Is there a difference between immigration and migration?
Or between immigrant and migrant; immigrate or migrate ("emigrate" is too much complexity for this post.) And it’s my Substack so I don’t need to be comprehensive, accurate nor precise.
So, to me, yes there's a difference - a specific one.
When I think about immigration, my mind goes to the border, the decades of nativist and anti-immigrant assaults, the dreamers and the politics of achieving a sane, humane immigration policy.
But when I start with migration (the massive movement of people around the globe), I think about where they came from and why they leave. To many (I wish it were most) of us, why they leave is obvious - poverty, hunger, violence, climate disasters, and more. I can't imagine what it's like to make what must be the hardest decision of all - leaving family, home, language -- heading to uncertainty but with, at least, a shred of hope for something better.
In my simple mind, the simple answer is that immigration feels like it's more about us (I know it's not) but migration feels like it's more about them.
Then I go to the second question: How are we connected to the people (not immigrants, people; not different, the same ) and the countries they are coming from. So I did just a little sophisticated research (i.e. Googling) and came up with a few facts (pesky things that they are:)
Haiti is in the news - again.
The U.S. imported $1.1 billion worth of stuff in 2019 from Haiti - Clothing, fruits, perfume, cosmetics.
And they import a lot from us also. A lot. $1.2 billion in 2019 - fuels, rice, clothing, poultry.
So they sell us stuff and they buy our stuff. Seems pretty connected to me. (Kind of implies some responsibility to people leaving floods, earthquake and political violence, doesn’t it? )
Ethiopia has gripped us as we watched PBS NewsHour this week (a daily ritual in our house.)
U.S. imports from Ethiopia totaled $572 million in 2019 - coffee, clothing, machinery.
And we buy stuff, $1 billion worth of stuff - aircraft, wheat, machinery.
Again, seems pretty connected. Not to mention the quarter million Ethiopians living in the U.S. who most certainly have deep family and cultural connections with their home country.
I could go on. There are 195 countries in the world, 54 in Africa alone. I think you get the point.
Moral of the story: we are all connected, we are all interdependent - no matter where we live.
Music time
Everyone who mentioned this Substack to me, said they love the songs. So I'll keep it up with two songs about migration.
My friend, Diana Jones, took her song, We Believe You (with Steve Earle, Peggy Seeger and Richard Thompson) and spent a day filming strangers in Greenwich Village one day during the pandemic. She created this fantastic video.
Another friend, Joe Troop, is deeply involved with immigrant communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. He wrote this moving song, The Dreamer (the album was nominated for a Grammy.)
Catch you later. Go see some live music.
Donald
P.S. If you are wondering (like I am) if ants have brains, the answer will make you think. Individually, not so much. Collectively, well that's another story all together.