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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by The_Jazz
I don't really want to come down on either side of this arguement, so I'm going to do the most uncomfortable thing that I know of - stradle the fence.
One of the problems with the system is the arbitrary limits imposed on various nationalities that want to work here. If you're lucky enough to be English, getting a work visa is ridiculously easy. My company occassionally does intern swaps with some Lloyd's brokers in London, and it's always been very easy for us to get the paperwork through without any big problems. The same goes for most of Western Europe.
There's a cap on the number of Mexicans (for instance) that can come to the US. There's a different one for Indians, Bulgarians, etc.
I think that there's a serious problem within ICE. We had a Bulgarian that we tried to hire to coach for my fencing business. He was in the US on his athlete's visa, which allowed him to stay for 6 months and compete and earn. We wanted to pay him full time, and he started dating a Bulgarian here. We tried to do everything right and get him a work visa as a coach/extraordinary athlete, which is usually pretty easy to prove especially with his accomplishments. They agreed that he was an extraordinary athlete but not a coach since he hadn't coached any finalists at the national level in his sport in Bulgaria. We had him reapply as an athlete, although his career is basically over, and they agreed and gave him a green card within 6 months.
My point is that there are arbitrary rules and quotas and the whole system no longer makes sense. It all needs a major overhaul.
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What your ideas are demonstrating here are the the people are able to take care of themselves and more than likely will not be a burden on the state.
My mother-in-law just got back from a 2 year visa in London, she had a hard time renewing since she's a struggling artist and does require more state assitance than a normally gainfully employed or employable person.
As far as just getting on a boat, it wasn't all that easy to get to Ellis Island. People sold everything they had in the countries they left for the opportunity for space on the boat. It wasn't easy to be on a boat for a weeks at a time. If you think coach is bad, consider it as part of ship travel.
From EllisIsland.org
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By the 1880's, steam power had shortened the journey to America dramatically. Immigrants poured in from around the world: from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and down from Canada.
The door was wide open for Europeans - In the 1880s alone, 9% of the total population of Norway emigrated to America. After 1892 nearly all immigrants came in through the newly opened Ellis Island.
One immigrant recalled arriving at Ellis Island: "The boat anchored at mid-bay and then they tendered us on the ship to Ellis Island… We got off the boat…you got your bag in your hand and went right into the building Ah, that day must have been about five to six thousand people. Jammed, I remember it was August. Hot as a pistol, and I'm wearing my long johns, and my heavy Irish tweed suit."
Families often immigrated together during this era, although young men frequently came first to find work. Some of these then sent for their wives, children, and siblings; others returned to their families in Europe with their saved wages.
The experience for Asian immigrants in this period was quite different. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, severely restricting immigration from China. Since earlier laws made it difficult for those Chinese immigrants who were already here to bring over their wives and families, most Chinese communities remained "bachelor societies."
The 1907 "Gentlemen's Agreement" with Japan extended the government's hostility towards Asian workers and families. For thousands, the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay would be as close as they would ever get to the American mainland.
For Mexicans victimized by the Revolution, Jews fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia, and Armenians escaping the massacres in Turkey, America provided refuge.
And for millions of immigrants, New York provided opportunity. In Lower New York, one could find the whole world in a single neighborhood.
Between 1880 and 1930 over 27 million people entered the United States - about 20 million through Ellis Island. But after outbreak of World War I in 1914, American attitudes toward immigration began to shift. Nationalism and suspicion of foreigners were on the rise, and immigrants' loyalties were often called into question. Through the early 20s, a series of laws was passed to limit the flow of immigrants.
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