Trump’s fantasy that migrants are eating cats proves the meme has prevailed over real politics
If one town could be emblematic of the vicissitudes of blue-collar life in America, Springfield, Ohio, might be as good a pick as any. At the heart of the midwest, Springfield’s prosperity was built on manufacturing and publishing. But its decline began early. The giant Crowell-Collier publishing plant closed on Christmas Eve 1956. Three decades later, in 1983, Newsweek dedicated a whole issue to Springfield. Entitled “The American Dream”, it concluded sadly that “The times have not been hospitable to dreaming”.
The years that followed proved even less hospitable as manufacturers deserted the town and wages plummeted. A 2016 Pew Research report found that Springfield had lost more high-income earners and gained more low-income earners than any other metropolitan area in America. The town became stalked by the diseases of despair that now haunt many other post-industrial working-class communities, from soaring alcohol and opioid addiction to rising numbers of suicides.
Then, a decade ago, the city council crafted a programme to draw in new employers, including food-service firms and logistics companies, an Amazon warehouse and a microchip maker. Thousands of new jobs were created, though most remained poorly paid. The problem now became not too few jobs for the workers, but too few workers for the jobs. And, so, migrants came in to fill the gap, mainly Haitians living legally elsewhere in America.
The influx of migrants helped revive a dying city. It also created tensions, as access to housing and health services became more strained. Racist and far-right groups seized upon the issue, attempting to turn tension into hatred with talk of an “invasion” destroying the town. The claims became ever........© The Guardian
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