One of the country's leading scholars on immigration policy visited UCF on Friday to discuss what he calls "America's Immigration Crisis."
Douglas Massey is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and co-author of Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration.
According to the Center for United States and Mexico Immigration Analysis, there are about 12 million illegal immigrants from Mexico in the United States.
Massey's goal is to dispel many of the myths that are currently associated with immigration due to inaccurate coverage by the media.
"If you get your view from the mass media, most of your perceptions are wrong," Massey said.
Massey has also won several awards for his books and research on U.S.-Mexico immigration and, since 2006, he has been president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
"Current immigration policy is one of the most mis-managed of all public policies," Massey said.
Massey divided the last 100 years of Mexican migration to the U.S. into six eras. Massey said that we have been in an era of what he calls "contradiction" since about 1986.
"We are moving in two different directions at once," Massey said. "We want open trade and free commerce, but not open borders."
Mexico is the U.S.'s third largest trading partner.
Massey also said that while the current cost of border enforcement has increased to $3 billion, the actual apprehension rate of illegal immigrants is at a 40-year low.
"The net effect of our current policies has been to exacerbate the immigration problem, not solve it," Massey said.
Massey said he supports the idea of a guest worker program that would give full labor rights to those who want to work.
"A temporary worker visa just makes sense," Massey said. "If you give them full labor rights then they aren't competing unfairly against American workers."
Massey also said that we need to come to terms with the 12 million illegal immigrants here and get rid of the idea that we can deport them all.
Massey proposed that we divide the 12 million into three different groups. The first group is those that entered the country as a minor who are not guilty of any crime.
"We should give them full amnesty and let them get on with their lives," Massey said. "We need to get these people on the road to being productive and contributing members of society."
The other two groups are those that should be granted work visas and those that have been in the country for long enough that they should be granted earned legalization status.
"We need to allow these people a pathway to permanent, legal-resident status," Massey said.
Stephanie Casas, a 21-year-old psychology major who attended the event, said Massey's presentation helped her understand the immigration issue better.
"It helped me understand that the media doesn't cover it well," Casas said.
Irina Karic, a 29-year-old anthropology major, came to the U.S. nine years ago from Bosnia under refugee status and agreed with Massey's views on the immigration issue.
"I certainly agree that current system isn't working," Karic said. "If you just build a wall people will always find a way around it.
"When he talked about the costs and all of the statistical data about in-and-out migration, it just seems like the fact that the current system isn't working should be obvious."
In response to Massey's idea of a guest-worker program, Casas said that it sounded like a good approach but that it might be easier said than done.
One of Massey's current projects is the Mexican Migration Project, a research effort he co-chairs with his colleague and co-author, Jorge Durand of the University of Guadalajara.
The MMP is a multidisciplinary research effort between investigators in Mexico and the United States. The goal of the project is the further understanding of the process of Mexican immigration to the United States.
"We need to view [immigration] as a natural, ongoing part of an integrated economy," Massey said. "We can't have our cake and eat it too."
Massey said that we have manufactured the immigration crisis and it is within our power to take control of it because we created it.
"I think the 'crisis' is of our own making," Massey said, "and if it is of our own making than it is certainly within our power to solve it."
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