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Immigration Concerns
Just trying to make folks do some deep thinking |
The Love of My Life!
| Immigration Concerns |
| 07.12.04 (6:37 pm) [edit] |
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For some reason questions on immigration and citizenship have been playing through my mind a great deal lately. This is kind of a personal issue because my wife is an immigrant. My wife doesn't want to become a US citizen and frankly I can see her side of the issue. She is however a legal resident with the option of becoming a US citizen any time she wants to. She has a nice paying job; she pays lots of taxes, social security, and Medicare etceteras. Outside of an identifying accent when she says out or house and her odd colloquialism of asking for a serviette rather than a napkin or referring to a knit cap as a toque, she blends in as a born and raised in the USA kind of person. Although she has never studied for the citizenship test, I've read over a couple of the sample tests and I'm confident she already has the knowledge to pass it on a moment's notice. Oddly enough, I'm convinced that at least 25% of the US native born and raised citizenry couldn't pass this test if it was given to them; the sad fact is this test is primarily geared toward demonstrating an understanding of government structures and their operating principals. There is some historical stuff in the test, but not much, and most of the questions I saw were tough ones like 1) Who was the first president of the United States or 2) state at least one reason that lead to the start of the War Between the States. The main reason the wife doesn't want to become a US citizen is her only real benefit in doing this is her right to vote and an ability to get a federal job; other than this, her status as permanent legal resident gives her all she needs. The real loss to the wife by claiming US citizenship is her Canadian citizenship. Canada recognizes dual citizenship, but unless you are under twenty-one the USA doesn't. She was born and raised in Canada, her family still lives there and the only reason she is in the USA is she had the misfortune to fall in love with a Yank that loves Canada but has a significant snow allergy. Canada's approach to duel citizenship settles well with me. The overall; the gist of it is 1) you have to uphold the laws of both lands as best possible 2) if you are in one of the two countries their law is the premier one and 3) there will be no international intervention on the behalf of the violator. The problem with obtaining a US citizenship is you have to denounce all allegiance your old government (note there is a matter of Canadian social pension here, stuff she has already paid into). The only problem I would have with Canada's offer of duel citizenship is I would have to be there a total of three of four years and I'm not sure how I could accomplish this without suffering at least two winters there. Work visas look much more practical if it ever comes down to such a case. Still, there is something that bothers me about the current status of immigration into the USA. Right now the US takes in about 2.5 million legal immigrants. The big issue here is one has to add 7 million more to that figure to correct the actual immigration rate, the illegal immigrants far outnumber the legal immigrants. To put a different perspective on things, if it were not for the combined legal and illegal immigration into the USA, for the past thirty-years the nations growth rate would be zero or slightly to the negative. What bothers me about this growth is the eroding effect it has on US culture. I'm all for freedom of choice, after all that is what the USA is all about, but the one area I'm not willing to yield an inch is language. Language is the cement that binds a culture. Now the Continental Congress put the language issue to a vote and by a mere one vote margin English was chosen over German. Of course rulings of the Continental Congress are not binding to modern law, but the immigration laws mandate one of the prerequisites for citizenship is being able to read and write English. This aspect has never been strongly tested, because reading the test and writing the answers to the questions on said test is itself the proof for language comprehension. Sadly, in an effort to buy votes, even this requirement has been given mass waivers innumerable times over the past eleven years in favor of a native language test. More vote buying has compromised citizenship requirements as well. There has been mass pardons given to the illegal immigrants and an most recently special status is given to legal immigrants that serve in the military; they now can gain citizenship in eighteen months rather than the four years of continuous legal residency as stated in the naturalization process. Now a lot of states are jumping on the bandwagon to give driver's licensee to illegal immigrants and there is serious talk in some states for giving non-citizens (illegal or otherwise) the right to vote in local elections. With all this political whoring going on, one almost has to ask, what is citizenship representative of anyway? California is a good example of my concern on cultural assimilation before gaining privileges of citizenship. Depending on the source, this state is composed of no less than 29 to 32% immigrants (much of it illegal); compare this to NY at 13.6%, TX at 9.5% and FL at 8.1%. Of course the Hispanic influence is a no brainier here, but 20% of the USA's Islamic immigrant population has also settled in California, as compared to 16.7% in NY, 8% in NJ, 7% in Ohio and 3% in MI, VA and IN. Immigrant concentrations in these numbers are very influential on the electoral process in a state as large as CA. To give way to the letter and spirit of the law by allowing vote pimping politicians to make continuous compromises is a dangerous thing. It is a security issue for a nation that officially is at war with Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorism, but this is a political euphemism for saying we are engaged in the third crusade. The saying is, "So goes CA and so goes the nation." Consider this - the revolutionary war was won with only 35% support. My question is, will CA and a few other states hold up some long standing principles, or will their political prostitution lead to an erosion of an undefined, but recognizable set of qualities that has melded people of many races and many cultures into a people of one spirit for over 200 years? I'm not against immigration, for that is the stuff this nation is built upon. I am not against cultural diversity, but I see no reason for allowing people to immigrate into a nation unless they are willing to embrace the essence of its culture and principles; this takes time of proof. With immigration comes growth, but the growth must be regulated to the needs of the environment (in this case the environment is economy), it must mutually benefit and not sustain a parasite; why tolerate immigration (legal or otherwise) if the immigrant is to become a welfare burden? Why allow student visas to people of nations known to tolerate ideological terrorism, especially in studies such as bioengineering and nuclear physics? Why should the US set a high lottery quota for nations that's immigrants form into settlements that become unrecognizable from the nation they left and fail to embrace immersion? Why should someone be liberally tolerated as an illegal immigrant because they are Hispanic in origin while people from another nation is not? Shark99, your not a citizen but you are a great American, you have grabbed the essence of Americana better than most of its native children. My work partner Noly, you’re a great American, you wonderfully meld your Filipino heritage into the culture that is America and your work ethic is inspirational. Margo my wife, you may never become a citizen (so you can remain tied to your family and the nation that nourished you so wonderfully), but in my eyes you are a great American too. You work your butt off; you show a deep love for the commitment of US military members and your understanding of how this nation works is far better than the average native citizen possesses. Where is the problem here? The problem is that corrupted politicians by pandering for votes and making countless compromise to the fundamentals of the immigration process have made a mockery of the sacrifices and efforts you have made to live here as a legal member of this nation. I thought when the 9-11 event took place the promise was to reorganize the INS and once again make it a meaningful organization and process. Can someone point out this effort to me? So far all I've seen is continued compromise by the politicians and not one damned bit of reorganization. |
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