Marxism revolves around three core values similarly to Social Democrats. The three values of Marxism are: liberty, equality and fraternity (Mullaly, 2007). I will be focusing more on the equality value of Marxism.
To Marxists equality does not fall under the terms of everyone being the same, but rather that there is no special privileges. People can be of different social classes, but there needs to be a reason behind it. There does not need to be economic equality, but unequal efforts should not be rewarded the same. There are similar beliefs for immigrants. Unfortunately there is little information in the relationship between Marxism and Immigration. This is because people from Marxist countries like China or Cuba, tend to immigrate to non-Marxist countries. Therefore, much of the information on Marxism and Immigration is largely based off of social democratic Liberals view of immigration (Monalisa, 2010). Marxists and Liberals both agree that “the role of the state is to promote collective good” (Mullaly, 2007). Marxism is largely focused on the well-being of the members of society. With immigrants, a Marxist would be concerned with their welfare, how they are, making sure their transition goes well etc. They would be less concerned with costs associated with immigrants.
Marxist’s believe and speak of the need for immigrants. They want full citizenship rights for everyone who is able to immigrate and want to create unions to fight deportation (McDonald, 2007). As stated before, Marxist’s believe in a classless society and this includes immigrants. They do not believe immigrants should be treated any differently than people who were born in Canada or the United States and this is why they fight for full citizenship rights and try to get rid of deportation. This is completely opposite to the capitalists view on the situation and this often results in issues for immigrants in Canada and other parts of the world.
From this there is a question that can be asked, will social policies provide immigrants with good jobs, schools for their children, homes in decent areas of the city to help with integration and lessen the discriminations made towards them (Wolff, 2006)? It is a tough question to answer, but jobs, schools and homes are basic necessities for human beings in order to live decent lives and just because you have to come from somewhere else in the world, does not mean you should not be provided with these necessities.
References:
Mullaly, B. (2007). The new structural social work. Canada: Oxford University Press.
Monalisa (2010). Marxist perspective on immigration. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://socialpolicies1310.blogspot.com/.
McDonald, M. (2007), Immigrants, Minorities: Key to Workers Struggle. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://www.icl-fi.org/english/spc/155/immigrant.html.
Wolff, R. (2006), Immigration and Class. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://rmsplash.blogspot.com/2006/05/immigration-and-class.html.
Your blog really opened my eyes Michal that I knew nothing about the perspective of Marxist to the immigrants before reading this article. Your writing has clearly presented how Marxist are fair to every human being no matter where they are from and settling in a different country.
ReplyDeleteMay be because immigration was not regarded as a great issue in the time of Karl Marx as it is today or his focus was more on the evils of capitalism and the way to abolish it,I found little on the writings of Marx about the issue of immigration.
But you did a great research and let many people like me know about it.
Subas
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, it helped me understand more about Marxism.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that Marxism is allowing everyone to have equal opportunity,when immigrating to other countries. As well I agree with what you said everyone should be provided with the right necessities to live, no matter where you are coming from.
Sara
This post made me feel different about the Marxist view. I like it more now that you've pointed out that they don't judge immigrants because they believe in a classless society. Being born to two immigrant parents, I like their view because I know my parents had a hard time getting used to Canadian ways and getting full citizenship. It seems like Canada's government now is giving immigrants a harder time getting citizenship, and they should not forget that they are giving some people an opportunity of life that they could never have in their country. I really like that Marxists speak for immigrants. Very good entry!
ReplyDeleteDora
I'm really impressed with the quality of your post considering the lack of information concerning marxist views on immigration. I especially liked your comparison between the way a capitalist society and a classless society would treat immigrants because it shows how greedy capitalist societies can be by putting money over the welfare of others. Well done!
ReplyDelete-Yodit
You really made me see marxism in a different way. I never thought about how Marxists don't give special privileges, but now that I do think about it, you're right! No one should be treated better or worse because of social class, especially immigrants and refugees. After all, despite our differences in social class, we are just people trying to get make it in the world.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Michal!
- Adrienne