We’re letting anti-immigrant rhetoric seep into our consciousness
The article “Concerns on migrants shift Mass. politics” (Page A1, Oct. 20) was extremely painful to read and shows just how deeply anti-immigrant rhetoric has seeped into our consciousness.
Think about your day and all of the ways immigrants affect and enrich your life — say, your elderly parent’s caregiver in assisted living, your child’s preschool teacher, the scientist conducting life-saving research, the staff making your morning coffee or preparing your meal at your favorite restaurant, or the entrepreneur who opened up the new creative shop in the neighborhood. So many components of your daily life are supported by immigrants and immigration.
There were about 185,000 unfilled jobs in our Commonwealth in August, and unless we find people to come into our state and fill them, our economy is going to shrink.
The short-term investments we make in encouraging immigrants to build their lives and careers in Massachusetts will pay off in the long term. Immigrants are future employees, consumers, taxpayers, and neighbors. The states that realize this will be the winners.
Kira Khazatsky
President and CEO
JVS
Cindy Rowe
President and CEO
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action
Boston
Migrant costs are an investment, not a burden
Words matter. If we allow Donald Trump to define immigration as an invasion, and we don’t push back, we deserve what we get.
Immigrants are a boost to the economy. They are hard workers, more law-abiding than US-born Americans, and the jobs they are taking are not depriving others of work.
Yes, the costs of providing shelter and other services are high, and there may be limits to what the state can afford, but these are not sunk costs. These are investments — in people. Long-term investments, but investments nonetheless. And, viewed as investments, maybe there are alternative ways to finance the costs.
Christopher Haines
Lexington