Monday, March 20, 2006
Immigration Issues
As with so many issues, immigration changes will never please everyone. This article explains some of the issues; and of course, the politics...
"At the Border", by Tamar Jacoby:
"These provisional workers could travel at will, they could change jobs if they wanted and could bring their families to the country to live with them. But unless Congress vastly increased the annual quota of permanent visas (green cards)--a difficult step in today's political climate--most would have to wait 60 or 70 years for this prerequisite of citizenship. The result would be a permanent caste of second-class noncitizen workers, people we trusted to cook our food and tend our children and take care of our elderly relatives--but not to call themselves Americans or participate in politics. They would live in permanent limbo, at risk of deportation if they lost their jobs, hesitant to bargain with employers and unlikely to make the all-important emotional leap that is essential for assimilation."
