I posted my first piece on immigration June 17, 2007 and titled it In Diversity There is Strength. If you’re a glutten for this kind of stuff you can click on Immigration in the tag cloud and it will take you there for a reread; otherwise, I will just say that it covered one hundred fifty years of our immigration law history….and it’s not a pretty picture.
Recently President Obama announced that by exercising his executive powers he was changing our policy with respect to certain young people who had been brought by their parents in to the US illegally as minors. Actually, that’s not quite right because about half of all Illegals came into the country via a legal visa, but overstayed the term of the visa. In any case, most of us who care should be familiar with the stories of young people who have achieved great things while in our country, albeit illegally, only to be deported or marginalized into the shadows of our society. Obama’s policy change gives short term hope to an estimated one million young people who will be able to work, pay taxes and contribute their productivity to a society that needs their efforts. Not only that, it’s the right thing to do on a moral basis as well.
As most of you know, S. and I live a good portion of our life on our farm about eighty miles and, culturally, eighty light years from Dallas. To say that things are different would be an extraordinary understatement. No, it’s not different in a bad way. Just different. You see things up close. The changes one might not notice in an urban world jump out at you in rural America. The pace of change is slow, but all the more profound for it. The only big box retailer we have is Walmart, and it’s twenty-five miles away. We see the Dollar General ilk of store popping up in towns of less than two thousand souls, but other than the funeral home, the feed store and a cafe or two, not much economic activity (farming excluded) is happening. There are some exceptions that may inform us about the value of immigration that you’re not likely to see on Fox News or hear about from Rush Limbaugh.
Within a ten minute drive of our farm are four relatively new businesses that serve our community, and, as far as I can tell, have generated the only new economic activity in the last ten years or so. You might have already guessed. They have all been started by immigrants. I don’t know if they are legal or not and frankly I don’t care. They are doing things that could have been done by indigenous locals, but weren’t. They were not recipients of Small Business Administration Loans. There was no venture capital money available to them. Their stories are the stories of today’s America. I’ve changed their names as I’ve not asked their permission to use them, but the facts are otherwise true.
Mr. and Mrs. Ngyuen were born in Viet Nam but now own and operate one of only two surviving businesses in Ladonia, Texas. They acquired a long vacant building that had formerly housed a small community grocery store and gas station. They cleaned it up, refitted it, and brought it back to life as a convenience store/cafe that is the only place you can get a loaf of bread, a six pack of beer, or a hamburger and fries for miles around. It’s open seven days a week and tended to by this couple who learned English and had a small child along the way. They live in a mobile home situated beside their store. The morning gaggle of farmers would tell you that the Ngyuen’s not only provide a place for them to sip their morning cups of coffee, but they are also an asset to the community. I asked Mr. Ngyuen one day what was his biggest challenge in starting and running business in America. He replied, not surprisingly, “finding good help”. I don’t know for sure, but I would estimate that they work about a hundred hours a week, but they don’t seem to mind. They are raising a child and building a future in America.
Mr. and Mrs. Wong and their two daughters started a business on the other side of town. They also acquired a long defunct property and turned it into a gas station cum liquor store. While the mother and father still struggle with their recently acquired English, their daughters are fluent. It’s only open six days a week because, as you know, you can’t sell booze in Texas on Sunday. You can drink it, but not sell it. The Wongs bought an abandoned bank building on the square and made it into their home. I’m somewhat loathe to admit that I frequent their establishment, but when I do, I can count on seeing one or both of their daughters at a small desk behind the counter doing school work. Their eldest is in college, and I’ll bet she’s on the Dean’s List. You’re right. The Wongs moved here from China. I don’t think they employee anyone, as they run their establishment as a real “family enterprise”, but they do create economic activity and a better place to live for the residents of the community, and I don’t have to drive nearly as far to get my supply of firewater.
Mr. Kim is amazing. He was born in Korea but started and runs a donut shop in Honey Grove, TX. Mr. Kim works every day. I mean every….day. He opens to the public at five in the morning but arrives about 3:00 AM to prepare his goods and closes at noon. Not much call for donuts after lunch I guess. By five he has already made the days supply of fat pills, sausage and biscuits, pigs in a blanket and brewed a couple of pots of coffee. He hires a couple of local kids, usually Hispanic, to dispense the goods and man the cash register, but he does all the heavy lifting. Obviously, I frequent his establishment all too often. I asked him one morning how he knew how to do all this. He said, “I just figured it out”. He must have figured well. He drives an almost new Nissan truck. I dunno where I’d get donuts if it weren’t for Mr. Kim. I hate to say it, but the opportunity was there for those who complain but their lack of opportunity.
I don’t know if Mrs. Valdez is married as I’ve only seen her and her daughters at her store on the square in Honey Grove. She rented a dilapidated building that hadn’t been used in years and started a produce market. Honey Grove lost it’s last grocery market several years ago, and she has the only place you can buy a tomato or lettuce for miles around. I think her initial idea was to cater to the growing Hispanic population, but now I suspect she sells to as many local gingos as well. Her daughter, now in college, is known to us because she was the recipient of a scholarship that we grant annually to a deserving high school graduates. While her mother waits customers and stocks the vegetable bins, she studies in the back room. Mrs. Valdez has now added a meat market offering mainly Mexican style cuts of beef and sausages. I can vouch for her fajita meat which is prepared on premise.
These four businesses, taken together, will not add a lot to our GDP, but if you multiply by a thousand, or a hundred thousand throughout America, they do make a difference. They certainly make a difference to their customers and their communities and the people they hire.
I’d like to think that the Ngyuens, Wongs, Mr. Kim and Mrs. Valdez were here because of an enlightened, rational, thoughtful, and fair immigration policy. Somehow I doubt it. Our political dogma seems to overwhelm our self-interest.
