Even though I have
been here for three months or so, the similarities in the problems that South
Africa and the United States face are just frightening. With the xenophobic
attacks that have been occurring in Durban and Johannesburg, I can’t help but
to draw similarities to the topic of illegal immigrants in the US. And what is
incredibly shocking was that people believe that foreigners are taking all the
jobs from citizens and everything. But that is just not true. And at least most
of the people that I have talked to are not just jumping on the bandwagon or
anything. In fact most people here really respect their foreign neighbors and
everything. But still the violence that I have heard about is just so
heartbreaking so horrible. The pictures that I have seen on CNN on an attack in
Alexandra, a township outside of Johannesburg, are just horrible.
But I wish that people in the US would not be
so blind to follow that same bandwagon about foreigners in our country. Like
all the myths about undocumented immigrants not paying taxes and using all of our
social welfare programs are absolute nonsense. According to the American Civil
Liberties Union, illegal immigrants pay taxes but don’t use those services that
could actually benefit them so they actually give money to the government. And
let’s look at the jobs these people usually have. They are the ones that are
doing jobs that are usually working jobs that are paying below minimum wage.
Yet there is so much hatred because people believe “facts” that are just not
true. Yet people still spread these lies
around. And these lies can lead to violence. It is what appears to be happening
here in South Africa so how do we prevent these lies from spreading around in
the US.
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