Thoughts on Fixing Immgration Reform

Immigration Reform is a very difficult subject to talk about, because there is a lot of controversy on what the right thing is to do. There seems to be a “fear” of too many immigrants in the country. Right now, Immigration Reform is focusing on the number of immigrants both illegal and legal.  I think the legal immigrants should not be a problem, but I do think we need system for illegal immigrants. Many people are consumed with the “fear” of immigrants that they don’t focus on how the immigrants can help the country become a better nation. If I could come up with a system for Immigration reform, I would have amnesty programs, certain requirements that people would have to follow in order to come over here and for people already in this country I would help them become a legal immigrant.

Yes, immigrants might have the jobs, but we also need to focus on what immigrants can bring to our country as well. I would grant amnesty for students. If a student comes and gets their degree in America then could be granted amnesty. America as a nation can benefit from this, because with their education immigrants can help us advance for the future. It would a huge loss for us if they went back to their country. Students who would be granted amnesty would have the chance to either go back or be granted the right to citizenship after they finish their degree. However, in order to stay here they must finish their degree.

 For some Asian American immigrants, their employers sponsor them. That would also be another great idea. Employers want educated people. It would make sense to have people who already have their bachelors to come and over to work. There should be a program granting amnesty to people who want to complete their masters. Something like, once they complete their masters they will be granted citizenship. But I think their should be a time limit like 3-5 years on it.

If immigrants wanted to come into this country, then there would be requirements that would need to be met. If you want to visit the country and are granted a visa then you must go back by the time your visa expires. Visa over-stayers should not be permitted unless you are sick or some other reason like a death in the family. Now, if you would like to migrate to this country, then you will have to fill out paper work, have an interview, explain your reason for the migration. Most of the time people are migrating in search for a better life. If that’s the reason then I don’t see why they can’t come over. There is always the problem of over population; in that case there should be a waiting list. If state is over populated then the family or person should be placed on a waiting list. Once placed on the waiting list, they have a choice to either stay on that waiting list or they could pick another state to migrate to.

Lastly for people already living in this country who don’t have the proper documents. They must get documented.  They would also have to fill out paper work, have and interview and state why they want to say here.  Obama stated that he would like them to pay a fine, but I don’t know about immigrants paying a fine. I don’t know if they could afford it. Usually immigrants are paid less money. I guess it depends on the amount of the fine. I was thinking maybe like $1000 or $2500 fine. I also think that they should be allowed to pay the fine installments if they don’t have the money. Now a days, who has extra money lying around, unless you are super rich. I like Obama’s idea of immigrants getting their citizenship within a 10 year period.

            Immigration Reform is a very difficult subject to talk about and it’s hard to get all the topics into this essay. As you read them, I’m sure questions will pop up in your head. Sometimes, I think no matter what laws are put into action, people will find their way around it.

The Rise of Asian Americans

The Rise of Asian Americans
            The Rise of Asian Americans article fascinated me. In a way, I am reading about my own culture, because I am a quarter Chinese. I don’t look it, but I have the stereo-type characteristics, lol. There were many intriguing facts in this article.

“Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success, according to a comprehensive new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center.”

I thought this quote was important because the Asian American population is starting to stand out. In the past they were really repressed. There were the exclusion acts that were passed to keep them out of the country. I just thought it was interesting that how the exclusion acts prevented the Asian Americas from coming in the U.S., but later on in history they are able to migrate and they are making their presence known. We are that witnessing history. I think in the past people were afraid of the Asian immigrants taking over. After reading this article, that makes me think, have the Asian immigrants taken over?

Interesting Facts from Article

“More than six-in-ten (61%) adults ages 25 to 64 who have come from Asia in recent years have at least a bachelor’s degree. This is double the share among recent non-Asian arrivals, and almost surely makes the recent Asian arrivals the most highly educated cohort of immigrants in U.S. history.”

If Asian migrants are migrating over with a bachelors degree, that makes it easier for them to find a job down here. Employers want people who are educated. That brings me to the next important quote.

“Recent Asian immigrants are also about three times as likely as recent immigrants from other parts of the world to receive their green cards—or permanent resident status—on the basis of employer rather than family sponsorship (though family reunification remains the most common legal gateway to the U.S. for Asian immigrants, as it is for all immigrants)”

I think having your employer sponsor you is a very smart way to migrate to the U.S. I think that could be something that maybe they could use in the immigration reform. The plan would be get your bachelors in your mother country, then migrate to US, get a job and have your employer sponsor you. Although, I’m not too sure on how sponsoring someone works. I thought they have to request you to come over first. Hmm. Also there could be a program for people who want to receive their masters and be granted citizenship after they receive their masters. All the possibilities. I wish I would have thought of this during the final….

GOP, look to Bush on immigration

GOP, look to Bush on immigration

Wow. Is what I said while reading this article.  When the 2004 elections was going on I remember I was 14 years old, but now being 23 and reading about it I had no idea that there was all this controversies going on. Immigration reform is something we are still struggling with today.  Some people don’t see as a big deal, but it is. While reading this article, I found out some things that I never knew before like in 2004 I didn’t know that Bush had won the Hispanics votes. This article had some interesting true points. I quoted some of the points I thought were important.

“That is the reaction of a lot of Republicans these days. I hear all the time from people who consider themselves conservative on social issues or economic policies. And yet they don't understand why lawmakers can't fix the immigration system in a way that reaffirms the rule of law, secures the border, provides a work force for industries that are shorthanded and creates a pathway where those who have been living in this country illegally can become legal as long as they're willing to admit they did wrong and make it right.”

