Category: News and Views
Now this pales in comparison to communicable disease and welfare statistics that say both are more rampant in third world immigrant communities than among native borns but here goes: satellite tv.
Yes you heard right. A really stupid local law makes certain districts in Boston "historical", like Beacon Hill, where folks like Senator John Kerry, aka the husband of the Heinz ketchup fortune, live. Nothing wrong with that, and fortunately it is illegal to put up a satellite in these districts. The modern clutter diverts from the historic nature of these areas, where a lot of the wealthy live.
However, there is no law against satellites going up in poorer districts, like the neighborhood by the airport. A lot of third world immigrants live in these districts, and the only reason they want 'em is to get programming from the old country. The welfare stats...and this is from a thesis written by a Harvard graduate student and not the product of conservative bias...favor Mexicans & Salvadorans at the top, and rank Germans, Canadians, and Japanese at the bottom for percentage of people receiving handouts. Not to mention the satellites are costly to remove, so once the purchasers move to other housing, the things are abandonned and remain as building clutter.
Yes folks your tax dollars and mine are going to provide basics like medical care, food, and housing in some cases while the recipients can clearly afford satellite tv service for broadcasts in any number of languages. Not only is this is a slap in the face to working taxpayers, many of whom are integrated immigrants, but another step in the balkanization of these neighborhoods. American television, of all things, was one of Mr. Sponge's tools in learning the English language. This is where he got a lot of the exposure. Now sometimes it wasn't so great, like not realizing "slut" is a word for woman of ill repute, because it was thrown around on 'Friends' from time to time, but it was a big medium for his exposure & ability to integrate to some extent. They can watch everything from news to soaps in whatever dialect, never learn English, and live off of you and me. In the words of Dana Carvey's Churchlady character on 'Saturday Night Live', "Isn't that special?"
Also a reason to have a Citizen stamp on the state issued ID card. I would not have had a problem with Arizona's law if it were enforceable, in other words, if we all had stamps done on our state-issued ID cards be they driver's licenses for those who can drive or just ID cards.
The problem comes down to documentation, and I learned this the hard way in the 1980s when working for Immigration. The problem is not they are undocumented, they are almost equally documented: They all have Social Security numbers so in some places they can collect benefits with it, in others like out here, they pick fruit and pay taxes with it.
My problem is, if you present a nationalized ID stamp, you'd have the very same people (for the most part) who want immigration reform writing weirdo things on Facebook about the world ending and the government taking over, how dangerous a nationalized stamp would be.
I say stamp all our ID, then there's no question, we all carry it. It says American Citizen and that's it.
What about legal immigrants, who pay thousands of dollars into your social security system but are not entitled to any benefits, not even unemployment.
I am one of them and I feel rather offended by the whole citizen superiority. If people have worked hard to be here and pay their dues they should be treated with the same rights as citizens, at least with the same attitude.
So, may be you can have a "citizen or immigrant with legal visa" stamp, but I cannot accept being treated differently or put in the same category as an illgal immigrant who does not pay anything into the system.
I understand about social security, and that is my contribution, but I do not want my ID to start looking different from American ones and me lumped in with illegal immigrants, there is a huge difference.
The U.S. has done so well, at lesat in part, because it attracts some of the most atlented and smart people from around the world (not saying I am one of them mind), and a policy of excluding them or making them feel unwelcome will be a serious threat to the future growth of this country.
Well put, and I think the real problem is not immigration, it is illegal immigration. The program in the 1980s was there for just that purpose: Grant amnesty to those who were here illegally but were working. Whatever we do, it shouldn't alienate: just separate who's legal and who isn't. I happen to have been born white, but many legal residents and citizens aren't, and they "look like" the illegals. The tables would be turned indeed if we started getting poor illegals from Western Europe.
My point isn't to isolate groups of legal residents be they citizens, permanent residents or people here on work / student visas. We're just trying to solve a problem we basically can't now, because there is no documentable difference. I know many people out here of Mexican ancestry both resident and citizen, who like you, work harder here than many citizens. But they could be mistaken, due to no fault of their own, for illegal workers. It's precisely that mix-up I'd want to see go away, and some form of real documentation we all have who have the legal right to permanently reside here is the answer, I think.
Wildebrew you are one of the talented and smart who came here. You write and express yourself well. I have known people who don't even pick up a book.
I honestly don't care what country someone came from, I'm just not for this...if you look at how the softfoots do it it is a form of segregation...trend of not expecting people to learn English or work to contribute to society. I think expecting others to provide language interpreters, even be able to apply for a job in Spanish and an even more disturbing trend of even building separate churches, for example Haitian, Korean, Brazilian etc. churches is just that, disturbing. Indonesia's diversity motto has it over ours..."Out of many people, one." They have I guess different ethnic groups...the indigenous Indonesians, east Indians, perhaps Chinese? And based on this motto they are expected to speak a common language and adhere to a common set of laws, adapt to a common set of cultural values. The U S' motto goes something like "Unity in diversity"...based on what I'm experiencing, I think not. This 'tolerance' of failure to integrate is going to make the place more like a war torn nation in the former Yugoslavia than the nation it was expected to be at one time.
