The Many Views of Immigration

This weekend's readings showed a number of different viewpoints regaurding immigration. It is easy to understand both sides of the immigration argument, but one article in particular, Lecture on International Flow of Humanity, had many different views than different views than I. The following statement stood out very strongly to me:
"The willingness of rich countries to welcome migrants, and the way that they treat them, will be a measure of their commitment to human equality and human dignity." (Annan 146)
This author turned immigration into an issue of racism and acceptance.The point was also made that this was a new concept of "global citizenship" ( Annan 146). This author acts as if people against immigration are ignorant to the positives of immigration. I agree with these statements, but at the same time I do not feel that they outweigh the many negatives that an abundance of immigration can have. America was built on immigration, but then again at one time or another, so were many other countires. Some places in the world, such as China, are so overpopulated that there are even laws regaurding the number of children they can have. If an economy cannot even support the amount of people it has in the present, then it is unlikely that it can support an abundance of illegal immigrants.

So I wonder how I would feel if I wanted to immigrate to a new country due to a crash in economy, or an unfair government? Deep down inside I know that I would want to find a better life for myself. It surprised me greatly that Mexico actually issued out a pamphlet on how to illegally immigrate across the border. I never knew that this was something that the Mexican government actually wanted. This pamphlet gives information such as the "dangers in crossing high risk zones" and how to "beware of human traffickers". This alone shows how common illegal immigration is in the United States. I agree in what Linda Chavez's point that the United States is actually the one being taken advantage of. Occurances such as this pamphlet make me see her point.