Immigration

I wanted to comment on all the talk about immigration, and illegal immigrants, which has been in the news lately.  I don’t usually write about political topics, but I have personal knowledge about this issue, and I wanted to share it.  It’s one thing to hear Lou Dobbs rant about illegal immigrants, but another to truly understand the issue of illegal immigration from the perspective of an individual.

About 15 and a half years ago, I fell in love with an American while she was vacationing in Toronto.  As she was still in school in the southwestern US completing her Masters degree, I decided to quit my job and to move to be with her.  I went to the US consulate in Toronto to ask about immigration, and after filling out a questionnaire, was told I didn’t qualify to live in the United States.  I was about 25 years old, educated, and certainly English-speaking, yet I was told that I had absolutely no qualities which would allow me just to pack up and move to the US.  My only option for coming here legally, was to find a job in the US where an American employer would “sponsor” me.  That was difficult because the US immigration officials considered my “job specialty” to be “radio announcer”, and that meant I had to find a job in radio.  As you can probably figure out, radio station employees are a dime a dozen, with more and more becoming unemployed every day as stations carry syndicated content and become automated (not to mention the recent popularity of satellite radio).  I not only had to find a job in radio, the US Labor Department had to certify that there was no qualified American who was willing to take the job being offered to me, and my employer would have to be willing to extend a job offer to me then wait for about three months for my paperwork to be processed before I could actually work.  In addition, my “skills” weren’t specialized enough or advanced enough to allow me to qualify for a Permanent Residence visa (a “green card”).  The best I could qualify for was a short-term visa of 3 -5 years, after which I’d have to return to Canada.  If I’d been a nurse or a doctor or a scientist I would have had other employment immigration options available to me, but with my skills, a temporary visa was all I could obtain.  After speaking to the US consulate I spoke to a number of immigration lawyers and they all said the same thing—with my education and skills, and no family in the US, I would never be allowed to stay permanently.  (I’ll finish my immigration tale at the end of this entry).

I mention my experience because I hear people say, “If immigrants want to come here, let them come here legally.”  The truth of the matter is, most of them will never, ever be qualified to immigrate to the United States.  Never.  If they have parents who are already citizens here they might have a chance, but still face a wait of over a decade before their visa application is processed (you can check visa processing times here: visa bulletin).  It’s all well and good to just call people “criminals” if they come to the US illegally, but please don’t qualify your statement by saying something like, “If they want to be here, they should fill out the paperwork to come legally.”.  There is no “legal” option for the majority of illegal immigrants, especially the ones from Mexico.  If the US government is turning down English-speaking white people with degrees when they want to immigrate, what chance does a person have who’s trying to escape from poverty or limited opportunities, and who speaks little English? 

I’m not saying illegal immigration is okay, I’m just pointing out that it’s not the black/white issue so many people make it out to be.  If you lived in poverty and couldn’t make a future for your family in Mexico, while across an invisible barrier in the sand you could see people prospering, why wouldn’t you want to come here to have the opportunities?  I don’t think it should surprise anyone that people are breaking the law to come here, given that there are no legal avenues for them to pursue to come here.  Even if there were legal avenues, the immigration process isn’t cheap… the path to my green card cost close to $10000, some of it in government application fees, and some in legal fees.  Where are farm workers supposed to come up with that kind of money?

