Jane Guskin is quoted extensively
in an article run in August by the Swiss German-language newsweekly
WOZ.
The full article is available in German at
https://static.woz.ch/1833/us-migrationspolitik/coming-out-einer-papierlosen
Below is a translation of the section where Guskin is
quoted.
The "Coming Out" of an Undocumented Immigrant
Ever since Donald Trump became US President, the eleven
million paperless people have been living in greater fear than ever before. A
lot is at stake, especially for undocumented youths like Cecilia.
By Caspar Shaller, WOZ
August 16, 2018
...Many [undocumented immigrants] have had bad experiences with going public,
says Jane Guskin. She researches global migration at the City University of New
York, has been active in the asylum rights movement since the 1980s, and is
co-author of the book The Politics of Immigration, which is considered a
standard leftist reference book on US immigration policy. She suggests meeting
in a Bengali restaurant in Queens, the urban district with the highest
foreign-born population density in the country.
"When Daca was introduced, there was great skepticism
in the community," says Guskin. "To qualify, you had to tell the
state where you live and work, where you go to school." Many were afraid
that this information could be used against them. "It turns out they were
right," says Guskin grimly. "Some people go to the immigration office
for their annual appointment and are picked up and deported by the ICE
agency!"
American media are full of reports of the consequences of
this uncertainty: Mexican citizens storm the consulates to renew their
passports so they can quickly leave the US in an emergency. The head of a large
New York hospital reported at a press conference that migrants were shunning
health care institutions. Instead, they would place injured or sick relatives
in front of the emergency room door and run away. And because the hurdles are
high, the number of new applications for Daca has fallen sharply. "It
costs $ 500 to apply. How can you pay for it if you have to work off the
books?" Guskin asks. In addition, the forms are so complex that only
lawyers can fill them out.
Anyway, Daca is just a poor compromise, says the longtime
activist Guskin. There is no path to naturalization. No one is really willing
to improve the legal situation of migrants. For decades the Republicans have
been presenting themselves as protectors of an idealized America "from the
foreign hordes," but in practice they have shown increasing interest in
allowing a steady influx of cheap labor -- "completely disenfranchised, of
course," says Guskin. "No one sets up a union or demands a minimum
wage if the boss can threaten to call the immigration police."
This deception of the xenophobic Republican base was one of
the reasons for Trump's electoral success. The Democrats, on the other hand,
like to see themselves as defenders of minorities. But in reality, hardly any
concrete action followed the inclusive rhetoric. At most there might be some
little goodies before elections, if Democrats wanted to secure the votes of
Latinos and Latinas. This is one of the reasons why many young migrants feel
that the concept of "Dreamers" has become politically exploited. In
the last elections less Latinas and Latinos voted for Hillary Clinton than
expected.
"Obama, a Democrat, was
the president who has deported the most people in US history," says
Guskin. During his tenure, more than three million people were expelled. These
mass deportations, the extension of the prison system and the militarization of
the borders do not make Obama appear in the eyes of many migrants as the savior
he is for many liberal Americans. He even introduced a fingerprint for
migrants. The director of a migration organization told the New York Review of
Books magazine: "Obama built this machine and then handed the keys to a
maniac."...
