Project Vision 21

There are stories and headlines that cause concern and alarm. For example, last week I read the story about a teacher who was arrested when she tried to enter the country. According to the report, the teacher had received a scholarship from a prestigious university.

However, local immigration authorities decided the teacher lacked proper documents, so she was arrested and later deported.

In another case, a 59-year old woman traveled to visit her pregnant daughter. After ten days at a detention center, the woman was deported because, according to the authorities, the letter of invitation was invalid.

Last July, in two separate incidents, two women, one 72 and the other one 88, were arrested by immigration authorities and kept several hours without medication before they were both deported.

There have been cases when artists, musicians, and athletes were also detained and deported. In one particular case, the father (a soccer player) was separated from his son.

Before anybody draws any wrong conclusions, let me emphasize that all of these incidents and many similar ones are real. I also need to say not all these deportations and likely violations of human rights happened not in the United States, but in Spain. And the people affected were immigrants from Argentina.

Many times, we focus so much on what is happening in the United States and her borders, that we lose sight of immigration as a global issue. For that reason, we don’t learn about the measures and attitudes other countries have regarding immigrants and visitors.

Immigration impacts the whole world and not only the United States. It is almost laughable to think any country, acting alone, will be able to solve the global challenge of the massive movement of people.

According to Dr. Richard Vail, professor of business at Mesa State College, in Grand Junction, Colorado, globalization “multiplies the complexity” of the immigration impact, because, due to new technologies, it is now easier than before to transport goods, information, and people.

“Complexity creates instability, even if the events happen in another country,” Vail said during his presentation last weekend at the Second Annual Conference on Immigration and Globalization, organized by Mesa State.

According to Vail, globalization and immigration, “are impacting the desire of many Americans of living a long and happy life,” because of the growing worldwide demand for resources, such as water and energy, that are becoming less available every day.

As a result, there is a growing pressure to provide products and services in a more efficient way. And, because of that pressure, there are more government regulations.

The final result, Vail said, is “a growing preoccupation for potential social instability,” and, therefore, neither individuals nor companies are investing long term.

After reading the news about people from Argentina being deported from Spain, and after attending Dr. Vail’s presentation, I clearly see that the world is much more complex and interconnected that what we normally believe. For that reason, headlines and stories, even from other countries, are concerning and alarming.