Why America Needs Immigration Reform by James Seigh

 As you probably know, illegal immigration is a major problem in modern American society, and you probably agree with me that we should find a solution. I feel that the main reason that some people attempt to illegally immigrate to the United States is because the opportunities for legal immigration have become limited. People are motivated to immigrate to the United States for a variety of reasons such as economic opportunities, political and religious freedom, educational opportunities for their children, health care and a better quality of life that are not available to them in their native countries. Some immigrants may be fleeing their country due to war or famine or natural disaster.  Some people may be immigrating to be reunited with their families or loved ones. People's reasons for immigration may vary, however for many it is so important that they will risk everything they have, including their lives to get to America legally or not. "A gallop poll surveyed 135 countries between 2007 and 2009 finds about 16% of the world's adults would like to move to another country if they had the chance, which roughly translates to 700 million people worldwide. Of that 700 million nearly one-quarter (24%) of these respondents, which translates to more than 165 million adults worldwide, named the United States as their desired country to immigrate to." (Esipova)

 One of the biggest barriers blocking immigrants from achieving legal citizenship is the scarcity of green cards. "Family-based immigration is limited by statute to 480,000 persons per year." (U.S. Immigration) "Employment-based immigration is limited by statute to 140,000 persons per year." (U.S. Immigration) Those are really small numbers relative to the world population.  For most people this is a very long process. For those Immigrants fortunate enough to obtain a green card and then meet the criteria to apply for citizenship, there is tremendous amount of paperwork an  Immigrants also have to face a very difficult citizenship test. If you don't think that's much of a big issue, just listen to some to some of the questions! "25. Why do some states have more Representatives than other states?"the criteria to (100 Questions) "50. Name one right only for United States citizens." (100 Questions) "82. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?" (100 Questions) Honestly, can you answer two of these questions without looking up the answers? If Americans can't answer questions about their own nation, how do we expect somebody from an entirely different country to know the answers?

 The answers to our immigration problems are not clear. Many people blame the illegal immigrant for many of America's economic problems. Some people claim that Illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from American workers, but illegal immigrants often work for substandard wages and work under conditions that are not legal. Many immigrants tolerate these conditions in fear of deportation and many US companies and employers are willing to take advantage of this situation because  if they do not have to pay fair wages then they have higher profits. If companies were penalized for the hiring of illegal immigrants, it would discourage illegal immigration. People would not come if there were not so many American companies willing to hire them even when they know they are not legal immigrants or have green cards. There have been some immigration bills to provide more legal opportunities for immigration, like the one by Senator Menendez. "New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez plans to reach out to a South Carolina Republican to craft a bipartisan immigration reform bill in the next Congress." (Chebium 1) "There are many other immigration reform bills that address illegal immigration and create more opportunities for legal immigration." (CIR)

 The answer to our immigration problems is policy reform. Punishing the immigrant for wanting a better life is not the answer. How can you blame somebody for wanting a safe place for their kids to grow up and go to school. In New Jersey we already have approximately 221,000 illegal immigrants that already live and work here. Some of them have lived here for many years and their kids were all born here and they have businesses in  New Jersey towns but never had the opportunity to get a green card or become citizens. Deporting them now because the current laws says that's what has to happen because they are not legal makes no sense, because  the kids are American and they would lose their parent and probably their home because there would be no one to financially support them. The family would be forced to live off of welfare. These kinds of situations are why immigration policy needs to be made less difficult for immigrants to become U.S. citizens.

  "Many immigrants are denied citizenship due to to immigration policy.  Since 1996, when the immigration law reform was first performed, there were more and more naturalization applications denied, at least 85,000 rejections per year.  In  2000,  399,670 applications were rejected. In 2007, there were 89,683 applications denied." (Become U.S. Citizen)

  Our nation was built on immigration, so I don't see why we should make things difficult for other immigrants. If we could streamline our immigration policy with common sense, we could allow more people to immigrate here legally, while discouraging people from coming here illegally.
 

                                                                                                                                            

CITATIONS:

 "U.S. Immigration: How Many Green Cards Are Allotted Each Year?" H1B  K1 Fiancee  NIW  PERM and Labor Certification Immigration Information by H1B Law Firm. Web. 04 Jan. 2011. <http://www.myvisa.com/Visasage/PRnumber.htm>.

"100 Questions for the New U.S. Citizenship Test 2010 :Citizenship Test Tips." Citizenship Test Tips. 1 July 2010. Web. 04 Jan. 2011. <http://citizenshiptesttips.com/100-questions-for-the-new-u-s-citizenship-test-2010>.

