Causes Of Race And Migration

Race and migration intersect in the public discourse for many reasons, especially in the case for Latinos. One primary reason being that race is a visual difference that can easily be seen, and also because these people are migrating foreigners. More specifically, these visible differences often lead to social tensions and other political issues. For example, there exists a type of Latino threat in american society due to the large, and continually growing presence of the Latino population. Alongside these growing numbers, the population’s refusal to fully assimilate to American society also tends to pose a threat to Anglo Americans (Chavez, 2013, p. 37). Such fear is usually based on the idea that undocumented people would abuse public resources,
housing, and even take the place of legal residents within the workforce. This fear is also proclaimed through the creation of stereotypes based on the high fertility rates of Latina women, continuing to oversexualize them in society and even the media (Chavez, 2013, p. 74-75). In addition to this, Latina woman were seen as a separate fear due to their production of anchor babies, children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents (Chavez, 2013, p. 88). As a result of this, the country would see this Latino population grow, as well as giving undocumented citizens the right to stay in the country, thus adding to the discomfort. These negative portrayals are thus created to suppress the probability of population growth, as well as proclaiming a distaste for the presence of these Latino immigrants. With this in mind, it is imperative that one notes how Anglo Americans would then possibly start to associate migrants’ legal status with the appearance of race, which undoubtedly leads to profiling, discrimination, as well as other racial tensions in society.