July 2007 No. 31Table of Contents |
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It’s a conundrum. (1) Media cover ceremonies swearing in naturalized citizens across America—1,266,264 in 2006 and another 200,000 this July 4th including 325 foreign-born US soldiers fighting in Iraq. (2) A majority of Americans tell pollsters that immigration is a good thing for the country today. (3) And the President can’t get Congress to pass his immigration bill.
As the US Senate defeated legislation drafted by conservative Bush and liberal Sen. Ted Kennedy, it became clear that immigration will be a 2008 election campaign issue unless Congress makes an about-face.
“There is no limit on the number of eligible immigrants who can become citizens,” writes The New York Times, “gaining the right to vote and ensuring they can never be deported.” However, the 12 million illegal immigrants can’t apply for citizenship.
Since 1995, the number of legal immigrants in the USA grew 30%, while the number of naturalized US citizens jumped 73%—after living here for 5 years and passing background, health checks, and tests on basic English proficiency and minimal knowledge of American history and laws.
Citizenship applicants must answer 10 questions randomly picked from 100 facts. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services is piloting a new test planned to go into effect next spring. It is designed not to be harder but more meaningful. Try out the current test yourself at http://usgovinfo.about.com/blinstst.htm.
A recent Harris/Interactive poll found 57% of Americans favor creating “a program that would allow illegal immigrants already living in the United States a number of years to stay in the country and apply for US citizenship if they had a job and paid back taxes.” Two-thirds would oppose this option if paying back taxes was not required. On July 30, new rules will increase naturalization application fees by 69% to $675.
Indiana. The number of Hispanics in Indiana grew 5.5% to 301,000 from mid-2005 to mid-2006, according to US Census Bureau estimates—more than twice the rate of growth among Blacks. Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the USA at 44.3 million; Indiana’s 600,000 Blacks are its largest minority group. All together, minorities comprise one-third of all Americans, topping 100 million.
Central Indiana now has one-third of the Hispanics in the state, and local business groups are conducting a survey of 1,500 Hispanic entrepreneurs to develop strategies for their continued economic success.
Meanwhile, educators and children’s services leaders are preparing for a statewide increase in the number of Hispanic kids in schools and the community. Three-fourths of Hoosier immigrant children were born in the USA. Most (82%) of these children speak English fluently, and half of these 4-year-olds are enrolled in pre-school. Of immigrant children, 41% are from Mexico (with another 9% from Central and South America), 19% from Europe, and 25% from East and West Asia and Indochina. See this report for details— http://mumford.albany.edu/children/
researchbriefs_new_1.htm.
Other states. It is not Texas, California, or Florida that is the center of the debate about state policies for illegal immigration. It is Georgia. It passed a law requiring state and local government agencies to verify the legal residence of benefit recipients. Employers must do the same. Law enforcement officers must crack down on human trafficking and fake documents.
Georgia saw its illegal immigrant population grow 114% since 2000, now 7th highest nationally. The debate reached Colorado, where agribusiness is now using prisoners as farm laborers due to worker shortages.
“I blame 90% on employers,” a Georgia senator said. “They’re the ones that are profiting by breaking the law.” He thinks small businesses would rather hire legal workers but can’t afford to be at a competitive disadvantage with those that hire illegal workers. Other states are looking to see how the political dynamics of this issue play themselves out in Georgia.
The USA is not the only place in the world that receives immigrants. In 2005, there were about 200 million people in the world living outside their native land—3% of the world’s population—according to a Brookings Institution study. That’s a 14% increase over 2000 when one-third of Europe’s people were migrants, 25% in Asia, 23% in North America, 9% in Africa, and 3% in Latin America. The majority of immigrants live in the developed world, growing from 48 million to 110 million between 1980 and 2000 compared to only a 25% increase in developing nations.
Current migration patterns differ from the past. There is an increasing proportion of women, as more are allowed to join spouses and as females make up a growing share of workforces. Today, the “traditional distinction between countries of origin, transit, and destination for migrants is increasingly blurred.” And “temporary migration has become much more important” with more people changing countries many times during their lives often to different nations aided by accommodating programs in a growing number of lands. Such “formal remittances” between countries are now only second to oil as the largest transfer of any legal commodity worldwide, not counting narcotics traffic—amounting to $150 Billion in 2004 (though some experts estimate it as high as $300B).
The report is International Migration: A Very Short Introduction by Khalid Koser, Brookings Institution Project on International Displacement. To learn more, see http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/idp/idp.htm.
Want to find people around the world that think highly of the USA? Go to Africa.
Every 5 years, the Pew Research Center takes the pulse of the world in a 47-nation survey. The chart to the right is from its 2007 poll. Iraq and Iran residents were not included.
Though US foreign policy is strongly criticized, it and the United Nations are often cited as entities that should be dealing with world problems. European nations are the USA’s strongest allies. Yet, even there, US policies are “widely viewed as increasing the gap between rich nations and poor nations.”
The survey also found growing anxiety over China’s expanding economic and military power, as its products flood many nations.
AIDS and other diseases are the big threats in Africa and a major concern in Latin America.
The full report is at http://pewglobal.org/reports/
display.php?ReportID=256.
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