Media’s Role
The media and culture have an inclusion relationship. Culture describes people’s ways of life, where values and meanings are expressed through education, institutions and arts. Conversely, the media is a cultural institution that mediates between culture and society. The media convey cultural products such as values, practices and lifestyles to the society. In this sense, the media is an instrument for cultural policy. Political leaders must clarify the role of media in endorsing the objectives of cultural policies. Since the media mediates between the society and culture, the society’s perception of the culture depends on how it portrays it. Additionally, a culture’s development depends on the information that the media gives the society, its accuracy and consistency in providing this information. Some of the issues central to media’s roles include media ownership, which influences its freedom, and types of media as well as media’s diverse roles.
Historical Framework and Political Context
Illegal immigration is a noteworthy subject in the global arena, particularly in the United States. Currently, there are approximately twenty million immigrants in the country. These statistics makes deportation of illegal immigrants a difficult move, despite several advocacies for deportation. Illegal immigration concerns date back to the nineteenth century. In 1875, U.S.A passed a federal law, which forbade entry of prostitutes and convicts to the United States. Following this, in 1882, President Arthur Chester prohibited Chinese immigration, after which, he banned paupers, mentally ill persons and criminals from entering the country. These actions brought about several immigration issues such as illegal immigration, immigration crimes, and deportation. 1881 to 1920 saw the largest time of migration to the U.S, with over twenty three million immigrants in the country. Deportation has always seemed to be a strategy of reducing immigration, especially illegal immigrants.
The Quota law, which congress passed in 1921, decreased immigration to three hundred and fifty thousand immigrants per year. Additionally, the law restricted the number of immigrants from one country. Subsequent years have seen the number of immigrants reduce significantly, in the United State. Illegal immigrations later increased in 1940s during the war, when the government imported Mexicans to work in the country. The subsequent presidents of the United State reduced entry of illegal immigrants to the United States, with the exception of President George W. Bush, whose tenure saw a rise for immigrants to the U.S. Although Americans oppose amnesty and illegal immigration, open boarder issues are demanding President Barrack Obama to pass a mass amnesty for illegal immigrants. Some advocacies recommend “attrition through enforcement” as a solution to illegal immigration, other than amnesty or deportation. In August 2011, the white House declared that the Homeland Security Department would suspend deportation cases for people with no threat to public safety, on a case-by-case basis (Harvey & Allard, 2009).
The Media’s Message
The media have been on the frontline highlighting several issues related to immigration including; the feasibility of deportation by focusing on past successes or failures, whether deportation is economical, its moral status, mass deportation politics and the issues of security related to illegal immigration. The New York Times’ topic, “Immigration and Emigration” in January 19 2012 addresses deportation issues, specifically immigration reforms and presidential campaigns of 2012. The newspaper piece illustrates that the Obama administration is evading the implementation of a comprehensive legislation, which would address reforms in immigration and instead, focuses on deportation campaigns.
It claims that President Obama strategies have so far promoted over 1.1 million deportations, which is the highest deportation numbers in six decades. Additionally, the coverage also talks about speeding and suspensions of deportations, new policy on deportation and compares immigration under two presidents; Obama and Bush. It claims that Obama administration is pushing for deportation policies and “pretending” to have a kinder side with such policies by offering not to deport people with no criminal records or those who pose no safety threats.
Many people are against this policy because state offices, especially the Immigration agency reportedly arrests many immigrants with “criminal records”. It is easy for the immigration office to arrest an innocent person and claim that the person is a criminal, hence should be deported. To salvage this situation, the administration has offered to review all deportation cases and begin a countrywide training program, which would speed up deportation of confirmed criminal immigrants. The newspaper coverage is unbiased as it supports its arguments on facts and current happening in politics. Additionally, it provides historical information that helps assist the citizens to know the positives and negatives deporting illegal immigrants. Because it provides verifiable information, the newspaper coverage is objective and helpful to the public (Steiner, 2009).
Public’s Perception
It is important for citizens to understand the effects of illegal immigration and deportation, as well as the government’s involvement in the issue. For the public to have an objective understanding of the present government’s efforts, the newspaper article has compared the situation during Bush’s administration, with the present situation. This newspaper coverage helps the public to be aware of the dangers associated with illegal immigration. The immigrants are always not genuine as some have other motives in short term or long term. This makes the public watchful of suspicious people, hence promoting security and safety.
Effect to the Economy
Illegal immigrants affect the U.S economy in several ways. Foremost, is the fact that illegal immigrants utilize social services, hence making the services inefficient and expensive for citizens and the legal immigrants. However, mass deportation is very expensive and would cost the government over $285 billion in five years. This will definitely have a negative effect on the economy. A deportation policy would attract a tax deduction of $922 for everyone in the United States. In addition to this, deportation of undocumented immigrants would condense the GDP by $ 2.6 trillion in ten years.
Illegal immigrants contribute positively to the economy through higher tax receipts and enhanced consumer spending. Because of this deportation would drain approximately $2.5 trillion in ten years. Deporting immigrants would also break up families and disrupt businesses, hence negatively affect the economy. Illegal immigrants have married legal American citizens and built families in the country. If the government deports them, it creates a social problem, which in turn affects the country’s economy. There will be more people unable to support themselves, hence depending on government grants and support, as well as promoting dependence and low living standards. Apart from this, several organizations rely on foreign labor for occupations that Americans neglect.
Inclusion Strategies
America’s population includes people from different countries globally. Because of the presence of immigrants in the country, news of deportation and stereotyping of such individuals affects their performance in work places, as well as their socialization with other workers. To help them socialize well, managers would use inclusion strategies such as offering support services, links with other workers in the same category and in service training. To moderate the effects of this media coverage on employees, managers could encourage open discussions of this issue. The discussion would include all employees and aim at receiving different opinions of the matter. Encouraging open discussion allows employees to obtain varied views, hence manage its reception well. Additionally, other strategies such as uniform training and links with other immigrants help the employees meet with people with similar predicaments. This provides security and assurance. One way that managers can ensure uniformity is by providing a complain procedure that affected employees can follow in case of any complaints. This uniformity ensures that employees respect and value each other’s opinion and presence in the company. It also builds trust among employees (Schaefer, 2011).
Conclusion
The media are a fundamental societal institution that connect the society with it culture by providing information. This paper has looked into the issue of deportation of American illegal immigrants, and the New York Time’s coverage of this issue in its January 19 2012 issue. Consequently, this paper has introduced the historical and political context of deportation, tracing its origins, development and advancement to date. In relation to this, this paper has analyzed the newspaper coverage, weighing its objectivity and portrayal of facts. It follows this by discussing the economical consequences of deportation to America, and finally, provides inclusion strategies for managers. These inclusion strategies moderate the effect of this news coverage to employees and enhance workplace inclusion.
References
Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. J. (2009). Understanding and Managing Diversity (4th ed.). UpperSaddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Schaefer, R. T. (2011). Racial and Ethnic Groups (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Steiner, N. (2009). International migration and citizenship today. New York: Taylor & Francis.