Letters
The Immigration Debate David Stoll has done us all a service by suggesting in his letter to the editor that we be more explicit and critical about our assumptions and agendas...
...Many progressives share Stoll's concern about the worsening conditions of U.S...
...Undoubtedly, high levels of immigration-all other factors remaining constant-worsen labor-market conditions for low-wage workers in this country...
...Such a movement would make it difficult for the powerful to use immigration as a tool to undercut workers...
...This is especially so in Bolivia's rural areas, where newly created municipalities that are expected to provide social services and promote rural development lack financial resources and institutional and technical expertise...
...foreign policy and U.S.-based multinationals), such militarization can only lead to tragic results for migrants forced to take great risks to cross the border...
...Bolivia's Popular Participation Law is increasingly viewed by its neighbors as a model to legitimize their neoliberal agenda and the injustices it engenders...
...The Immigration Debate David Stoll has done us all a service by suggesting in his letter to the editor that we be more explicit and critical about our assumptions and agendas regarding immigration [March/April, 1996...
...Rather than jumping on the immigration-restriction bandwagon, progressives should work for a demilitarization of the border, informed by a vision that moves beyond nationalism and border controls...
...Nevertheless, as Xavier Alb6 suggests in his article, "Bolivia: Making the Leap from Local Mobilization to National Politics" [March/April, 1996], investment in the organizational capacity of campesino, indigenous and women's organizations is beginning to reverse the historical exclusion of Bolivia's rural poor...
...As progressives, we need to argue and fight for practices and mechanisms that are consistent with our principles...
...In a previous letter to NACLA [Nov/Dec, 1993], Stoll advocates "militarizing what has been a porous border" to protect and enhance the working conditions of U.S...
...The poorest, most remote campesino communities are often excluded from the limited benefits on offer, reinforcing existing inequalities...
...Simon Ticehurst La Paz, Bolivia...
...Last year, some 300 people lost their lives trying to swim across the Rio Grande...
...To the extent that immigration has detrimental effects in the United States, our society needs to develop practices and mechanisms to address these problems while simultaneously working to minimize the conditions that are driving migration in foreign countries...
...One of the most important is solidarity, which knows no boundaries...
...Indeed, one might infer from such an analysis that we would find the best labor conditions in regions in the United States that receive relatively low numbers of immigrants-like the South...
...In this regard, freedom of movement and residence are basic human rights...
...While recognizing Vilas' powerful criticism of the neoliberal model, the introduction of elements of participatory democracy, as a means of perfecting a flawed representational democracy, has opened a small window of opportunity-one we should begin to examine more closely...
...The response most consistent with leftist principles is to strengthen organizational solidarity among workers and build a movement that includes recent immigrants...
...All human beings have the right to work and to a life of dignity...
...We can only understand the conditions of particular labor markets within their specific social, historical and geographical contexts...
...In rural municipalities, moreover, those who succeed in getting access to resources tend to be better organized groups, usually middle-class urbanites...
...But since all other factors never remain constant, this is not an inevitable outcome...
...In fact, while it is unlikely such efforts will significantly help U.S...
...Vigorous enforcement of a high minimum wage, a guaranteed minimum income, strong health and safety standards and labor rights would go a long way towards minimizing the detrimental effects-real or potential-of immigration on low-wage workers in the United States...
...migration is often a necessary part of the process to realize these goals...
...Matthew Jardine Los Angeles, California Popular Participation and Neoliberalism In his article "Neoliberal Social Policy: Managing Poverty (Somehow)," [May/June, 1996] Carlos Vilas points out that the two basic functions of neoliberal social policy are to encourage capital accumulation and legitimize the political order...
...Given the strength and persistence of the forces promoting immigration from Mexico and Central America into the United States (many driven by U.S...
...His suggestion that high levels of immigration are a significant cause of these deteriorating conditions, however, is not convincing...
...Each municipality will receive $25 per person from the national pot-not nearly enough to resolve health and education, let alone production needs...
...workers, the border has been increasingly militarized over the last two decades...
...Last December, campesino and indigenous leaders ran for the first time as candidates in local elections, winning 26% of Bolivia's municipal council seats...
...farm workers...
...Imposing greater restrictions on immigration is only one response to the argument that an increasing pool of potential employees strengthens the ability of employers to undermine the position of workers...
...Yet as Vilas argues, viewed within the global context of a neoliberal economic model which promotes poverty, popular participation alone cannot significantly alter the structural inequalities that the neoliberal agenda has failed to address...
...On paper, the Popular Participation Law is redistributive, and it explicitly encourages the participation of women and indigenous organizations while introducing mechanisms for community control over municipal government...
...This is not to suggest that immigration does not have its costs...
...workers...
Vol. 30 • September 1996 • No. 2
