Thread: Is immigration policy killing the American Dream?

Is immigration policy killing the American Dream?
1 April 2011
By Katie Connolly BBC News, Washington

It's a story repeated throughout American culture, in theatre, film and novels: the penniless immigrant arrives on American shores seeking a new life and, through hard work and determination, prospers and thrives.

Such tales are a quintessential part of the "American Dream", the idea that anyone willing to work hard and think big can come to the US and "make it".

But, at a time when immigration is a divisive, hot-button political issue, is that dream still possible?

The dream itself is alive and well, says Ben Johnson, the executive director of the American Immigration Council.

"The spirit of the people who have the drive to uproot themselves and pursue this dream across the world is powerful. It continues to shine through," Mr Johnson told the BBC.

But the spirit is not sufficient if the system won't allow it. And America's immigration system does not make it particularly easy to start a new life on its shores.
Quotas reached

American immigration policy is largely family based, meaning residency is most commonly granted to the immediate family of existing residents or citizens.

For others, visas are granted mostly based on skill levels, with highly skilled immigrants having a much easier time getting work permits than unskilled labourers.

So-called skilled workers - usually people with a university education or professional training - have a range of visa options. The most common visa, the H1B class, currently has a ceiling of 65,000 each year.

That quota is easily filled every year. Before the recession, it was filled in the same month the visas were released.

At the moment, Mr Johnson says, it gets filled in eight or nine months, meaning that for several months of the year, H1B visas simply are not available regardless of the demand for them.

For unskilled labourers, the US grants just 5,000 work visas each year to people employed in fields other than agriculture.

Yet, according to Maurice Belanger, a director at the National Immigration Forum, the US economy was absorbing about 300,000 such workers each year prior to the recession.

These workers are illegal or undocumented. Although there are certainly examples of undocumented immigrants becoming prosperous, mostly they are concentrated in low-paying jobs and have essentially no power to bargain for improved conditions.

The threat of deportation hangs over their American dreams. Those penniless immigrants are not thriving like their celebrated predecessors.
The 'terrorism net'

Clarissa Martinez, an immigration expert at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group, says that America's immigration system is hindering the ability of foreign-born people to achieve the American Dream.

"We're going through a period where we are seeing if immigrants can make it blindfolded and with both hands tied behind their back," Ms Martinez told the BBC.

"We are experiencing a systemic failure. We have a system where legal immigration channels are clogged and that is fostering the growing undocumented population."

Mr Johnson says that the failure of Congress to reform the immigration system in recent years is America's loss.

The US, he says, is missing out by refusing to seize on the desire of foreigners to become part of the American labour force.

He argues that America would be better off if it treated immigration policy as a recruitment tool rather than "a terrorism net that people have to try to swim through".

In recent years in particular, American politicians have tended to view immigration through the lens of terrorism or national sovereignty rather than as an opportunity to add dynamism and flexibility to the labour market, Mr Johnson says.

"There is a kind of arrogance in our immigration system that we believe that whatever hurdles we throw down, people will be desperate enough to come to the United States that they will find a way to put up with them," Mr Johnson told the BBC.
Whose dream?

Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, firmly disagrees that America is missing out by not opening its doors to immigrants.

"Whose American Dream are we talking about?" he asks. "Immigration policy is a boon for the immigrants coming here. But what about the American dreams of Americans?"

Mr Krikorian argues that low-skilled foreign workers are flooding the American market, competing with American workers. Even with low paying jobs, those workers and their families are often better off than in their home countries.

But their willingness to work for pay and conditions that many Americans refuse to tolerate has had a depressive effect on wages at the low-skilled end of the labour scale, Mr Krikorian says.

That disproportionately affects the economic mobility of African Americans and US-born Hispanics, who make up a large part of the low-skilled work force.

"Anybody who needs a leg up in the labour market - young workers who don't have college, handicapped people, ex-cons, recovering drug addicts - sees his prospects sabotaged by [illegal workers]," Mr Krikorian says.

Denying employers access to cheap illegal labour could force them to provide better wages and conditions to lure legal workers.

Moreover, he argues, these cheap workers are holding America's economy back by reducing the motivation to invest in technologies that save money over the long term.

For example, there is little incentive to develop advanced harvesting techniques when there is a ready supply of people to do the work without the capital investment.

"Productivity increases are where long-term wage improvements have to come from. We are retarding that process by reducing the incentives for employers to invest," he says.

"Low-skilled immigration isn't good for American competitiveness in the long run."

In the end, Mr Krikorian says, the choice comes down to whose American Dream do you support: the dreams of Americans or of foreign born immigrants?

"I choose Americans," he says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12925299

Of course it is. The American Dream is not defined just by those who want to make a financial fortune, even being content to be middle class or to live simply in peace in safe eneighborhoods and be protected in and by one's country would be taken away. If we wind up a Third World country where there is no middle class, if everyone including Latinos has to live in fear of getting their head blown off by random gunmen who distribute drugs cruisng the neighborhoods, if "the race" Latinos decide nonHispanics are not worthy to be given services or even to live...anything could happen and no it won't be "the American Dream any longer for us or anyone else.

In the end, Mr Krikorian says, the choice comes down to whose American Dream do you support: the dreams of Americans or of foreign born immigrants?

"I choose Americans," he says.

THANK YOU MR. KRIKORIAN...! Well said..

The "American Dream" for illegal invaders is jumping the fence, pumping out as many anchor babies as possible and waiting for that check to be delivered to your doorstep!