If the US could come up with some sort of immigration system which worked efficiently, I think the majority of people here illegally now would use it.  With no options like that currently available, they do the best they can.  With the population of the United States decreasing every day (see the US census clock), growth is only coming through immigration.  I can’t believe I agree with GWB on anything, but I think his Guest Worker proposal is a good idea.  The people who are here illegally don’t like hiding, so give them reason to reveal themselves, to earn at least minimum wage, and to contribute to the tax pool and to social security.  They’re already here working and the only person benefiting is the one who pays them $3 an hour, so make them legal so we can all benefit.  As for the argument that illegals steal jobs from Americans, I don’t think that’s completely the case.  If all illegals were suddenly vaporized and deported, we might see a drop in unemployment figures in California or Texas, but there’d be no impact on the unemployment rate in, say, Minnesota.  Someone from Minnesota isn’t going to pack up their family and move to expensive southern California to take a $6 per hour job that was vacated by an illegal alien.  The proof of this is in Calgary, Alberta, where unemployment is so low that there are stories of fast-food restaurants closing (see Macleans, “Swinging Calgary”) for lack of employees.  People in Calgary wait years to have custom homes built because of a shortage of labourers, yet there’s still a 10% unemployment rate in Trois Rivieres, Quebec.  Unemployed people can’t afford to move to take a minimum wage job.

As for how I ultimately ended up being in the US, it was luck.  At first, I came here illegally, but I didn’t work (my partner supported me), so I was never technically breaking the law.  I was just here, arguably as a long-term tourist.  I won’t deny that I tried to work illegally, but couldn’t find anyone who would hire me.  I wanted to go to school to study nursing so I could qualify for a proper degree, but the fees for non-resident students were beyond anything I could afford.  After a couple of years, I found an employer willing to sponsor me and to give me a radio station management job for a whopping $16000 per year (I know I got that job through “family connections”, so my experience isn’t representative of the average person’s job search).  I was only eligible for a temporary, five year visa (an H1-B), but figured it was better than nothing.  Unfortunately, the H1-B contains a clause requiring the employer to “ensure the alien is transported back to their country of origin when the visa expires”, and my crooked employer really held that over my head.  My 40 hour per week job became a 70 hour per week job, and my work duties kept expanding to include working on weekends.  I was responsible for hiring/scheduling/training other employees, but my boss would fire people and then not allow me hire any new ones, forcing me to work all the unfilled shifts.  After three years of this (and a sexual harrassment problem I was not allowed to report as my boss didn’t want me to “rock the boat”), I quit my job.  I was worried I would be reported to immigration and deported, so I threw caution to the wind and threatened to sue my employer for forcing me to work longer than was required by my contract, and I received a large settlement of back pay.  I was then technically back to “illegal” status, so I returned to the role of “housewife”.  I considered entering into a marriage with an American but did feel that was fraudulent and breaking the law, so I didn’t do it.  I was eventually rewarded when my father was transferred to the US office of his employer when they closed their Canadian plant.  Senior management personnel of US-owned companies can receive work-based green cards immediately, so within the span of a few months I had a parent who was a US permanent resident.  His immigration lawyer still didn’t want to make an application on my behalf because the wait times for “adult children of permanent residents” were at a decade+, so I spent five more years being invisible until my father could apply for citizenship.  Once he was a citizen he sponsored me to be a permanent resident, and the government only took about 5 years to process my paperwork.  In another six years or so I could apply for citizenship, at which point I’ll have been in the United States for 20 years.

Long story short, when you hear a story about illegal aliens, don’t say something like, “They should just come here legally”.  I really hate that.

——————

Update:  I received my green card in December 2006.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/02 at 01:54 PM

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

  1. That is a fascinating tale and really illuminates the situation.  I am really appalled at people who have no idea how really lucky they are to be born into this country with all its priveledges and luxuries.  It takes real desperation to sign up for a risky border crossing and a life spent on the margins of society just to work for minimal pay.  Thanks for sharing your story.

    Posted by vetmommy  on  04/02  at  07:22 PM

  2. I thought I’d better vent in my blog, as I think Flippy was tired of hearing me yelling at the TV everytime I watched the news.  This entry was supposed to get it out of my system.  Your comment about living “on the margins of society” was quite true… I went for years and years without being able to see my family because I was afraid to leave the country.  Three of my grandparents died and I missed their funerals, my sister got married, my sister had two kids, and my father was in intensive care, yet I was unable to go to Canada in case the US refused to let me back in afterwards.  I couldn’t risk being prevented from returning to “my house”, “my pets”, and of course, my partner.  I went for years without setting eyes on any of my family members, and I’m from a close family.  I’m lucky I have family who understand how important this is to me, and eventually they discouraged me from coming home as they didn’t want me to jeopardize anything I’d worked so hard for.

