Am I an exclusivist?
A few days ago, I watched the news about immigration policy promises of two presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. When it comes to "immigration" they have almost opposite ideas. As a person who is not an American citizen, Hillary looks more opened to people from outside of America, on the contrary, Trump looks more hostile to immigrants.
Here is the Donald Trump's presidential campaign on Immigration policy.
At the fifth GOP primary debate on December 15, 2015, Trump discussed his position on immigration: “I have a very hardline position, we have a country or we don't have a country. People that have come into our country illegally, they have to go. They have to come back into through a legal process. I want a strong border. I do want a wall. Walls do work, you just have to speak to the folks in Israel. Walls work if they're properly constructed. I know how to build, believe me, I know how to build. I feel a very, very strong bind, and really I'm bound to this country, we either have a border or we don't. People can come into the country, we welcome people to come but they have to come in legally.”
At the fifth GOP primary debate on December 15, 2015, Trump discussed protecting America’s borders: “We are not talking about isolation. We're talking about security. We're not talking about religion. We're talking about security. Our country is out of control. People are pouring across the southern border. I will build a wall. It will be a great wall. People will not come in unless they come in legally. Drugs will not pour through that wall. As far as other people like in the migration, where they're going, tens of thousands of people having cell phones with ISIS flags on them? I don't think so, Wolf. They're not coming to this country. And if I'm president and if Obama has brought some to this country, they are leaving. They're going. They're gone.”
In 2011, Trump rejected the idea that children born in the United States to a mother residing there without legal permission should gain American citizenship under the Constitution. Trump said, "The clear purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, was to guarantee full citizenship rights to now emancipated former slaves. It was not intended to guarantee untrammeled immigration to the United States."
Even though Trump emphasized "illegal immigrants" not all immigrants, his strict attitudes about immigration policy sounded threatening. To be honest, he seemed to have American supremacy or exclusivism to me. I don't advocate Trump not only for that reason, however, his strong opinion on immigration policy reminded me of one woman and her moves.
In 19th National Assembly of Korea, There was an unique member elected by proportional representation. Her name is Jasmin Lee who comes from the Philippines. When she was an university student in Philippine, she met her Korean husband and became naturalized as a Korean citizen. After she came to Korea, she worked for migrant workers and multicultural families as a captain of the voluntary organization of migrant women.
In order to communicate with migrant people, Korean government supported her moves. In 2014, she proposed a bill for the welfare of migrant children. She addressed that migrant children need to be allowed to have education, live with their parents, use medical services even though they were not born in Korea, or their parents are illegal aliens.
Those bills became hot potatoes because Korea gives a citizenship to people who have a Korean mother or father.This causes problems because the law states that although someone is born in Korea, he/she can not take Korean citizenship, if their parents both are not Korean.
However, Jasmin Lee said that children who live in Korea need to have same right regardless of their nationality. It sounded very ideal but people concerned about illegal alien problems and budget of welfare for those children. Some people blamed, "it was a tendentious one-sided bill" and "why do I pay for them?"
When I looked at this situation, I was confused. As Korean, I also hesitate to accept and support her idea even though I understand and agree that all children need to have education and medical service. It made me think of Korean policy and U.S policy on immigration. Not even policy, I also thought about prejudice, attitude, behaviors toward migrants. I asked myself "Am I different from Trump?", "Can I assure that I 'm not an exclusivist?"