Immigration and Water Issues in

Sleep Dealer

Current Issues of Immigration• Recent Examples of Expansion of Boarder Laws• Immigration Experience• Violence and Exploitation of People Seeking to Cross the Border

• “All of the work…”• Wage Statistics • Cost to Send Money Home• Workplace Conditions• Workplace Fatality Rates

• “Us vs. Them”

Why do People Migrate?

Migration patterns vary between populations, countries and historical periods, but the factors that lead to the decision can generally be broken down into two categories—Push factors and Pull Factors. National Geographic defines these as:

•“Push Factors: Leaving a place because of a problem (such as a food shortage, war, flood, etc.). •Pull Factors: Moving to a place because of something good (such as nicer climate, better food supply, etc.)”1

What is Memo’s reason for leaving? What are some specific reasons cited by migrants coming to America?

Examples of Recent Border Laws

• Arizona SB 1070“would make the failure to carry immigration documents a

crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.”1

New York Times, April 2003

• How do we see an eventual expansion these laws in Sleep Dealer?

• In 2011, the state of Georgia passed House Bill 87, a piece of legislation designed to crack down on undocumented workers.

• According to a June article in Time Magazine, “The law will require businesses to use a federal electronic system to verify employees' citizenship status and, among other things, empower local law enforcement authorities to arrest undocumented immigrants.”

• Time goes on to note that, “Even before it goes into effect, business leaders say Georgia's law is crippling the state's core agriculture industry: Migrant workers have started fleeing to nearby states, particularly North Carolina and Florida. Says Bryan Tolar, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council: ‘What we have here is the equivalent of a giant scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.’” 1

Border Laws in Sleep Dealer• What might be some other unintended consequences of the

new immigration laws?

• What is some evidence of a strengthening of border enforcement in Sleep Dealer?

Violence and Exploitation of Those Crossing the Border

• People known as “Coyotes” make their living smuggling people over the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

• The “Coyotes” typically charge thousands of dollars to would be border crossers to ensure their passage into the country.

• While they are seen as heroes to many individuals and families who cross the border, the industry is also rife with violence and exploitation.

• Those seeking to cross are often entering into a risky business deal as smugglers have been known to simply mug and assault their customers.

• Smuggling operations have also become increasingly controlled by drug cartels who, according to a June 2011 NPR story, “have turned the extortion of migrants into a highly sophisticated, and lucrative, criminal enterprise. Migrants are abducted and held in so-called safe houses until family members pay ransoms of hundreds or even thousands of dollars for their release. The migrants are regularly beaten.”1

Where can we see this conflict in Sleep Dealer?

All of the Work…• “Consumers, growers, politicians, we're all caught up in this

bind. We want cheap labor and cheap food, but it turns out we don't really want the people who make it all possible - and all the ‘inconveniences’ of educating children or protecting workers. On our farms we've always relied on marginalized and vulnerable workers to do backbreaking manual labor, and now we're pretending that they are the problem.”1

Chris Liu-Beers, N.C. Council of Churches

Do you think a world with “all of the work, none of the workers” is beneficial? To whom?

Wage Statistics• “Poverty: Nationally, farmworkers’ average annual income is

$11,000; for a family it is approximately $16,000. Farmworkers on the East Coast earn about 35% less than the national average.

• Hard work, low pay: At 40¢ per bucket (5/8 bushel), a farmworker must pick and haul two tons of sweet potatoes to earn $50.

• Few wage protections: Most farmworkers are exempt from minimum wage laws, and all are exempt from overtime provisions, despite long work days during peak harvest.

• Few benefits: Despite pervasive poverty, less than 1 percent of farmworkers collect general assistance welfare nationwide. Only 10 percent of farmworkers report having health insurance through an employer health plan. Fewer than 4 out of 10 workers interviewed said that they would receive unemployment benefits if out of work.”

-North Carolina Farmworker Institute1

Cost to Send Money HomeFees for sending money can be steep. For example, according to the World Bank, some money transferring organizations add a 10% fee for transfers of $100 between the U.S. and Mexico.1

Where do we see this cost in Sleep Dealer?

Workplace Conditions• According to the Population Reference Bureau: “Work-related deaths affect

Hispanic families especially hard. Life insurance, which provides income to families and dependents, is more common in jobs that tend to have lower participation by Hispanic workers—management and professional jobs or jobs in the public sector for example. Jobs with higher concentrations of Hispanic workers such as service jobs, construction, and maintenance typically do not offer life insurance, leaving Hispanic families especially vulnerable.”1

• Additionally, evidence suggests that immigrants tend to take on jobs that are considered riskier. Some reasons include:• Lack of legal status;• Inability to speak English;• Education level; and• Access to other jobs.2

• Research also suggests that though they take on riskier jobs, they do not receive higher pay to justify the risk. 3

• Does the fact that the “Node Workers” are connected to a machine rather than doing the labor on site really mean that they’re safer? What does the fact that the man who dies after the electrical problem is just taken away and never mentioned again suggest about the risk and replaceability of the workers?

Workplace Fatality Rate

Population Reference Bureau: “Immigrants Work Riskier and More Dangerous Jobs in the United States”, 2009

“Us vs. Them”• “They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling

drugs to your kids or raping your daughter and they are evil people.”- Chris Simcox, founder of The Minute Men Project• “Imagine a young man born in the United States of non-immigrant parents and

taken away at a very early age, reared in Waziristan, educated in Islamist madrassas and trained in the fundamentals of terror at one of the many camps in Southwestern Asia; someone who has flown under the radar of U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies and is therefore unknown to them. He would be entitled to walk into any American embassy or consulate worldwide, bearing a certified copy of his birth certificate and apply for — indeed, demand — a U.S. passport. That passport would entitle him to enter and reside in the United States whenever and wherever he chose, secretly harboring his hatred, an unknown sleeper agent of al Qaeda or any of the other multitude of terrorist organizations with an anti-Western bias and a violent anti-American agenda, waiting for the call to arms.”