This quote I found to be very honest and true. One of the problems is that immigration reform has so many little things and its hard to gather all the information at once. They need to sit down and come to a decision and nobody should be able to leave the room until they find the answer to the problem. If it was up to me that’s what I would have them do.  Another key point in this article was…

“The stakes couldn't be higher. If conservatives could learn to talk honestly about immigration, they might have a shot at winning the percentage of the Hispanic vote that they need to stay competitive in a presidential election: about 35%.”

Another point that was very true and honest.

“Bush gets it. He has a message for his party, and if Republicans are smart, they'll listen. The man who got 35% of the Hispanic vote in 2000 and what is, for Republicans, a record 44% in 2004 knows a little something about winning over voters who might not be inclined to support a Republican.”

"Not only do immigrants help build the economy," Bush said, "they invigorate our soul."

Here I agree with Bush, immigrants do help build the economy. They are part of what makes us a nation. Immigrants see America as the land of opportunities, that’s why they want to migrate over and there is nothing wrong with that. I just think that they need to come up with a fair decision on immigration reform. I know it’s hard for them, I remember sitting in class and trying to think of something that would help them. There's always little bits of information here and there that they have to consider. I recently read an article, that showed a jeep getting stuck while trying to cross the border. Now, the jeep was stuck because the border was guarded very thoroughly. Again, my point is that immigration reform is a hard topic to come to a decision, but I have faith that with time they will come up with something.

Chapter 17: Immigration in an Age of Globalization

Chapter 17: Immigration in an Age of Globalization

All the Chapters in this book have been very interesting. Chapter 17 centers about America’s Immigrants. There are a lot of key/main points in this chapter. I took notes as I was reading to the parts that I thought were interesting.  I found immigrants and education an important topic.  One of the facts that really grabbed my attention was when the book stated; “some 2/3 of those twenty-five years of age and older are at least high school graduates as opposed to almost seven-eights of the native born.” (412)  This was the educational achievement for “contemporary immigrants.”  Another fact the book mentioned, “large numbers of foreign born have little or no formal education: 22% of them had less than a ninth-grade education, as opposed to only 4.7% of the natives.” (412) These are facts that I thought were important, but nobody really pays attention to. I wasn’t surprised when I read “23% of the science and engineering Ph.D.s and 12% of the non-science and engineering Ph.D.s were foreign born.” (412) I found that to be an amazing and cool fact.  The bigger picture here is mankind. it doesn’t really matter where you are from, what  matters is what you bring to the table.  Charles Darwin is mentioned in the next page and the book quotes him “there are no species, only individuals.” (413) I don’t know why but reading that and blogging about it now, it really makes sense to me.  In 1998, the number of legal immigrants decreased rapidly.

“Nonimmigrant” Immigrants

                “Nonimmigrant” Immigrants also known as “temporary immigrants.” (according to the book)  A person who is “temporary immigrants” is someone who comes to the United States on various kinds of visas, but they don’t apply for permanent resident status. Basically they let their visa expire. We all know someone who at some point might have been or is a temporary immigrant. I knew “family members” who would be considered temporary immigrants except they weren’t really family members we just called them family out of respect. Tourists were also thrown into the category of being “temporary immigrants.” Another group mentioned in the book was “visitors for business.” This includes students and temporary employees. The books states that “it is visa overstayers—that is persons who entered legally as non immigrants who compromise the major portion of what are called illegal immigrants….” (420)

                Immigration is such a controversial topic. I think we as Americans need to take in account to why people migrate. There is always a push, pull factor. I know I’ve mentioned that before but I think its really important to remember that. There are many reasons why people would migrate to America. If I was in the Islands I too would want to migrate here. We have opportunities here. We are lucky to have simple things like clean water. I’m so glad that I live in America!

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

My family doesn’t really have a Thanksgiving tradition. We celebrate Thanksgiving, but there really is no tradition. I remember when I was about 13 years old, every Thursday morning on Thanksgiving my dad would wake up my sister and ask her to turn on the oven. This is funny because my dad refers to the oven as the microwave. So every morning he would come in the room and say “Josh, microwave on kero.” In translation, it means turn on the microwave, lol. What he really means is turn on the oven. I remember waking up and the whole house would smell like turkey. He would make his world famous mash potatoes. Now those mash potatoes are my sisters famous mash potatoes. She took his recipe and doctored it. Her mash potatoes are better, but I don’t tell my dad that, lol. Along the years, I don’t know what happened but we just stopped that tradition.  My dad has always worked on Thanksgiving and I have a pretty small family, so it’s just me and my sister home for Thanksgiving. Sometimes we go over to other peoples house whether its friends or relative. So every year is different in our house hold. In 2010, my uncle invited us over to his house and last year we invited them over to our house. This year is still to be decided. Since my dad is working, we haven’t really decided on what we want to do yet. Maybe this year we will stay in and get a deep fried turkey from Popeye’s. 

Even though, my family doesn’t really have a big tradition for Thanksgiving. I still enjoy the holiday. I like the spirit of Thanksgiving. It really makes you appreciate what you have. Sometimes, we get so caught up in life that we don’t appreciate the simple things in life like having good health, drinking clean water, or having a place to live. Those are just simple things we take for granted. I try to remember when things get bad there is someone out there who has it worse then you, so count your blessings. When I realize how lucky I am all the bad stuff doesn’t seem to matter anymore.   Try to appreciate the simple things in life is what I tell everyone.  Also try to give back to the less fortunate. Simple things like donating your time or participating in the canned food drives can help the less fortunate, giving away clothes you don’t wear anymore to organizations like Salvation Army. Especially during the holidays, you realize how lucky someone is to have these things. Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday and I’m so glad that we celebrate it.  Another bright side about Thanksgiving is I get a 4 day weekend! A break from school is always a good thing, but only to catch up on more homework. I’m sure others feel the same way.