What's Immigration?

       This last Friday my granddaughter asked me what Immigration was. Now you probably wonder why that came up. Well she had just finished a week of Bible School where the children "visited" five different countries. I'm sure the term came up during that last day of the classes. So how do you explain such a word that has been so misused to a nine year old?
       Well, I thought for a minute and then decided to tell her the most accurate and truthful answer I knew of. "Immigration" is moving." When you move from one country to another, you are immigrating to the new country and that's immigration. It's the same if you move from one part of the country to another. Or one state to another or town to town. It's all moving.
       What I didn't tell her is that some folks have tried to make that word into something evil or threatening. I didn't tell her that some people have learned to hate anyone who has moved to their country or area. Why is it that some people think that having new people move in is a bad thing? Actually it's not so much having new people move in as it is the kind of people that move in.
       If these newcomers are just like the folks that are already there, there doesn't seem to be much problem. The problem comes in when these newcomers are different from the folks already there. In other words the problem is more a case of racism. In fact it's all about racism. Of course the natives will be quick to tell you it's not racism, it's economics or it's dangerous or it's some other reason. But at the end of the day, it is racism.
       As far as economics is concerned, it's a proven fact that new citizens create jobs. As to dangerous, for every place where a terrorist can penetrate our borders, there are thousands of additional ways and places it could use that are easier. And there really isn't any other reason to fight immigration, except racism. That doesn't change the fact that racism isn't a strong emotion or that it persists. But my granddaughter is still young and doesn't need to know that some people are hateful toward outsiders, at least not just yet.