 Esipova, Neli, and Julie Ray. "700 Million Worldwide Desire to Migrate Permanently." Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Government, Politics, Economics, Management. 2 Nov. 2009. Web. 04 Jan. 2011. <http://www.gallup.com/poll/124028/700-Million-Worldwide-Desire-Migrate-Permanently.aspx>.

 Chebium, Raju. "Menendez Hopes for Bipartisan Immigration Reform Bill | Courierpostonline.com | Courier-Post." Courierpostonline.com | Courier-Post | Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties News, Community, Entertainment, Yellow Pages and Classifieds. Serving Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties, New Jersey. 2 Jan. 2011. Web. 04 Jan. 2011. <http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20110102/NEWS01/101020334/Menendez-hopes-for-bipartisan-immigration-reform-bill>.

 "Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR)." NILC Home. Web. 04 Jan. 2011. <http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/cir/index.htm>.

 "Become U.S. Citizen | HowTo-Be.com." How To Become - The Excellent Resource about How to Be. 20 Jan. 2010. Web. 04 Jan. 2011. <http://www.howto-be.com/tag/become-u-s-citizen/>.

Interview With Grandma

Q1: Which country did you immigrate from?

A: "Northern Ireland."

Q2: Why did you immigrate to America?

A: "Because my father was American and lived here. He was an American soldier. He and my Mother were married in England during the World War II.  My Mother did not want to immigrate to the USA.  She loved Ireland and refused to immigrate for many years”.

Q3: How old were you when you immigrated to America?

A: "I was almost 11."

Q4: How did you feel about immigrating to the America?

A: "Sad and upset. I didn't want to leave my family and friends."

Q5: Was immigration difficult for you?

A: "I would say yes. I had to get a whole bunch of shots, which was annoying. When I came to this country I spoke with an Irish accent; an Irish brogue. So people didn't always understand me, and the kids at school made fun of me."

Q6: What was the trip like?

A: "Well, first of all, we took a ship to Scotland, then we took an airplane from Scotland to New York, then we had to take another plane from New York to Minneapolis. Then airplane trip from Scotland to New York took a total of about 20 hours.  Planes were not as fast back them and people didn’t fly as often as they do now.  Altogether, the whole trip from Ireland to Minneapolis, Minnesota took about three or four days."

Q7: What was your first day in the U.S. like?

A: "I was very sad because I didn't like Minneapolis and I was far away from the oceans, and I felt so far away from my aunts and uncles and cousins. Minneapolis was not a very attractive place in those days."

Q8: How did Ireland look compared to Minneapolis?

A: "When we left Ireland it was springtime with all the flowers blooming and there are beautiful mountains and the sea. Minneapolis had no flowers because it was getting over winter, and there were no mountains and no ocean.  In Ireland, everything was green and beautiful, in Minneapolis everything was gray."

Q9: Did you have difficulty adjusting to American Society?

A: "Yes. For two years I had to sit and do the same school work I did two years before in school in Ireland because American schools were two years behind academically. There was a language barrier even though I spoke English because we used different words, sayings, and phrases.  For example instead of saying “Goodbye” we said “Cheerio”. In America a cheerio was a type of a breakfast cereal and also a name for an ice cream bar they called a “Cheerio Bar”. In Ireland we called the hood of a car “The Bonnet”   and the Trunk was called “The boot”.  In Ireland the bathroom is called the”Lavatory” and in Minneapolis the kids called it the “toilet”.  There were also some words that were spelled different in Ireland than here in America.

Q10: What were the kids in Ireland like compared to the ones in Americas.

A: They behaved very different than the kids in Ireland, for example they talked back to their teachers, and called adults by their first names.  We would never have done that in Ireland as it was considered very disrespectful.  I thought many of the kids here behaved very badly. We were much more formal in Ireland. The kids also dressed very different, they wore jeans. Boys in Ireland did not wear jeans they wore pants or trousers and the girls always wore dresses or skirts, never pants. In Ireland we liked American music, but we also liked traditional Irish music, so I missed the traditional music.  We also liked American Movies so that was no big difference. In American everyone had TV’s; in Ireland only a few people had television back in those days. So having TV was fun.  

   

Q11: Which do you prefer, America or Ireland?

A: "Ireland."

Q12: What do you prefer about Ireland?

A: "I love the ocean and I miss it, and just the beauty of the whole country. Even now, I would still love to live there."

Q13: If you could go back in time and prevent yourself from immigrating, would you?

