Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Everyone will benefit with immigration reform (V)

by Dona Poisl

A few days ago I listed several areas where we will all benefit when there is immigration reform which would legalize the millions of people living here illegally; the military, Social Security, our economy, our future economy, education and national security. The first column was about our economy, the next one was about the military and Social Security, this one will continue with language and education.

A major complaint that disgruntled residents voice is that the majority of the undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Latino, do not speak English. Many of them do try to learn, but learning a language is hard and takes a long time. Many simply don't have time to go to classes between their jobs and family responsibilities. These people realize they would have an easier time if they spoke and understood English, but since they are here illegally and could be deported at any moment, there is not much incentive to learn.

If the undocumented people were given legal status and one of the requirements for them to stay was to learn English, they would have a much better reason to study. If you or I were living for an unknown period of time in a foreign country working up to 100 hours a week just to survive, I doubt that we would make the time to learn the language if we were able to live without it.

These workers don't feel welcome, don't feel included in life here, usually feel they have no reason to do anything more than the minimum to live here. I wonder if we would feel differently. I think we would feel like visitors, and visitors rarely try to assimilate.

The immigration reform proposals all say that the people here illegally would have to be law abiding, pay any back taxes owing and learn English in order to get green cards and apply for citizenship.

More English classes and tutors would have to be provided; the classes available now have waiting lists as long as two years in many places. The federal government would have to provide funds for more ESL classes and the people who resent that the immigrants don't speak English will have to back legislation that will fund these classes. If they vote against funding the classes the immigrants will never have a chance to learn.

Many benefits will occur when all residents know our national language. Simple things like making the lines in the grocery store and bank move faster, neighbors getting along because they can discuss problems, safer traffic when everyone is able to read the signs. And more complex things like women knowing they can report domestic violence to emergency workers, parents and teachers able to discuss a child's progress, everyone being able to discuss problems with a doctor, and understanding contracts and agreements when they lease or buy something.

About the Author
Donna Poisl is the author of "How to Live & Thrive in the U.S. / Como Vivir y Prosperar en Estados Unidos" and president of Live & Thrive Press. She wrote this reference guide to help immigrants learn our system and succeed in this country. Contact Donna at http://www.howtoliveandthrive.com or Immigrants in USA Blog at http://immigrantsinusa.blogspot.com

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Everyone will benefit with immigration reform (V)

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Thursday, June 14, 2007

New York Immigration Lawyer

by Karl Garcia


Immigrating to New York is a formal process, which is to bee very carefully. New York immigration lawyer can help you to better understand those formalities and guide you how to proceed with those formalities. If you are planning to immigrate to New York it it highly recommended that you consult a New York immigration lawyer. New York immigration solutions lawyer not only help you to complete the formalities for New York immigration she also tells you about the country you are immigrating. For examples New York immigration lawyer tell you about the culture, weather condition living standard, etc about the New York. With this information you can plan that if you really want to immigrate to New York or not.

Most of immigration policies are designed and developed according to the country needs. And moreover they keep changing time by time. You can always get the latest immigration rules and details regarding the procedure and eligibility by the immigration lawyer. A good immigration lawyer will always have the up to date information about the country's immigration policies set by the government. She will give you the required documentation about the New York immigration so that you can study it and see yourself what are the possible issues involved immigration. In some cases it has been found that collecting information for New York immigration is a headache. Many time people do fail to collect the relevant immigration information. In such a case New York immigration lawyer could be a great help.

Many people also like to do the immigration formalities like filling up the document and submitting the additional copies of document by themselves without consulting the New York immigration lawyer. Doing so also result in a major failure. It is possible that you might miss some immigration document and may do some common mistakes while filling up the documents for immigration. Immigration lawyer will tell you precisely which element are to be filled in the application, how to better declare your information within the documentation, what document to attach with the application, etc. She will also review you document so that they are error free and there are minimum chances of failure or rejection.


About the Author
The Carl Garcia by a new York immigration lawyer will always minimize the chance of rejection while immigrating to new York.

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New York Immigration Lawyer

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Friday, June 08, 2007

Everyone will benefit with immigration reform (IV)

by Donna Poisl

Some gangs that are powerful in Latin American countries have started gangs in this country, mostly involved in drugs. This is a small minority of the undocumented immigrants who are here, but it is enough to worry about, especially when they recruit members from groups who are alienated from the mainstream. Young legal and illegal immigrants in our country, who are unable to assimilate, often because they lack English proficiency, are recruited into these gangs. These teens drop out of school, can't get jobs and are isolated from the mainstream. Gangs provide a good way to join a circle of "friends" and be accepted by others. The ones without strong families are looking for acceptance and join gangs to belong to a group.

If teens are given legal status and are encouraged to get a good education or train for better jobs, they would be very unlikely to join gangs. When they have a stake in the country and don't have to worry constantly about being caught and deported, the majority would be law abiding members of their communities. Many would continue their education and go to college and many would join the military.

There are almost 30,000 non citizens now on active duty in the U.S. military. These service members are defending a country in which they don't have the most important of our rights, voting for the people who could send them to war.

The waiting period for citizenship for immigrants in the military has been decreased from 5 years to 3 years. In 2004, President Bush signed an order allowing active duty immigrants serving at least one year during conflict to be eligible to apply for citizenship in even less time, without many of the usual requirements. And they don't have to return home before applying.

Many immigrants place a high value on military training and the additional education available through the military. When citizenship requirements are eased for those who join the military, even more immigrants than usual sign up.

If the undocumented immigrants here now were given legal status, there would be a huge additional pool of recruits and there will be a high number who will enlist for these new citizenship benefits. This would add sufficient numbers to the regular military and possibly enable the National Guard to remain at home.

The CIA's World Factbook lists 30 countries with a negative population growth and 13 of them are our NATO allies. The U.S. population growth rate is about even, which means our military will stay about the same size. But we must make sure our population increases to a higher rate so we can keep our military numbers sufficient and make up for some of our allies who have decreasing numbers.

Another benefit to having all these additional recruits is that the pay incentives that are necessary now to reach the quotas may be able to be decreased or dropped entirely. This would save money for the government and the money saved could be used to keep equipment repaired and replaced on schedule.

These additional legal residents would help Social Security and our military and be an invaluable part of our society.

Yesterday I listed several areas we will all benefit when there is immigration reform which would legalize the millions of people living here illegally; the military, Social Security, our economy, our future economy, education and national security. The first column talked about our economy, this one was about Social Security and the military. The next one will continue with the others.


About the Author
Donna Poisl is the author of "How to Live & Thrive in the U.S. / Como Vivir y Prosperar en Estados Unidos" and president of Live & Thrive Press. She wrote this reference guide to help immigrants learn our system and succeed in this country. Contact Donna at http://www.howtoliveandthrive.com or Immigrants in USA Blog at http://immigrantsinusa.blogspot.com

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Everyone will benefit with immigration reform (IV)

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