I'm also for a stamp that would separate legal residents and citizens from those who did not enter through the legal channels or overstayed visas or other such shenanigans.
being well on my way to being a perfectly legal immigrant myself, the thing that gets on my nerves is how *some* illegal immigrants can just come into this country and get away with it, while people such as myself have to go through a lengthy and complicated process, while being doubted and questioned by many because I don't have a social security number, or a state ID yet. Well, excuse me for trying to do this right.
Yup and while many nowadays don't have good logic on either side, either we have the Kennedy approach or the weirdos on the other side approach, they're thinking all the time about certain skin colors: If a vast number of illegals were suddenly a group of whites from somewhere, and one of these right wingers got their little selves confused with one of the immigrants, make no mistake: they would begin to squeal. And squeal they would, just like a wittow girl.
A solution simply needs to be engineered, so someone such as yourself who's coming in legally gets all the docs and all of us have documentation stating citizenship or legal residency.
I perfectly agree about the illegal immigrants. They, genreally, have no health ensurance, no car ensurance and they do create negative perceptions towards those who stay here legally.
Believe you me, the USCIS makes it a complex and exhausting process to apply for visa, send in, to my mind, needless paperwork, and they are very intimidating when dealing with you in all apsects, and make you feel like a criminal or someone who is trying to smooch off the nation.
I expect that may simply be because they come across so many people who are doing just that, but it makes it a very unnerving experience to deal with any sort of paperwork involving taxes or immigration visas.
But, that's fine, once your initial visa is establish you generally do not get into any trouble as long as you don't break the law or terms of your visa.
I think the diversity greencard lottery should be abandoned in favor of making it easier for highly educated immigrants, talented business people or people who are otherwise contributing to this country, to obtain a resident visa or even citizenship more easily.
May be conditions should be set regarding income/contribution, may be education or other factors that could be measured, and then there is a lottery from applications and a subsequent test of English, and then citizenship or green card can be awarded.
Sorry to hear you had that experience getting your visa. I know what you're saying...Mr Sponge went thru customs at Logan Airport for the first time and he was treated like a criminal, AFTER having taken his oath of American citizenship last year. He has the same American passport I do and got that kind of treatment. But then, you have the evil Muslim immigrants, like this Somali woman who took an oath of American citizenship to turn around & funnel money to Ash Shabab, the Somali rebels who decapitate Christians while chanting "Allahu akbar" for daring to read Bibles of their own, who spoil it for all of the others. Turns out she lied on her application for residency.
That's what I say...no arrival without specific technical skills & proof that you can be self sufficient, no Medicaid, no other taxpayer sponsored benefits, & must speak English, NO interpreter service. Dump Kennedy's brainchild, the lottery, & limit to those most likely to integrate. I also support something like in Sarkozy's France...if men wish to send for a wife, require her to take an English language proficiency test, and if she fails...oops...no can come. I've seen too many women marginalized on the sidelines, probably have to specifically select Dr's & Dentists who are speakers of whatever language, and health care & services for these people come out of working peoples' pockets, and they don't even have the courtesy to get part time jobs. No English, require Medicaid if nothing else, no arrival.
You also have to realize that in a lot of places, people don't get proper education. So yes, most illegals do all sorts of shit, but if one is willing to contribute yet has little skill due to being alienated in their own country, or to coming from a wartorn nation, or simply due to the fact their country is so small it's hard for it to support itself so its residents don't get properly educated, then what does one do?
Even now there are statuses for people of different nations. Someone deemed to come from a hostile nation such as Cuba where most of the population is unbelievably poor is given political asylum. There are a lot of different exceptions even now for various countries.
When I worked in Immigraition we hardly ever had people of Middle Eastern descent except a few Iranians fleeing the coup.
Aren't Cubans automatically given asylum because they and/or families will be imprisoned or executed should they be sent back? Isn't that what happens when people flee Communism and that is why they get asylum if they make it to the U S side?
Iranians tend to be oriented towards academic achievement so while I knew one woman who didn't do so well with her life here, her sister worked her way towards a chemistry degree & became a licensed med tech. The middle east has just gotten so chaotic & volatile, and experiencing personally that some folks are more likely to integrate than other I think it's time to review each nation & the stats for each...welfare stats, trouble with law enforcement & what type, from petty to violent incident, likeliness to be receiving interpreters, etc. and start drawing some boundaries based on the likeliness of integrating, being productive, and having goals that are compatible with those in a western democracy. I personally think the whole "diversity for diversity's sake" just isn't working. One state that tried that got a bunch of tribal peoples from remote parts of Laos living off welfare benefits, and they're stuck with 'em.