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Rohit Singh
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Sun, 02 Apr 2006
The US Immigration Debate
As with most issues that really have no clear-cut, good answer, the debates on this one are fun to watch.
It's all happening here-- confusion and misinformation, demagoguery and high-minded idealism, pragmatism and parochialism. People are confusing legal, white-collar immigration with illegal, blue-collar immigration. You have propagandists warning of an America impoverished and over-run by illegal immigrants from Mexico; yet you also have saner minds warning of U.S. to not screw up its immigration policy which "is one of the best in the world". There's the cynicism that "it's the big, faceless corporations who are behind this" and then there's the idealism of "oh, these are good, God-fearing, hard-working immigrants-- just the kind America was founded by". There's the pragmatism of "how will you find and deport 6 million people" and there's the parochialism of "they won't assimilate" (never mind that it's quite unclear what 'assimilation' would mean).
Also, one learns something new everyday--- India has a remarkably liberal immigration policy, it turns out: people born in India, regardless of the nationality of their parents, are automatically eligible for citizenship, just like in U.S.