This post is an extreme oversimplification - a hyperbolic
reduction of dynamic complex systems humans do not understand. This post is a meme, a tweet, a
hashtag. This is a post of the
time.
Modern migrants are the tool and byproduct of plutocrats
the world-round.
Plutocrats are the hyper-rich (mostly men) who divert and
collect vast lakes of wealth for their purposes, without popular input or moral
justification.
Corrupt, self-interested elites dominate resources in
communities and countries everywhere. Many economic theories assert that wealth
concentration and elite amassing can “grow the pie” or avoid a zero-sum
game. If these theories are true
anywhere, it is evident that they are not playing out for the majority of the
world’s population. Thus, elite wealth amassing is often zero-sum, and every
dollar, yuan, or sol diverted into the orbit of plutocrats is taken from the
average person. In many locations where the pillage is particularly savage or
where resources are very scarce to begin with, this diversion of resources
results in terrible hardship. Average people are faced with two stark options:
1) wrest back resources from the local elites or 2) migrate.
The “Arab Spring” has shown what is involved with “wresting
back” resources - death, asymmetric war, prison, and torture. Only the most
desperate or foolhardy opt for revolution. Migration makes sense.
Those responsible for the concentration of local resources
are doubly happy to see their victims depart because it is almost always the
young, strong, and smart who go.
The revolution is diasporaed.
The unemployed, hungry young people are not in the street marching, they
are gone, but they left family. And they send them money. So not only is the political pressure
off to make reforms or share some of the resources, but now, a new resource
stream is flowing in that can be gorged on – remittances. Local wealth
concentration continues unabated – a profitable dystopic cycle.
The migrants arrive in a new place. Most of the time, this is not the
land-of-milk-and-honey they set out to find, but a nearby place with its own
elites busily amassing wealth and disenfranchising the average people. Sometimes these migrants do make it to
places of wealth, but it is irrelevant, the choreography is the same.
Elites amass wealth, the average person suffers the
hardship and faces the same quandary – fight with the powerful for resources or
migrate. However, in places where migrants have arrived the elites have a new
ploy, a new tool. When the angry
take to the streets, offer them a scapegoat – the migrant – the perfect
whipping boy.
Migrants have no political sway, they do not belong, and
their social networks and clout are often weak or even non-existent. They have
no voice to contest the undeserved responsibility laid at their door by those
with the money and the megaphone. When the average person notices that there
seems to be less wealth to go round, they are told to blame the immigrant. Given our natural proclivity for
tribalism, this scapegoat ploy has yet to fail. Set the average people upon
themselves. Continue amassing wealth. Rinse. Repeat.
