Where do we stand on immigration?

This issue was rarely mentioned during the campaign and now stands as one of the disagreement between the W.H. and Congress.

I admit, I am ambivalent. One the one hand, this country was built by immigrants. Immigrants, from all parts of the globe, have reinforce the plurality of our country. I think that the degree of tolerance in different parts of the country is proportional to the percentage of diversity of the local population.

And, as recently reported on Newsweek, most of the engineers and scientists in our universities are foreigners. Americans do not want to study science and technology.

Yet, we are running out of space. I lived in California during the 90s and could see the continuing increase of development, stressing the infrastructures of water, sewage, electricity, air pollution.

I could also see the correlation, in my mind, between the increase in population of immigrants and the lack of involvement in local politics. As we all know, first generation immigrants are concerned about making a living, providing for their families making sure that their children will have it better. Unless a specific issue mobilizes them, they do not care about being involved in local politics, and when their percentage is high and the language is different - as is in many communities in Southern California - it affects the community as a whole. And I have witnessed this first hand.

While earlier waves of immigration were blue collar workers, joined unions and thus could understand first hand the need to work together, the need to push for the common good, the immigrants of the last two decades are entrepreneurs who loath, fear, do not undeerstand - take your pick - government programs. They do not like the high taxes, certainly payroll taxes, and do not understand why they have to provide benefits for their employees, and California, at least, mandates many of these, depending on the size of the organization.

I wonder whether among all the stats that we have, whether we have any data about how first generation immigrants vote, and whether it is further divided among class, or income, or occupation.

Then there is the yet one more "other hand." We lived in CA and a few years ago a job loss and a new offer caused us to move to MN. No, we did not lament it; at least then we still considered MN a liberal state. (I have no idea what we would have done had the only job offer were in TX).

Shortly after we moved we bought a house and I was amazed, sill am, at the huge gap in paying for service, for similar jobs done on similar size houses within a few years. And one of the reason for cheap labor in CA is, of course, the influx of immigrants. (as an aside, I have recently told someone that except for housing prices, I consider CA cost of living cheaper than MN, for one thing, one does not have the high utility bills at the dead of winter and peak of summer).

Soooo back to my original question: where do we stand on immigration?

ment as the free movement of capital.

If we want a strong economy, we need to facilitate the movement of people.

You bring up some great questions:

Here is something you may want to add to the list:

Admitting Terror Part 1
The immigration service's own describe how America failed to protect its borders from the September 11 terrorists
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-10-18/news/feature.html

Admitting Terror, Part 2
The INS has its own peculiar way of meting out justice: Promote the supervisor who intentionally misled Congress and harass the inspector who warned of terrorists
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-11-08/news/metro.html

Admitting Terror, Part 3
Four more cases of egregious ineptitude at the Immigration and Naturalization Service
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-12-13/news/feature.html

Admitting Terror: 9/11 Revisited
INS officials at Miami International Airport blundered big time when they admitted Mohamed Atta, but you'd never know it
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2003-09-11/news/metro2.html


Ooops...and here is the attempted cover-up

Mary Schneider
911 - INS - Mary Schneider / Federal Whistleblower
Wed Sep 29, 2004 15:42

http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/09-30-04/discussion.cgi.59.html

The INS's Mary Schneider warned of the terrorist threat, but nobody listened

http://www.newtimesbpb.com/issues/2001-11-08/news.html

I don't remember. From which country did Tim McVay come from?

My research indicates the OKC/Tim McVey/Incident was a nasty mix/web

of Middle Easterners, via Elohim City, OKC, FBI informants, and two "recruited lily white boys"

Such as a stamped sealed certificate granting US citizenship, even post-mortem, in exchange for possibly having your arms, legs, and face blown off in one of our many illegal foreign adventures, but surely a small price to pay for the honor of serving the greatest nation. And dear old Mom back home across the border will certainly be proud showing off that embosssed certificate along with the framed picture of the one she lost.

I support emigration. Parles vous Frances?

> most of the engineers and scientists in our universities are
> foreigners. Americans do not want to study science and technology.

Could that be because the jobs they would take after completing their
studies have been outsourced overseas?

There were plenty of people studying those fields in the '90s when
tech jobs were plentiful. They aren't studying them so much now because
there are so many techies out of work, and the government is trying to
throw even more out of work by providing tax incentives for offshoring and increasing H1 visas.

Techies continue to be punished for being Democrats, and staying that
way even if we did make some money. Rethugs really hate that.

Under the current regime, it isn't what you know, it's who you know.
In that environment, where is the incentive to study?