyze the economic contributions of immigrants in the United States.
To deny the level of economic contributions of the immigrant population at large and place the focus on the small percent that commit crimes is diabolically deceptive, and deprives us of a “balanced” and cognitive conversation.
The economic contribution of Immigrants in the US
According to an American Immigration Council analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, immigrants— within the 335 million people that live in the US, 14%, 48 million, are immigrants. These immigrants generated $1.6 trillion in economic activity in 2022, the most recent year for which such data is available. They also contributed more than $579 billion in local, state, and federal taxes.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that increased immigration could reduce the U.S. federal budget deficit by some $897 billion over the next decade, (within 10 years).
Immigrants work across a wide range of industries and occupations. 21.8 percent natural resources, construction, and maintenance (13.8 percent); and production, transportation, and material moving (15.2 percent). Many undocumented immigrants are also employed as gig workers, those who typically get work through app-based digital platforms such as Uber, or they work in an informal capacity—often in unsafe conditions—in industries including construction and manufacturing.
Also contributing to the immigration workforce is the 576,000 temporary foreign worker visas issued in the US, allowing U.S.employers to hire, (bring in), immigrant workers for temporary jobs. The H2A (agricultural workers) and H1B (workers with specialized knowledge) visas are two of the largest programs under the temporary visa allowance. Many of these types of visas are issued to employers in the service and hotel industries.
One of the most striking contributions are the Immigrant “Start-ups”.
A wide range of businesses, from mom-and-pop shops to large-scale enterprises. As of 2022, immigrants had founded some 55 percent of U.S. start-up companies valued at $1 billion or more; and they or their children had also founded or cofounded close to two-thirds of billion-dollar companies—so-called unicorns. Research has shown that despite making up only 16 percent of the U.S. inventor workforce.
Between 1990 and 2016, immigrants produced roughly 23 percent of all patents during that period.
Crime Data and Immigrants
Misinformation on immigrant crimes was strategically, and skillfully used during the 2024 election.
However, the data records on “immigrant crimes” delivers a completely different message.
According to the American Immigration Council when comparing “crime data to demographic data from 1980 to 2022, the most recent data available. The data showed that as the immigrant share of the population grew, the crime rate declined. In 1980, immigrants made up 6.2 percent of the U.S. population, and the total crime rate was 5,900 crimes per 100,000 people. By 2022, the share of immigrants had more than doubled, to 13.9 percent, while the total crime rate had dropped by 60.4 percent, to 2,335 crimes per 100,000 people. Specifically, the violent crime rate fell by 34.5 percent and the property crime rate fell by 63.3 percent.
Unpacking this, of every 100,000 people (immigrants) / 2,335 or .02335 % of crimes were committed. Using Uniform Crime Reporting data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and population data from the U. S. Census Bureau, the Council also explored the relationship between total crime rates and immigrant shares of the population between 2017 and 2022 at the state level. Using beta regression analyses and data from all 50 states, the result shows no statistically significant correlation between the immigrant share of the population and the total crime rate in any state. This means higher immigrant population shares are not associated with higher crime rates.
Consequently, without knowledge, statistical data or disputes, when calculated and demeaning words or strategic lies are released into the atmosphere, against people from Haiti, or any other country that are living here in the US, as immigrants, no wind can put them back in the bottle, or make them go away. The stigma of what was said about them will always remain.
Herein is where my soul lies. I keep in remembrance that misinformation that is directed at any immigrant community, or subculture, is pointed at me too. Like Esther, I cannot afford to disregard and not be affected.
The Story of Mordecai and Esther (chapter 4) speaks to us at such a time as this. Mordecai reminds Esther of who she is, (her Judea Identity), and what she must do to intervene is the annihilation of her people.
12 “When Mordecai heard this message from Esther, 13 he sent this answer back to her: ‘Do not think that you will be safe because you live in the king’s palace. You will not escape when they kill all the other Jews. 14 You must speak now on behalf of all the Jewish people. If you do not, they will receive help from another place to make them safe and free. Then you and your father’s family will come to an end. But I think that perhaps you have become queen so that you can help at a time like this”
“Although we cannot fight all battles of misinformation and strategic storytelling. We do have a responsibility to mine the truth of a matter for ourselves. We cannot take the posture of men and women that cannot see, hear or discern, and keep waiting for someone to guide us out of our darkness. If we do, our days ahead and that of our children will remain dark and difficult indeed.” Sonia M. Wignall
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References:
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/how-does-immigration-affect-us-economy
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/debunking-myth-immigrants-and-crime
Sonia M. Wignall
Sonia M. Wignall is Co-Founder & Board Chair, Diaspora Global Foundation. www.leanintostem.org. She is also a Cultural and Lifestyle Writer. Her articles and monthly column “Perspective” can be found on Diaspora Digital News.
***Note: “I do not give permission for my writings to be used for AI purposes or content, unless my name is shown and the reference to my work is clear. My work is not AI written”. SMW