Originally Posted by NoBueno

The "American Dream" for illegal invaders is jumping the fence, pumping out as many anchor babies as possible and waiting for that check to be delivered to your doorstep!

Actually no, they can probably arrange for direct deposit!

Not everyone sees the American Dream as a McMansion, a multi-million dollar bank account, half a dozen cars, a nanny and boarding school so they don't have to be parents, a few luxury trips every year, etc...

Some people just want to own a little plot with a little house where they can just be....

And right now so many hard working, or willing to work hard, Americans just simply can't even believe that they will ever be able to hold the key to their own life. There will always be a landlord, there will always be that one car wreck or repair, new bill, gas hike, food inflation, monthly lease increase upon renewal, or .....

So many American Citizens now are just one more sustenance item price increase from ketchup soup....

The American Dream is dying, it is in the I.C.U. (many think it's on life support and that pulling the propaganda plug would prove it's already dead), and illegal immigration must be admitted as one of the underlying causes. And in admitting that, those that have the power to administer the medications must also address all of the problems that cause illegal immigration... the employers that hire them, the government officials that get high on the money used to sway them to allow this from the employers that hire them, the government officials that see potential voters, the "barrios" of the illegal community which are full of anti-non-Latin American racism and hatred, the system that will provide a lot of life long support to a non-citizen while denying a meager short term hand-up to a citizen.... these are things that are helping to kill the American Dream.

I know that I don't want any child to ever have to know what ketchup soup is... but there is no excuse for an American Citizen to ever have to fear having to serve it to their child while in America. Not one.

But we all know that here, don't we? Sorry, sometimes I just need to say it all again, even if preaching to the proverbial choir.

And yes, thedramaofmylife, they get it all put straight onto little plastic cards nowadays.. they don't even have to have an account to put it in or bother to go cash a check, just wait for the system to tell them during a phone call that it's there and go spend it.

(edited because passion and spelling don't always mix well)

Originally Posted by thedramaofmylife

Originally Posted by NoBueno

The "American Dream" for illegal invaders is jumping the fence, pumping out as many anchor babies as possible and waiting for that check to be delivered to your doorstep!

Actually no, they can probably arrange for direct deposit!

Ditto that! Direct deposit they set up with their matricular consular card no doubt. I need to get with it. Asking an illegal invader to cash a check would be discriminatory and un-American. Why don't we give them ATM cards as well so as not to embarrass them when they are using their food stamps at the grocery store?

Heaven forbid we make illegal invaders, with multiple anchor babies feel any shame or embarrassment when collecting American tax payer dollars. Not as if these people have any shame to begin with of course, but you get the picture.

Provo bank to issue IRS debit cards
Published: Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011 5:05 p.m. MST By Jasen Lee, Deseret News

PROVO — Utah County-based Bonneville Bank has been contracted to provide new IRS debit cards for a pilot program aimed at providing low and moderate income taxpayers their income tax refunds.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the program Thursday to offer taxpayers a safe, convenient and low-cost financial account for the electronic delivery of their federal tax refunds, according to a news release.

Bonneville Bank will issue the debit cards with additional services provided by Bonneville Bank through its program manager, Green Dot Corp., a prepaid financial services company. Bonneville, Visa and Green Dot will offer cardholders customer service support via telephone and Internet.

"This innovative card can be used for everyday financial transactions, such as receiving wages by direct deposit, withdrawing cash, making purchases, paying bills and building savings safely and conveniently, giving users more control over their financial futures," said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin.

The Treasury Department will mail letters next week to 600,000 low- and moderate-income individuals nationwide. The letters will invite these taxpayers to consider activating a MyAccountCard Visa Prepaid Debit Card in time to have their 2010 federal tax refund direct deposited to the card.

Compared to paper checks, direct deposit provides a safer, faster and more convenient way to receive a federal tax refund, said Steve Streit, Green Dot chief executive officer.

"(The prepaid debit cards) are safer than checks because they (checks) are stolen in fairly large quantities and you just go and cash them if you have a phony ID," he said. "The cards have to be activated before you spend the money."

He noted that private information has to be verified before the cards can be used, making them less likely to be compromised.

In addition, the cards will be attached to institutional accounts that can be utilized long-term.

"It's not just a one-time disbursement card. … What our hope is that people adopt these accounts as their on-going FDIC-insured savings account," Streit said. "By doing that, you can bring people out of the cash economy, out of the payday lending store or check cashing story and have them start using a regulated bank account."

Also this week, Treasury began a companion pilot initiative to encourage current and potential payroll card users to direct deposit their 2010 federal tax refund onto existing payroll cards. Nationwide, the Treasury Department estimates that more than 1.7 million workers use payroll cards to receive and access their wages, often because they do not have bank accounts.

The letters mailed to taxpayers about MyAccountCard contain information about the card's features, including free services and the fee structure for optional services.

The information also explains how to sign up and use the card to receive a federal tax refund and conduct everyday financial transactions.

As part of the pilot, the Treasury Department will randomly offer several different variations of MyAccountCard in order to evaluate which product features, fee structures and marketing messages generate the greatest positive response from taxpayers. The results will help determine the benefits and feasibility of a card account as an integrated part of the tax filing and refund process.

The program is currently considered a pilot program only right now, with a limited certain number of taxpayers being enrolled and not available to the general public.

Visit www.myaccountcard.gov for more information.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053 ... cards.html

EBT cards are used all ove the place here.