EOC Week 2: This Charming Man

The issues of immigration and illegal immigrants in the workforce are found in every country in the world. By nature, humans tend to shy away from things that are foreign to them and unfamiliar. In the Danish film, the Charming Man, issues arose surrounding a Muslim foreigner getting a job in a very prejudiced environment against this religious affiliation. Most of the time people react badly to things they don’t understand. People of this religion are widely misunderstood and often immediately looked down upon because of the terrible acts of a few men against society. Besides this immediate prejudice there is also the issue of job placement. Among the working class of any country, job security and the ability to obtain a job is very important. The general feeling is that illegal immigrants pose a threat to this basic need of a citizen by being available to work at a much lower pay rate just because employers can get away with it. “More than 10 million undocumented aliens currently reside in the U.S., and that population is growing by 700,000 per year. A non-citizen guest worker program is an essential component of securing the border, but only if it is the right program.” (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/03/the-real-problem-with-immigration-and-the-real-solution) That is a lot of people that need to work in an economy where there are not a lot of jobs. In the movie, unemployment was where all the issues stemmed from. According to the same website, “In 2005, immigration policy received far more genuine attention on Capitol Hill, and Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are now considering what to do about immigration policy. Their various efforts have focused on a wide variety of changes in current policy, including improving border security, strengthening employer verification of employment, establishing a new temporary guest worker program, and offering some level of amnesty to illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. At present, these proposals are working their way through the legislative process.” This is a country made up of immigrants and we have to remember that we or our families were all new at some point.