    I forgot one detail from my post.  I forgot to mention the hypocrisy of politicians who blame illegal workers for lowering the prevailing wages for Americans.  If politicians were really concerned about prevailing wages, they’d offer incentives to business to not outsource jobs to other countries.  A job is a job… if we’re going to be concerned about the plight of the American worker when it involves Mexican flags, I think we also need to be concerned about the plight of the worker who loses his $10 per hour job to someone in India.  If politicians could accept campaign contributions from illegal workers, like they can from Dell, would the “illegal alien” thing be as much of an issue?  Are illegal aliens just this year’s version of, “Gay marriage threatens the family”? 

    I would so much rather talk about Phoenix’s cysts or kitten poop.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  04/02  at  11:25 PM

  3. I think this is a non-issue used as a diversion tactic becauase I’m sure the US gov’t is doing something heinous that they don’t want in the media.

    Those of us who are non-Native-American are here illegally. Our ancestors came here, took the land away from another group of people, created false borders, and tried to keep everyone else out. And that’s crap.

    I’m really sorry you and Flippy have had to go through all this. Would it have made it any easier if you and she could’ve been married? Or do you think the obstacles would’ve been the same?

    Posted by Nio  on  04/03  at  12:08 PM

  4. Nio, I think marriage would have given me a “light at the end of the tunnel” back when I didn’t think there was one.  I was in the US for 12 years before my father received citizenship, and if I’d been able to get married, I wouldn’t have had to wait for that unusual circumstance.  On the other hand, immigration via marriage is pretty difficult and expensive, too.  “Expat” is trying to emigrate from Canada to the US after marrying an American, and she’s chronicled her “adventures” in a few posts on her blog:

    http://canadianexpatriatesblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/awol.html

    http://canadianexpatriatesblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/cross-cultural-blues.html

    http://canadianexpatriatesblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/priorities.html

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  04/03  at  09:59 PM

  5. I was going to respond with “oh, I didn’t realize it was expensive” because it’s the truth. But then I thought to myself self, why is it we believe that just getting married is the ticket to US citizenship?

    Really, I thought it was that easy: just get married. But since marriage is conditional here in the US (land of the free my butt), I just wanted to know your thoughts on the matter.

    Thanks for taking off my blinders.

    Posted by Nio  on  04/04  at  10:02 AM

  6. I’m glad you found the discussion helpful, Nio.  That’s all I wanted to do—to let Americans know that there’s no easy path to US immigration.  I’ve read so many letters to the editor in our local paper, written by people who have absolutely no knowledge of the current immigration system or how backlogged it is, and I just want people to be more informed.  Maybe back in the 1920’s you could just “jump on a boat” and you’d be “welcomed with open arms”, but that’s not the case anymore.  The immigration system is backlogged with files, cases can take decades to process, and the system is fraught with ineptitude.  As you may have inferred from Expat’s blog entries, many INS employees seem to try to make the process even more difficult than it needs to be.  The reason I’m paying my lawyer $4000 to be at my final green card hearing is because I’m told the INS officials may harass me and “rake me over the coals” if I don’t have an attorney to protect me.  I’ve heard that legal immigrants are often treated like criminals by the immigration system if they don’t have lawyers… no wonder the process doesn’t seem more inviting :P

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  04/04  at  02:33 PM
    7. Page 1 of 1 pages

Name:

Email (required, but will not be made public):

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my details for future comments?

Let me know about new replies to this topic?

Next entry: April 17th

Previous entry: Revenge of the Cyst (not Sith)

<< Back to main