Chain Immigration

[Dr. Shane]

I hear a lot of concern on the right-wing talk shows about chain immigration. For those that don't know, that is when a person comes to the US, becomes a citizen which gives him or her the right to petition for their immediate family members to come. Their immediate family members than come, becomes citizens and bring even more family. The chain goes on and on.

Immigration allows this because communities made up of families tend to be better communities. If a person lives around his brothers, grandparents and cousins they are more likely to take care of their community than if they live around strangers. That makes sense to me.

Those that don't like this are afraid these people are going to come here and "take-over". These right-wingers would rather require immigrants that come here to have a needed skill that merits them being allowed in. What they mean by that is they would like big corporations and small business to be able to recruit skilled workers and bring them here under visas which would allow them to become citizens. They are looking for software programmers, architects, engineers, nurses, and such.

Now stay with me on this. Their fear is that the immigrants are going to "take over," right? Now tell me which group is more likely to "take-over": uneducated peasants that work in agricultural fields, factories and restaurants or educated professionals (like bevin) that are recruited by companies and brought here?

[lazarus]

This is an interesting topic Shane because it speaks to my personal sitiation.

My sister arrived in the US about 26 years ago, she is now a nursing director in large NY hospital. She sponsored our mother who was then retired and was only educated to about 8th grade, I guess. My mother was able to sponsor my sister who has an MA in social work and other stuff. My mother also sponsored my brother who is a construction worker who specialises in high quality stone work. My mother died before she could sponsor me. My other brother's wife was offered a job in California because she has some kind of nursing specialism. They decided to stay in the UK.

Only this week my sister, who is a Guardian ad litem, said she wants to come to the US because she misses us.

I later came to the US 5 years ago because a church in the US was looking for a Youth Pastor. My immigration was an employment based one. I was sponsored by the conference. If I had been offered a position in Canada or Australia I may have taken it but I certainly would have seen it as a temporary move because we have no family in those countries.

I believe that one of the reasons why many of us have been able to make a good transition is because we have had family here to give us support. Having said that, my closest relative lives at leave 5 hours away. We have all talked about moving closer to each other.

I'm sure that if we had no family here we would certainly see our time in the US as temporary. Many of the ex-pats I know all miss their families and talk of going "home" if their families are not here.

Money, a good career, etc. does not make a place your home, family does.

I know many indians who immigrants. They are often come to the US with a good education. Family is extreemely important to them. To provide care for an elderly parent or a relative in need is a must.

BTW yeah my family is big!

[Amelia]

It's good to have family around you. Close knit family is something I envy in other cultures.

BTW has anyone noticed the ad on this thread encouraging us to immigrate to Australia? LOL

[aldona]

My dad came to Australia from Poland in the 1960's. Then he sponsored his fiancee (now wife = my mom) and her mother (my grandma). Then he sponsored his mother (my other grandma). Finally he helped organize the migration of his brother and family (my uncle, aunt and two cousins).

So here we all are, normal law-abiding citizens, who pay our taxes, contribute to the economy and speak English (most of the time...except when we get together ;-) ). I don't have any relatives left in Poland - they are all here. The sky has not fallen. The Australian culture has not been swamped by hordes of Polish-speaking freeloaders stealing jobs and terrorizing the locals.

Or do we not provoke this kind of debate because we have white skin, fair hair and blue eyes?

aldona

[Dr. Shane]

America is to be a melting pot. Immigrants from all parts of the world are to be welcomed here. However the chain immigration policy does give preference to countries with citizens that have already immigrated here. However, given the dynamics of how families and communities work, I think that only makes good sense.

I haven't seen the statistics in some years but the last I say, more immigrants come to the us LEGALLY from Mexico each year than any other country. That would seem right given the chain immigration policy.

Rather than throwing out the baby with the bath water. Conservatives and those concerned about American culture should turn their efforts to change the citizenship test to emphasize assimilation, especially in the area of the rule of law. I would also favor banning duel citizenship too. I do not see any benefits American society receives from allowing immigrants to maintain duel citizenship.

[Amelia]

All of my family came to the USA from Europe and possibly the middle east (it's still being debated).

History is full of prejudice towards immigrants. At one time the Irish were the ones taking all the jobs. The Scotts weren't much better than the Irish. The Chinese were slaves along with Africans. And who was it that origonally created these views? Why I do believe it was the English.

[aldona]

Quote:

I would also favor banning duel citizenship too. I do not see any benefits American society receives from allowing immigrants to maintain duel citizenship.

I can hear what you're saying...but here is another perspective. Australia only recently allowed its citizens to hold dual citizenship. This is a story in today's news (Sydney Morning Herald) about an Australian lady who had to give up her nationality when she married an American citizen over 50 years ago.

Tears as mother bids farewell to her nationality

Quote:

She didn't want to give up her Australian citizenship, but she realised that she had to, for the security of her children. If anything happened to her husband, she didn't know what would become of her and her children.

"It was a sad day. Not that I have been unhappy here, but it was like saying goodbye to everything I'd ever know."

Think of it like getting married. Do you completely cut all ties to your family of origin, change your name, erase all traces of your previous identity, have nothing to do with your birth family for fear of being disloyal to your partner?

(I guess it depends on how well your birth family and your partner's family get along together.)

Or, like a married woman identifying herself as Mary Brown Smith, isn't it possible to declare that one is a loyal and loving member of both the Brown and the Smith families?

aldona

[Bravus]

Quote:

I would also favor banning duel citizenship too. I do not see any benefits American society receives from allowing immigrants to maintain duel citizenship.

(good response, aldona... but I can't resist the urge to be silly)

But see, Shane is fine with dual citizenship. He's not in favour of duel citizenship, and I agree completely. We can't have citizens running each other through in the streets, or turning and firing after ten paces.

[Dr. Shane]

That story sounds a little odd. A person that marries a US citizen legally can automatically become a US resident. A US resident cannot vote and cannot leave the US for more than six months at a time without getting permission. I have known residents that got job offers outside of the US and got permission to leave for more than six months without a problem. A person can live in the US their entire lives as a resident without ever becoming a citizen. My wife is a resident and never intended on becoming a citizen until recently. So it makes no sense that a person would become a citizen for their children's sake unless their children lived in another country and they wanted to be able to bring them to the US.

I don't like the idea of a person being able to vote in two countries. Mexican-Americans vote in the US where they live and then they can go to a local Mexican Embassy and vote in Mexico's national elections. So they can actually vote for both the President of the United States and the President of Mexico. That doesn't sit well with me.

[lazarus]

The one thing that would stop me from becoming a US citizenship would be the prospect of giving up UK citizenship. I don't think I could ever do that.