On February 23, hundreds of foreign-born youths from across the nation rallied and protested against President Obama’s apparent inaction in resolving the crackdown on undocumented immigrants that has characterized his administration. While the President’s official position on immigration reform has generally been one of sympathy and integration, his aspirations have been largely stifled by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Last year, the Senate passed a comprehensive reform bill that had the potential to be a momentous development for the civil rights and liberties of immigrants in the United States. The bill, entitled the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013”, sought to establish a five-year route to lawful permanent residence, followed by citizenship, for illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. Unfortunately, the current speaker of the House recently announced that his caucus was not ready to settle the issue this year, a decision that many perceive as an underhanded effort to shelve the bill until it loses relevancy.
In response to this profound blow, many members of the immigrant community have chosen to shift the focus of their discontent to President Obama, placing the onus of reform exclusively on his shoulders. Their protests concentrate on coercing the president into taking executive and/or unilateral actions to provide greater protections and opportunities for the undocumented, much like he did in 2012 when he instituted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This program provided deferrals for over half a million illegal minors, affording them the right to obtain legal employment and driver’s licenses in specific states. While Obama maintains that he lacks the legal sanction to allow for any more of these deferrals, he remains outwardly devoted to immigration reform. http://nyti.ms/1fvaQ9C
Hello peopling class. So here goes: my parents met and married in Brooklyn but are originally from the former Soviet Union. My father is originally from a small town in the Zakarpathian region of Ukraine called Khust. This town is close to the Hungarian border. My mother is from a 4,000 year old town by the Caspian Sea in southern Russian called Derbent. My father speaks Yiddish and my mother speaks Juhuri ; the language they have in common is Russian. At the age of 12 my mother moved to Israel where she lived for I think a little under a year in a settlement on a mountain top in the town of Chicundalet, Tveria. (Pardon the spelling, I sounded it out.) Tveria over looks the Red Sea, it is truly gorgeous. After Israel she moved to Vienna where she lived until early adulthood and then moved to Brooklyn New York . Majority of my mothers side of the family live in Ashdod, Israel excluding for her siblings and their children which are my immediate and only family. My fathers brother and his family live in Jersey so I seldom see them, although his father lives in Rehovat, Israel; a town only a half hour drive out of Tel Aviv. Within the Russian community and among Jews I am considered to be a bit of a conundrum because of my mixed heritage.
I am unsure about what I want to major in but am deciding between fine arts, film and theater. I have been drawing since I’ve been a kid and like to practice by sketching people on the train. I am also interested in writing and think that maybe that could be something I could do professionally one day. I don’t know specifically what I want to do with my life but I know it has to be something creative. I attended Mark Twain and Midwood Highschool. A good portion of my highschool experience was spent at DeFarro’s pizza on Avenue J. And like Anna I also share a passion for food. I love reading plays and especially love Eugene O’Neill. I have a younger sister by the name of Jackie, who is much smarter than I am. During the summer I spent every day riding my bike on the boardwalk from beginning to end and back . My favorite season is summer, and I love when its 98 degrees outside and the humidity drives people crazy. It’s legitimately my favorite time of year. Although I also have a soft spot in my heart for Christmas mostly because I don’t celebrate it, and think it’s a fabulously magical holiday. Anyway …I think that just about covers the basics. So I look forward to the rest of the class, and if anyone wants to chat I’m on the second floor at Brookdale. 🙂
The authors of our required text are having a free event on Wednesday, March 5. Attending this event is a good opportunity to earn extra credit.
I am posting two articles that relate to our discussion about gentrification, and provide some additional perspectives:
1. http://nymag.com/news/features/gentrification-2014-2/index1.html
2. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/spike-lee-amazing-rant-against-gentrification.html
To summarize: in response to the first article I posted, this guy went on a rant against gentrification. My favorite part is when he equated Whites moving into Harlem to Columbus and the Europeans settling America.
Washington State just passed a law yesterday allowing children of illegal immigrants access to state grants and financial aid for higher education. This law is extremely important for Washington’s ever growing Hispanic immigrant population.
