I am a mother, and as a mother I absolutely would. I have already said I do not blame mothers with children for coming here.
But what is lacking is MEN doing the right thing, most of the time. Are there extenuating circumstances? Of course. But you can't look at nations that have been broken and corrupt for 50 years, riddled with crime and gangs, and say, oh well hey, it's no one's fault.
Ok. Let’s tackle this point first: men.
What is the right thing?
Keep in mind, the current surge in immigrants has been by far, families. Not single “fighting age” men. Families.
Why is it assumed fathers should have less interest in protecting and improving the opportunities for their families than mothers? Why is staying behind “the right thing” but not going with your family, to provide for them, to protect them, not? Why are father’s expected to stay and “fix” their countries?
Why is it “the wrong thing” for men to first come and make the incredibly dangerous journey across in order first in order secure a safe environment or the economic means to bring their families to?
This is the difference between making judgements based on real situations over idealistic hypotheticals.
And we are judging these people based on the same choices that our own immigrant ancestors made. We are also forgetting that migration has always been a natural human activity in response to adversity.
The second thing is assigning “fault” for the current situation of many of the countries they are fleeing. It is very human to want to want to assign blame because it makes US feel better for the judgements we then make regarding those countries.
Here are some of the factors I’ve come across that have led to conditions pushing migration:
Extreme poverty.
Oppressive governments.
Violence
Climate conditions: drought, hurricanes, flooding that adversely affect agriculture.
War
Underlying these are broader issues:
Conditions created by colonial policies - for example creating artificial countries forcing together ethnic and religious groups that are otherwise antagonistic each other. Seperating ethnic groups into multiple countries. Creating divide-and-conquer governments that put power in minority hands so they are beholden to the colonial government. The end result is often artificial states with weak central governments where citizens have more identification with tribe, ethnicity or religion than their national identity.
Conditions created by climate change which affect political stability, access to resources, destruction of angriculture, political upheaval and war.
I am sure there are more reasons, but for most part these situations are due to multiple causative factors over a long period of time and sometimes it’s a “perfect storm” of many things coming together at one time.
So…migration. Who is to blame for migrants from…
Iraq?
El Salvador?
Guatemala?