SINless: the new "immigrant problem"? Options

[James McMurray]

If you don't care about the political background and just want the meat of the Shadowrun portion of the thread, jump to the end. :)

A pretty big political situation here in America currently is the "Immigrant Problem." That is to say the influx of illegal aliens and their effect on the job market. As noncitizens they have much fewer rights when it comes to employment. Because of that they will frequently work for much less than the govenerment proscribed minimum wage, and are therefor viewed as having taken jobs away from actual citizens. Becuse of this, large groups of people are protesting immigration, immigrants are protesting anti-immigration laws, and they're talking about closing off our Southern border with a big Anti-illegal Immigration wall.

First, I know that one paragraph doesn't come close to completely describing the situation, it's nuances, whether a problem actually exists, or how it should be fixed if it does. It isn't meant to, I'm just trying to give enough information sot hat the non-Americans here can better understand me when I start to relate it to Shadowrun later.

Second, I have an opinion on the issue. You probably have one on the issue. They may or may not match. My opinion has been mentioned elsewhere, but is entirely irrelevant to this topic. Likewise, your opinion, while valuable to the extent that all opinions are valuable, isn't really relevant to this topic either, unless you can express it in a way that relates it to Shadowrun. In other words, I'm not looking for an immigration debate here, just setting some background information out there.

Now that all that crap is out of the way, would the SINless be akin to an Immigration Problem in 2070?

1) There is suddenly a huge influx of them.
2) They have no employment rights, and so would likely work for less than the government proscribed minimum wage.
3) That could be viewed as taking jobs from actual citizens.

If it is similar enough, what could the governments and people do about it? I doubtt here would be a huge nationwide SINless rally like there recently was for immigrants, because in a distopian future, popping your head too high above water is asking to get it "cropped around the edges."

Jobless unskilled SINned laborers would almost certainly resent losing jobs to SINless "leeches." Likewise if the country in question has human rights laws they could extend those to noncitizens like America does, costing money to feed, educate, and hospitalize SINless people.

What kinds of effects would this have in an SR world? I'm thinking riots where SINless go to get jobs as day laborers. An offshoot of Humanis or some other political group deciding that the only good SINless is a dead SINless. Runners could be hired as muscle or protection by either side. There could even become a bounty on the SINless, doubled if that person is killed while at work.