The affected group still has to overcome some hurdles though. They have to go through three years of high school to qualify for aid as opposed to just living in the US for a year.
An interesting part of this was that this bill was created by a bipartisan coalition of policymakers. While Republicans elsewhere often are very hostile when it comes to immigration, Republicans here passed a very pro-immigration bill. It probably has to do with the fact that because of the increasing number of immigrants, Republicans know they will lose office if they hold on to their old-fashioned beliefs.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-02-26/news/sns-rt-us-usa-immigration-washingtonstate-20140226_1_financial-aid-state-grants-new-mexico
Remember our discussion of ‘hot beds’ or people living in such crowded conditions that they take turns sleeping on the same bed?
Here are two articles that illuminate this problem.
This article in The Nation profiles a Bangladeshi immigrant in Queens who lives in an illegal cellar room. Apparently half a million New Yorkers live in such illegal cellar dwellings.
This article in New York Magazine profiles a Mexican immigrant who lives with 26 roommates in Manhattan. The photo above comes from that article.
In the New York Times’ article “Asylum Fraud in Chinatown: An Industry of Lies“, brings light to the vast application for asylum by Chinese immigrants. That is, more Chinese immigrants apply for asylum in the United States, more specifically in New York, than any other group of immigrants. In fact, more than 62 percent of asylum cases presented in New York have come been filed by Chinese immigrants in 2012 alone. It must be noted, however, that the asylum application have become a problem due to the fact that in many cases Chinese immigrants present fake stories of persecution in order attain asylum.
A CUNY professor, Peter Kwong, has said that it is openly known within the Chinese community that the majority asylum applicants falsify documents and create fictitious stories in order to make their case seem more factual. That is, it has become so common to fabricate stories and counterfeit documents that this phenomenon is even called an asylum industry. For example, in 2010 federal officials, who were conducting an extensive investigation on immigration fraud, secretly recorded a conversation between a Chinese immigrant and her lawyer. The recording revealed that the lawyer urged his client to lie about being forced to abort in order to get asylum. From these findings a total of 30 people, including the lawyer, paralegals, interpreters and a church employee were accused of coaching Chinese asylum applicants on how to accurately lie about their reason for applying. This particular group of “coaches” trained the applicants in the basic doctrines of Christianity in order for the applicants to use religious persecution as an excuse.
A possible explanation for this fast-growing industry is that Chinese immigrants are increasingly trying to attain permanent immigration status in New York. This is due to the fact that immigrants who receive asylum are immediately allowed to work and within a year are able to apply for a greencard.
Kenneth Kowald’s editorial, “People in America need to learn how to speak English,” brings up immigrants’ levels of English and how their ability to be a part of society is affected by it. Long story short, their proficiencies aren’t very high. As citizens, they have all passed an English examination, yet, like the man in the editorial who claimed he wouldn’t be able to understand a court case, many can’t have a voice in the general society. But why is this? Are there not enough immigrants taking ESL classes? Are they not trying hard enough? Perhaps, they feel that learning English isn’t actually necessary to live in America?
Being born in the United States, I’ve never seen the citizenship test, but I have heard about it from others. I particularly remember one story my fifth grade history teacher shared about her family, and how they had to write a sentence in English to prove their proficiency. What sentence did they write? “I love America!” What sentence did everyone else in the room write? “I love America!” And with that, these people all passed the English portion. But let’s be honest. I doubt I could make my way around Paris only knowing how to say, “I love France!” and just the same way, many of these people really couldn’t communicate in English. This remains the case for many new immigrants today, who “prove” their “English know-how,” and then situate themselves in an ethnic neighborhood where everyone speaks their native language—never once needing to voice their, “I love America.” However, many of these people are forced to look for jobs outside of their familiar neighborhoods, places where English is the spoken language. What can these immigrants do to learn the language? Take ESL classes on the weekends and then return to their exclusively Polish-speaking neighborhood for the other 98% of the week?