A: "Yes. I like America because I've gotten used to it, but my heart is still in Ireland."

Picture Prompt

Picture from http://www.genealogybranches.com/ellisisland/immigrants.html
 My family and I have arrived at Ellis Island with hopes that we will be able to find a better life.We brought our laundry, our photos of homeland Scotland so we have something to remember it by, and a wee bit of food in case we got hungry during the long trip. We are watching the ship we arrived here on sail back into the fog. I guess there's no turning back now. My uncle who lives here at New York told us that we will find lots of new and exciting opportunities here in America where my family will be staying. I am looking forwards to the opportunities that my uncle talks about, but I am still nervous about traveling so far away from home to an entirely different country. My Uncle tells me that he can get my father a job fixing ships so more people can find a new life here. He also said that I will get a better education here. I hope that they accept us here. My older sister told me that there are a group of white-hooded men who want to destroy all that is non-American. I hope that they are just a myth. America might not feel like Scotland, but at least we have a chance at finding a better life. I can't see the boat anymore. There's definitely no turning back now.
 It is my first day in America, and things aren't going very well. Dad's new job isn't very well-paying, so my family is just squeaking by. As for me, I'm having trouble adapting to my new American landscape. Instead of having green rolling hill like in Scotland, America has dense, crowded cities. Everything is so big that I feel overwhelmed. The people there aren't much better either. All of the other lads make fun of my accent, but worse yet, they make fun of my nationality! They think that just because I come from Scotland, it automatically makes me a short-tempered, bagpipe-playing golf fanatic! I don't even like golf! The worst part is that it turns out that those white-hooded men I mentioned earlier... are REAL! Everything about this new land makes me feel uncomfortable. I want to go back home. Next time I meet my uncle, I'm going to tell him that he was wrong about America. Horribly, horribly wrong.
 Dad let me visit my uncle today. Now I can tell him that everything he said about America was wrong. America is not a land of opportunity. America is not a land of freedom. It is a land of struggle and intolerance. I want to go back home. I told my uncle all these things, and he responded as so, "I understand that you are having difficulty adapting to this new land, but I want to assure you that it is perfectly normal for you to feel this way. When I first came to America, I too was unable to adapt at first, but over time I got more and more used to America. Eventually, America began to become my second homeland. As I got used to everything, I learned how to become successful here, and now, here I am, helping other people like me, or your father, discover a new life here in America and become successful themselves. Just remember that no matter how far away you are away from home, if you stay patient, remain hopeful, and always keep your homeland in your heart, you'll be able make it here just like I have. Hey, isn't your favorite show on?"
 My uncle's words were true. As time passed, America stopped seeming so foreign to me and people learned that there's more to me than just a two-dimensional stereotype. I have become completely used to America, and even though my heart will always be in Scotland, America has become kind of a second homeland to me. What my uncle has told me has served me well, and I shall pass his words along, as I now have a nephew of my own who has recently immigrated here. I wonder how he feels about America?

Link To Literature

  Immigration is a very popular topic in literature. Many books talk about the hardships that an immigrant faces in their new country. These hardships include, but are not limited to, inability to find a job, difficulty in adapting to a new culture, and flat-out racism. However, one of the less-oft written-about troubles that immigrants face is the sheer complexity and difficulty of immigration itself.   A good example of a book that acknowledges how difficult immigration can be is Kite Runner. The book emphasizes many difficulties that an immigrant faces in America, including the issue of immigration itself.
 In the book, an Afghan child named Amir, and his father, Baba, try to immigrate to the United States to avoid Communist persecution. Amir and Baba have to bear the very worst conditions during their trip. They have to travel in a filthy gas tanker to get to America, and when I say that they traveled in a filthy gas tanker, I mean that they actually had to ride inside the tank that the tanker truck was carrying! One guy actually died from the gas fumes! If that isn't an example of the hardships that immigrants have to suffer during immigration, I don't know what is.
 Another good example is later in the book when a now grown-up Amir adopts his orphaned nephew back in Afghanistan and tries to bring him back to America. This time, the obstacle isn't unsanitary conditions, but rather they have to face the complex immigration policies. Amir is required to provide the death certificates of the orphaned child's parents to prove that the boy was an orphan. That was a big problem for Amir because since Afghanistan had experienced decades of war, few had a certificate for life or death. The only reason that Amir was able to get the child into the United States was because he had a wife back in America.
 Kite Runner is a very strong book on immigration, for it not only discusses the hardships that immigrants have to face once they get there, but it also discusses the hardships that they have to face while getting there.