Immigrants

Tenerife is a beautiful place and over last 15 years, there have been lots of new constructions everywhere. The booming economy needs manual labourers, and many foreign tourists who come to Tenerife, stay back to fill those jobs. Last year, many of Latin Americans who, entered the country as tourist, were given residency permits as the government called an amnesty for illegal immigrants with job contracts. But there are many more immigrants who risk their life and enter the country illegally. These immigrants are mainly from neighbouring countries such as Senegal and Morocco. They brave the high seas in small fishing boats and reach the beaches of Tenerife in pitiful state. Most of them are sent back after they are brought back to health, but some of them manage to creep into the city and live in miserable condition, working on low wages. Is it worth risking one’s life and living in fear in a foreign land? So many of them never reach the shores and many are too weak to go back. Few months ago, when I was in Africa, I saw the locals very contented in their own land. They were poor but they all had a smile on their faces. They seemed happy. Being with our own kind gives a great pleasure but economic needs, if not satisfied in our own country can give us so much pain. I have noticed this everywhere, that the foreigners always make more money than the natives. Maybe we are careless in our own land but are wiling to work hard for others. I think if the government paid more attention to their own country men and created more incentive for their own people, nobody would find the need to cross the borders to decorate the neighbour’s lands.