Sadly, attempting to learn English this way will probably not increase any immigrant’s language proficiency very much or very time efficiently. Let’s look at one typical type of adult English learner, such as the hypothetical Polish speaker I brought up before. They will spend a few hours a week memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary, only having these few class hours to test out their spoken English. But for the rest of the time, they are only using Polish, and not exercising their English language knowledge. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to language learning, with daily practice being the only way to efficiently learn a new language. This is why the children of these immigrants always learn English fluently: They go to an English speaking school five days a week where everything is taught in English, and where many of their classmates speak English as well. This is great practice that many adult learners don’t get, simply because they have no one to talk to, especially like our Polish friend who lives in an immigrant Polish neighborhood. Being surrounded by people who share in your culture may feel comforting, and it is understandable why someone would want to live there, but it will only hinder language goals.
Kowald brought up the question of why the inability to read, write, and speak an advanced level of English is such a “handicap” in America. This is true even for immigrants “lucky” enough to find jobs in their ethnic neighborhoods. At some point in their lives, they will have to venture out of their neighborhood and interact with the large English speaking portion America, such as the man called for jury duty, who definitely wouldn’t be able to understand a court case, full of legal jargon, if all he knew were basic English phrases. There may be no official language in America, but English is the national Language, and a common lingua franca, or chosen language among people who do not speak the same native language. If immigrants decided to “pack their bags” and move into ethnically diverse towns, where they could experience constant interaction among English speakers, their language proficiencies would skyrocket (which is why that “lucky” man who found a job in his ethnic neighborhood may not be so lucky). In this way, immigrants would be headed to operating not in a small ethnic neighborhood, but in their diverse new home country. However, are we willing to sacrifice major hubs where people can experience other cultures, listen to other languages, and eat authentic ethnic cuisines, for the sake of spreading English and intermixing America? Would such things not be possible without those places, or with smaller-scale ones?
http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2013/15/kowald_we_2013_04_12_q.html
On February 12, 2014 residents of a small Nebraskan city voted to keep a measure, put place in 2010, which bans illegal immigrants from renting homes. The small city has been considered controversial for having voted for the ban in 2010 and even more so now that 60% of its residents have, once again, voted in favor of the ban. It must be noted that the number of residents in favor of the ban has gone up by 3% since it was originally instated, making the matter much more worrisome for illegal immigrants. The controversial measure prevents landlords from renting to any illegal immigrants. In fact in order, for any one to rent a home they must now apply for a permit from the police and prove that they are legally residing in the United States.
This measure is incredible detrimental to all of those hard-working families and sole individuals who have emigrated from their countries in hopes of a better life and even in some cases of asylum. Nebraska, which has proven to be one of the states enjoying a fair amount of economic health, has become increasingly menacing towards illegal immigrants over the years. Perhaps as a New Yorker and daughter of an immigrant mother, it seems outrages to see that immigrants, especially Hispanics could have their life dynamics go asunder. That is, many of the legal immigrants living not only in Nebraska but in most states have started of their lives as illegal immigrants and eventually gone on to become residents and even citizens. Thus, by passing bans such as this one, illegal immigrants’ chances of survival and perseverance are quickly diminishing.
Ha sorry. Didn’t realize I was supposed to write about something in the news.
For the first time in American history, people are prioritizing reform for the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States than border security reform. According to a CNN poll, 54% of Americans were more concerned about legalizing immigrants here currently.
This poll came out right when Congress was going to shelf the immigration issue. (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/17/polls-publics-immigration-priorities-changing/)
Most likely nothing will happen this year given the Republican’s distrust of President Obama, according to John Boehner, House speaker. But most republicans claim that changing the status quo will increase the amount of poverty in the United States, and will result a bigger demand for welfare.
Below is a really interesting article which affirms what we learned in class about the relationship between welfare benefits and illegal immigrants. According to the article, “the amount of welfare benefits given is unaffected by the foreign origin or diversity of population.”The article goes as far to say that immigration actually reduces the size of welfare states, as seen in some European countries.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/18/increased-immigration-is-unlikely-to-increase-the-size-of-the-welfare-state/)
This is especially interesting given Switzerland’s recent decision to limit their immigration. Economists are saying that this decision will most likely hurt economic growth. (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-19/swiss-immigration-curbs-seen-as-threat-to-economic-growth.html)
