Immigration, Migration, and Ownership
Ted Folkert
June 21, 2018
The discussion of human habitation has suddenly become refocused on immigration now that we who consider ourselves as owners of this land have all safely immigrated here and established our space to pursue a comfortable livelihood. Many of us “own” a portion of this country, a portion of this planet. At least that is what we think because we bought it from someone.
If we want to take this belief back to basics we should consider the right of the owner that we bought it from to sell it to us. And we should take that sequence of owners all the way back to such time as the American Indians were the only inhabitants here and the English, French, and Spanish decided that this vast continent was up for grabs and they grabbed portions of it. Did they buy it from anyone? Doubtful, since no one then thought they owned it and had any right to sell it. No, they just staked their claims, as did many of the early foreign immigrants and many of those who ventured West as the immigrants migrated away from each other.
Of course, similar “ownership” of continents and land transpired worldwide throughout the history of mankind.
So, who really owns the land? Who has the right to decide who gets to live anywhere? The answer is whoever has successfully claimed the territory and whoever has been able to protect their so-called rights of ownership.
Theoretically, everyone on the planet should possess the same right of ownership and everyone on the planet should have the right to live anywhere they want. There should be no such term as immigration. Migration is well-defined as people moving about in seeking of a better life or simply a desire to leave where they live and live elsewhere. Immigration entails legal status and the avoidance of such status has coined the term “illegal immigration”, that term that has Trump all in a tither.
If the above over-simplification of history makes any sense it should mean that perhaps anyone who wants to live anywhere should have the right to live anywhere they wish, without requesting permission to ‘immigrate.” Even if you are a small child!
Think about!