-A report from Anti-Immigrant Group “The Center for Immigration Studies”1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/11/anderson-cooper-stuns-gop_n_678650.

html

How do we see this conflict in the idea of the television show the border (“Drones”) in Sleep Dealer?

Water Facts

• 2.5% of all the water on earth is fresh water, of which less than 1% is in deep aquifer or soil moisture.

• Lakes, rivers, wetlands, and shallow aquifers make up .01% of the total amount of freshwater, of which 20% is alone found in Siberia’s Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world.

• Of the 7 billion people, nearly 20% lack access to safe drinking water and nearly 35% lack adequate sanitation.

• 70% of all fresh water is used for agriculture. Conventional irrigation techniques are 43% efficient. (Note: in Sleep Dealer, how Memo’s father used the water.) 8% used for household purposes, 20% by industry

Water Wars• In 1995, Ismail Sergeldin, vice president of the World Bank,

made a much-quoted prediction about the future of war: “If the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water”.1

• If this is the case, how do you suppose water was privatized in Sleep Dealer? Central control vs. local control of resources? Privatization (public/private partnerships) vs. public/municipal infrastructure projects.

• “Privatization arguments have been based largely on the poor performance of public-sector utilities. Government employees are seen as excess staff, responsible for the low productivity of public water agencies.”2 Where else have we seen this argument for privatization?

Three theories of water rights:

1: Harmon Doctrine (1896) territorial sovereignty- riparian states have exclusive right over water flow through their territories.2: Natural Water Flow Theory-territorial integrity theory- “every lower riparian owner is entitled to the natural flow of the river, unhampered by upper riparian owners.3: Equitable Apportionment Theory-1996 Helsinki Rule- “states are entitled to a reasonable and equitable share in the beneficial uses of waters of an international drainage basin.Define equitable. With population growth of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, what is equitable usage of the Rio Grande and Colorado waters? What do we take for granted. How much does a gallon of water cost?

Water Wars: A world wide struggle.

Besides development disputes, fresh water supplies have been historically targeted in military campaigns and for the last 50 years a target of terrorists.

“Water wars are global wars, with diverse cultures and ecosystems, sharing the universal ethic of water as an ecological necessity, pitted against a corporate culture of privatization, greed, and enclosures of water commons”1

—Vandana Shiva, Water Wars.•Mexico’s conflict with the US—The Colorado River, dammed at certain points, increased the saline levels in the water flow. US built desalination plant but still restricts the amount of flow. How do you allocate water in a river when the water flows between countries and territories?•India vs. Coca-Cola- “Ever since Coca-Cola opened a bottling plant on their land in 2000, they [the Plachimada community in the State of Karala in southern India] have been faced with chronic drought and polluted water. In 2006, they began a pitched campaign to evict Coca-Cola from their land which led to fierce battles with local authorities.”2

Water Stress Index, 2011

Ten Years: Two headlines in the NY Times: What has changed?

April 16, 2001 “For Texas Now, Water and Not Oil is Liquid Gold”.“Water has become so valuable that a complicated scramble is under way for the rights to underground aquifers….The unanswered question is…who gets the water and who does not in the future, or influence how much will it cost…There are already public policy concerns about whether pumping water for profit could threaten supply in some areas. Rural officials fear that large cities could simply outbid them in a profit-driven market. And Texas law offers few restrictions; groundwater is considered private property, and any landowner can pump the water out even if it leaves neighbors high and dry.”1

April 21, 2011 “A City Built on Oil Discovers How Precious Its Water Can Be”•“Since October, barely one-ten of an inch of rain has fallen on the city, the oil and gas capital of West Texas…Two of the three reservoirs that Midland and other Permian Basin cities rely on for most of their water are getting close to empty. The third is below 30% of capacity….Building a pipeline would cost $75 million to $100 million (Midland population 111,000). Regions groundwater..contains high amounts of fluorides, arsenic, and chloride…a desalination plant would cost tens of millions of dollars…Without a desalination plant it (groundwater) must be diluted with lake water to reduce fluoride…Also, oil companies use water…use water for their water-intensive drilling technique, hydraulic fracturing…Leaks from old oil wells also affect the groundwater.”1

Water wars are being played out now in upstate New York. Hydro-fracking brings close to home the conflict between economic development and the health and access of the community to fresh water.

Fresh Water Challenge:• In a world with a growing population and reduced supplies of fresh

water, what are the implications for the future? How do we allocate resources as well as focusing on those areas that water-efficiency could be maximized?

• Your thoughts on waste-water recycling?• Consider this: To produce one ton of grain, 1000 tons of water is

needed while one ton of beef requires 15,000 tons of water, as does a ton of cotton.

• 30% of all corn harvested in the US is used for ethanol production. For every lb. of corn grown, you need 100 gallons of water. Do you remove government subsidies and allow pricing to reflect actual costs? BLM charges $1.35 per animal on public land while the actual cost is $7.64 per animal. On Forestry Service land the cost is $12.26.

• Urban farming?• Saline agriculture- Modifying vegetation with high salt content to be

used in food, fuel, and forage production.