Reflections/Jonathan Gramling
Wisconsin Is a State Built by Immigrants
Back in the 1960s, I used to spend some of my summer days out in Dousman, Wisconsin — in western Waukesha County — on my grandfather’s dairy farm. While my grandfather was an old-fashioned family doctor, he still kept the farm alive by hiring a foreman to run the farm on a day-to-day basis and hired local help like a local named Gus Max — it seemed he partied hard at night and worked equally hard during the day. We would help gather the hay and stack the bundles in the super hot hay loft and enjoy a cold beer at the end of the day even though we were underage because we had carried our weight like men.
Those days are gone now with the small dairy farms being eaten up by corporate-style farms. Locals like Gus Max have migrated to the cities and in their place, it is immigrant labor — many of them undocumented who have taken their place, following in the footsteps of my own ancestors.
Back in the 1840s, my ancestors in Bavaria, Germany were approached by U.S. representatives to come to Wisconsin with the promise of land. In Germany, it was only the oldest son who inherited the family farm. So they emigrated to Wisconsin in 1847 where they had the opportunity to own and work their own farms in Dousman. In essence, they had no future back in Germany. And their immigration was important and necessary for Wisconsin to become a state one year later. I feel, on some levels, that this very human dynamic is happening today with our undocumented immigrant labor population who are technically illegal because our immigration policies have not kept up with our regional labor market trends.
The whole immigration issue is such a complex issue. Yes, America has a right to protect its borders. And yet it has taken few — if any — measures to relieve that immigration pressure outside of use of force. America is a part of a regional labor market that extends beyond our borders. There are jobs that need to be filled in the U.S. Our dairy and hospitality industries among others including construction have labor needs that stretch beyond our borders. But our failure to enact meaningful immigration reform over the past 40 years has led us to today’s dilemma. People know there are jobs to be filled in the U.S. and in some cases risk their lives and pay a heavy price to come here. That lets us know that the job opportunities in their home countries — exacerbated by U.S. policy and U.S. company monopolization of raw materials in their countries as well as what is shipped to the U.S. — are so bad that they take these risks.
The United States has become a world power because of its ability to attract immigrants — like my ancestors — throughout its history. They fuel economic growth and create jobs as well as plug holes in the local labor markets. This has gone on for over two centuries as successive waves of Irish, Italian, German, Spanish and others came to America and made their contribution to America in the dairy, hospitality and other industries.
That same dynamic continues to hold true today. But one thing has changed and that is the color of the skin of the immigrants have. While the immigrants are needed by America to maintain its economic hegemony, many people who feel the whiteness of their skin somehow makes them superior are frightened by the thought of losing their political hegemony to people whose complexion is darker and thus strong anti-democratic forces have developed to limit the vote and create a quasi minority rule environment in the United States.
And this sentiment has given rise to Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” motto, which really means “Make America White Again.” And this has driven Trump’s desire to deport 11 million people quickly even though this will potentially have a long-term devastating impact on America. Take a look at what is happening to Japan where birth rates are declining — Wisconsin’s population is predicted to actually fall for the first time since it became a state — and they are very particular racially on whom they allow to settle in the country.
And so I think this effort is so wrong morally, socially and economically. It is being implemented out of ideology and stereotypes to enforce white rule without the use of scientific reasoning to even deduce the collateral damage to our country and its people.
A while ago, I went to my local liquor store to pick up some Jack Daniels — yes I’m not perfect. Usually it is next to impossible for me to get a parking space and cars are illegally parked on the curb in front of the stores. Several of these stores cater to the Latine community. Well, yesterday, the parking lot was practically empty. The woman who waited on me in the store told me that the store owners were concerned because ever since the deportation orders were given, their customer base has declined significantly as people try to become “invisible” and not attract attention of the authorities. This mass deportation effort will have a sudden collateral damage to these stores and the stores near them as they lose their customer base. What impact will it have on the shopping mall itself as their stores become less viable?
I fully support our immigrant neighbors and friends and support Voces de la Frontera’s efforts to promote A Day without Immigrants and Workers. Perhaps a day of pain will make every American wake up to realize that it takes all of us to make America great.