In a TheCommunity.com essay on Arizona’s new immigration law former Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks about parallels in apartheid South Africa. He also says ” I do not disagree with the calls to boycott the businesses in the State until [the law] is turned around.”
Tutu ends by drawing a parallel between the drivers of migration today, and of the past:
The problem of migrating populations is not going to go away any time soon. If anyone should know this, it should be Americans, many of whom landed here themselves to escape persecution, famine or conflict. With the eyes of the world now on them, Arizona has the opportunity to create a new model for dealing with the pitfalls, and help the nation as a whole find its way through the problems of illegal immigration. But to work, it must be a model that is based on a deep respect for the essential human rights Americans themselves have grown up enjoying.
Organized boycott or not, the law is having a negative economic impact on the state, including businesses that cater to the Hispanic community.