Environmental Movement Fights Against Anti-Immigration Rhetoric

by Alice Thompson, a winter/spring intern

Immigrants are disproportionately affected by destruction to the environment and play a key role in the advancement of alternatives to highly consumptive lifestyles, according to a recent report by The Center for New Community.

The report, released as part of an Earth Day initiative, was created to counter environmentally based anti-immigration arguments which inaccurately target minority communities as being responsible for global warming and pollution.

Contrary to these arguments, the report cites a previous study that showed wealth, not citizenship status, has a direct correlation to communities’ consumption rates and carbon footprints. According to the report, the top 30 percent of the U.S. income bracket averages 6 metric tons of carbon per year, while the bottom 30 percent produces an average of only 1.29 metric tons of carbon per year. Immigrants and minorities make up a disproportionate amount of the bottom 30 percent of the income bracket, such that the average carbon footprint of these communities is significantly smaller.

Not only do immigrants and minorities tend to create a smaller carbon footprint, but they are also disproportionately affected by the dangerous effects of pollution and environmental change due to global warming.

“Numerous studies document that people of color have borne greater health and environmental risks than society at large, independent of income and class status,” said Robert Bullard, author of Growing Smarter, a study in environmental justice and social equity. “They also face elevated health risks from workplace hazards, municipal landfills, incinerators, abandoned toxic waste dumps and polluting industries.”

Despite these challenges, immigrants and communities of color continue to work toward a greener, more environmentally just society through the creation of urban farming groups, green job training programs and community engagement and food distribution organizations.

Check out the Center for New Community’s website for more information on how to help the Environmental Movement.