Invasion Metaphor for Immigration and a Historical Anecdote
Posted on 31 Jan 2024; 02:00 PM IST. Last Updated 31 Jan 2024; 02:00 PM IST.Summary: This article describes the invasion metaphor for immigration, along with a brief historical anecdote (story) related to it, in United States of America.
Immigration may be considered as an invasion, when it is unchecked or unstoppable, and the metaphor “invasion” is used quite often with immigration, in such occasions, all over the world.
An influx of 10,000 per day, at the Southern border of USA, amounts to 3.6 million per year, which is 1% of the US population, and may be regarded as very high, and an invasion.
An uncontrolled or unstoppable immigration could break important tenets of any constitution like “to form a perfect Union, insure domestic tranquility, etc ”.
There are of course alternative theories, which tend to state that “Immigration is not an invasion” under the US constitution; Immigration is undoubtedly not an invasion, when it is legal and controlled.
A historical anecdote (story) on this subject matter goes all the way back to May 6, 1882, when US Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which is available at this web-link.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 exemplifies how US Congress viewed immigration in the past, and its powers in controlling immigration.