The Great Replacement: Just who is being "Replaced?"
Lots of talk about “the great replacement” and “replacement theory” this year. “Replacement” has become a code word for anti-immigrant sentiment, as in, “Those immigrants will not replace us.” Some of the most rabid far-Right groups and individuals, such as people who attended the “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, have been pretty clear on this point – they don’t want immigrants “replacing” what they consider to be real Americans.
Popular Fox News television host Tucker Carlson has been accused of supporting this anti-immigrant backlash, though he has said that his concern is stuffing the ballot box. He’s accused Progressives and Democrats of wanting to import future voters who are expected to support Left-of-Center politicians. As such, he seems to view our de facto immigration policies as analogous to court packing – just build the numbers until the electorate favors your policies.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban threw fuel on the fire at the international level when he recently claimed that his country is not a “mixed-race” nation and doesn’t want to be one. Millions of immigrants and refugees from mostly Middle Eastern countries but also sub-Sahara Africa have come to Europe in recent decades. For a supposedly mainstream politician (Hungary is both in NATO and the European Union) to openly link nation to “race” has the ugliest possible connotations in Europe because of the continent’s Fascist and Nazi past.
As I write this a contractor has sent a crew to my house to replace the roof. In an apartment my wife and I rented near Washington DC last year the management company sent a crew to paint the unit . Four years ago we had the exterior of our house professionally painted. In all cases the workers appeared to be Spanish-speaking Hispanics. I have no idea who was a citizen, permanent legal resident or who has an ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number), which the IRS issues to individuals who cannot obtain a Social Security Number.
Years earlier, while still reporting for The Indianapolis Star, I came across a union carpenter and activist who pointed out how companies cheat government agencies when they sign contracts – they claim to pay “prevailing wages,” which means union wages, but in fact some keep two books because they will hire much lower-paid immigrant labor to do much of the work.
What I know about immigrant labor is that these folks appear to be terrific workers, often showing up early and working until dark, and working on weekends, and working fast when on the job. I have information that they work cheap, but there’s no evidence that the savings are passed on to the consumer – they hypocrisy of some anti-immigrant businessmen who profit from immigrant labor is clear enough.
So, the question is: What do people mean when they talk about “the great replacement?” Few if any journalists have been replaced by immigrants who may be undocumented; few if any judges or lawyers have been replaced by immigrants with an ITIN or who may be undocumented; few if any politicians have been replaced by any undocumented immigrants. There are lots of industries where employees are largely insulated from competition by undocumented immigrant labor – it seems to mostly be in the manual trades where long-time workers are at risk. And, not coincidentally, it is in a subset of this working class in America where we find support for “the great replacement.”
I cannot support or countenance in any way any racist anti-immigrant voices (and I think the loudest voices are indeed racist) but we have to take a more honest and clear-eyed view of just why some Americans fall for “the great replacement” theory.