People are people. It really matters not where they are from, their religion, or their race.

Immigrants contribute significantly to, literally, every country they settle in, whether it is in the form of taxes they pay on their earnings or on their consumption, or in the necessary tasks they are willing to perform.

They often do the necessary jobs that others won’t, and for salaries only they will accept. This, therefore, indicates that they will live at a lower standard than the native populace.

Despite all noted above, immigrant hate is real and prevalent. To understand why, allow me to play a game of imagination. Let’s pretend that the crisis in Venezuela resulted in a movement of, say 1,000 refugees. It shouldn’t be that big a deal. However, let’s assume that they were all lodged on the Port Henderson Road in Portmore, St Catherine; the cheap hotels in the red light district.

So we have 1,000 financially-strapped refugees in one place. What follows is struggle, resulting in underground activities — like prostitution, etc. So the established pimp and protection network provide the security and controls.

Well, it wouldn’t take long to realise that Jamaican gunmen are the lowest tier of any criminal and in combat are totally useless, unless their targets are unarmed people at a bingo party. So, based on this the Venezuelans will arm up pretty soon. That would be the beginning of Venezuelan gangs. So now the police get involved, guns are present.

There will be shootings — so a cop is shot. That would be the beginning of the hate cycle for the Venezuelan refugees. To many it would be general condemnation. You wouldn’t just hate the Venezuelan gang, but the entire group. You would hear people saying “after we gi dem safe haven, dem a kill we police”.

So back to reality. The point of the story is to demonstrate that poverty breeds criminal activity and the immigrant groups will behave no differently when placed in the same situation. Crime breeds hate from the society at large. Lack of assimilation is another big factor. Immigrants stay in groups and interbreed. By living in one zone they create businesses to accommodate their needs. Soon, the original people in that community begin to feel resentful because the stores they knew are gone and the ones that replace them have workers who don’t speak their language or dialect. Then native people stop moving in and those who live there start moving out. The original residents become isolated within their own community.

The lowering of the wage bar is another factor. Desperate people will work for desperate wages. This impacts the wages for all groups who offer services within that zone.

Political power — this is big. If an immigrant group gets citizenship, they can vote. If they outnumber the native group, then they eventually become the rulers. It does not have to be national. It can be much smaller. A mere 300,000 adults settled in Portmore could change the political representatives in Parliament. I have seen politicians around Jamaica alter seat strength by using informal settlers. Those are a few understandable reasons why a person native to a particular geographical region will not embrace new guests to his or her country.

Here now are a few that are unreasonable and unexplainable. There are people who just hate people of other races. There is no logic to it. I can’t understand or explain it. Religion is a powerful force. It has as great and emotional impact as children do. Worship is a heavy word. It means what it says. It is difficult to see many around you worshipping something or someone that you don’t. It takes character, especially when there is historical conflict between the groups. But hate? That’s not rational. Conflicts will exist, but why must they become hate?

Then there is envy. Immigrants usually have little to lose when they arrive in large numbers. So they work like animals. Progress follows hard work. It is difficult to see a group of people come into your country and become better off than you. It’s human nature. The ones with hate to give away will automatically graduate to that emotion. The more sensible will control their emotions.

Real estate costs can be altered by an immigrant group, especially if they decide to collaborate with each other. It is happening now with the arrival of the new Indians and new Chinese who have immigrated to Jamaica. You doubt me? Try to buy retail commercial real estate anywhere between Kingston and Christiana. You can’t find one for sale, nor can you afford it.

What can we do about it? Stop grouping them together. We need immigrant groups in Jamaica. As we speak, there is a chronic labour shortage. We don’t need immigrant communities. Immigration must be synonymous with assimilation. This includes intermarriage. So we don’t need a China Town, Little Haiti, or Little India. We do, however, need additional workers who can alleviate the shortage caused by the business process outsourcing industry.

Educate society, on a whole, on multiple religions, not just the native religion. So in Jamaica’s case, schools must not restrict religious education to Christianity. Knowledge of several religions teaches how similar we are in our practices. It’s true. I didn’t always know that Muslims recognise Jesus, but they do. I didn’t know because I was not taught about religions other than Christianity.

Force school attendance and make laws that force the learning of the native language prior to granting full citizenship to immigrants.

Immigrant hate has just won an election in the United States. It’s more relevant to us than ever before. That phenomenon is about to cause the biggest crisis in our modern history — the mass deportation of our worst. We should at least understand why.

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