Conflict on the Border, President Trump & US Administration vs. South American Immigrants
February 2019
The conflict being examined in this paper is between US President Donald Trump as well as his Administration and the current caravans of immigrants coming from South American countries of poverty, attempting to migrate to the United States forcefully by the thousands. Already overflowing with asylum-seekers, borders will struggle and face certain conflict in the future as the caravan progresses. The conflict can be better understood through psychological concepts such as situational attributions, obedience, and explicit prejudice.
Currently, over 8,000 migrants from Mexico and other South-American countries are taking part in a physical caravan pushing towards the United States border. President Trump has throughout his time in office advocated for a physical border wall, complete from coast to coast, and in an attempt to receive funding for such wall, even shut down the government for the longest time in history. Many have attempted to enter previously, through seeking political asylum, or by paying smugglers whom have been unsuccessful in their attempts. Trump has tried to block all forms of immigration, illegally suspending political asylum at designated points of legal entry, only worsening the situation and creating backups of immigrants that will only create a flood of people once the caravan arrives.
A concept that can explain this conflict is situational attribution. Situational attribution is the assumption that a person’s behavior is influenced by the external influence of environment and culture. In this conflict, situational attribution is clear as the causation for the desire to migrate on behalf of the migrants. As they have spent their lives in various third-world countries they seek to emigrate to a country with more opportunity in terms of work, family growth, and upward mobility. These people are those who have been trapped in a situation and environment lacking any opportunity and therefore their desire to move somewhere that offers seemingly endless potential is motivated by this fact.
The second concept that can explain this behavior is obedience. Obedience is yielding explicitly to an authority figures commands or instructions. Obedience is very prominent in this conflict as throughout the migration, they face options and must make decisions if they want the caravan to succeed. One example of this is present when the caravan reaches Mexico City, and must decide on a final place of invasion onto US Soil, in this case Tijuana. The group itself does not have a singular authority figure, but rather is obedient to itself, never straying from a voted decision by the group. In contrast, obedience is clearly derived from a singular authority figure in those protecting the border and supporting the building of the wall explicitly. The authority figure in this case, President Trump and his administration.
The Final concept that can be applied to this conflict and explain the behavior present is explicit prejudice. Explicit prejudice is a bias someone knowingly holds true against someone or some group. Explicitly, Trump has voiced his prejudice towards migrants doting them as criminals and gang members without any sufficient evidence to support these claims. It is because of President Trump and his administrations prejudice that this caravan has continued to progress and grow, as more and more members of the minority group grow oppositional to the president and his current policy of non-asylum.
In conclusion, the current conflict between US President Trump and his administration against the migrating peoples of South America’s poorest countries as they caravan towards the United States-Mexico border can be explained through an array of psychological concepts, particularly situational attributions, obedience, and explicit prejudice. These three concepts all contribute to the explanation behind the conflict and the motivation behind the migrants, as well as the prejudice on behalf of Trump and the US administration.
Bibliography
Blitzer, Jonathan. “Donald Trump, the Migrant Caravan, and a Manufactured Crisis at the U.S. Border.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/RNVHRO913557705/OVIC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=OVIC&xid=20227ad7. Accessed 6 Mar. 2019. Originally published as “Donald Trump, the Migrant Caravan, and a Manufactured Crisis at the U.S. Border,” The New Yorker, 14 Nov. 2018.
