> But you see, part of the magic of neoliberal thought is that imported workers don't qualify as an economically oppressed population. If you import laborers, p

> But you see, part of the magic of neoliberal thought is that imported workers don't qualify as an economically oppressed population. If you import laborers, pay them less than minimum wage, force them to live in substandard living conditions, and work them half to death, this is still considered "fair" (and maybe even "laudable") because conditions were bad for them back home. Their life is possibly better now, slightly. And it's more affordable than raising wages. It's true, they're still economically oppressed. That's more or less a constant. But I'd also like to think that if they say, "I'm here because I'm less worse off" that I can take that statement at face value and provide protection for them. I am quite tired of the notion that we have to hurt people and ignore their own agency to "save" them. We often see people handwave these concerns away with talk of trafficking, which magically invokes the specter of prostitutes in chains in the trunks of cars, and then we stop talking about what people want or need and instead about how the state can "protect" them. I am of the opinion that both longer-term structural reform and short term workarounds are not only compatible, but the only consistent position for a compassionate human. > . Suppress moderate popular movements for long enough and you will create a radical popular movement; in today's America, this would probably be fascism. Hence the essential role of antifa actors and free information folks.