An Immigrant's Story

Outrage followed the passage of SB1070, Arizona's tough new immigration bill. The reaction is in large part to wording in the bill around "reasonable suspicion" of a person's illegal immigration status, and that it can be used as justification for a police officer to demand to see proof of residency/citizenship.

The reason for the concern is simple; 'reasonable' is a decidedly subjective term, and immigration advocates are worried that it will open the door to racial profiling.

Last year I became a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States, which is to say I was issued a Green Card. After nearly six years in temporary worker status (prior to this I held an H1-B skilled workers visa) I had in my hands the Holy Grail and all the exciting freedoms that come with it.

Throughout the Green Card application process, I became intimately acquainted with all the nuances and peculiarities of immigration law, and believe me when I tell you it is a netherworld of forms filled out in triplicate, medical tests, biometric exams and disconcertingly vague Q&A sessions with lawyers, from which come far more questions than answers.

Much of the process is tiresome and feels somewhat unfair; a question on the application form asks whether one has ever been arrested. This to me seems prejudicial, surely the pertinent question is whether one has ever been convicted of a crime (although this question does come up later on); an arrest can be meaningless if it is mistaken, or worse, unlawful.

Other parts of it actually raise a smile, albeit a wry one. The same application form asks whether the respondent ever sent money to and/or worked for the German government between the years of 1933 and 1945. I was 32 at the time I filled out the form, so it would have been a neat metaphysical trick if I had had any dealings with the Third Reich, financial or otherwise.

A few questions later, one encounters perhaps the most memorably phrased question; "Have you ever engaged in or sponsored Genocide?". I had to pause before indignantly checking the 'No' box - there was this one time when my apartment had a really bad ant problem, so I took this kettle of boiling water and...never mind. Also, the word 'sponsored' tickled me; one can't help but think of sponsorship in terms of a 5k race in support of some kind of local charity (Would you care to donate some money to our cause, sir? We're almost at our target of $500 for the extermination of a competing cultural group. Sure, why not, put me down for a tenner.)

Following these two gems, there is also a question about whether the applicant is intending to overthrow the government by seditious means once inside the country. It would be admirably honest for someone to answer this question in the positive.

Obviously, I am making light of a serious process that causes considerable anxiety for many temporary workers. Over the course of the six years as an H1-B holder I built an entire life here and a denial of my Green Card would have meant the destruction of it all and my having to start over again somewhere else (contrary to many ill-informed anti-immigration activists, the H1-b temporary work visa cannot be renewed indefinitely - it's clear and unbreakable limit is six years).

The immigration system without doubt needs an overhaul, it is rife with inefficiency and redundancy and is still involves many paper-based forms that are complicated and repetitive. Processes need revising and much more clarity into the various stages of the application should be provided to the applicant.

There are also unnecessarily harsh penalties for mistakes. For example, if for whatever reason the applicant misses his/her biometrics appointment (where fingerprints, etc, are taken), the entire Green Card application is deemed as abandoned by the immigration service and has to be started again from the very beginning, wasting potentially years of effort and thousands of dollars.

This is why SB1070 is such a poorly thought-out exercise; just making it more risky for illegal immigrants to walk the streets in Arizona solves no problems at all. There are systemic problems that need fixing, ones that will remain so despite a police officer's ability to demand proof of legal immigration status of anyone he deems suspicious. It is also worth nothing that the requirement to carry proof of status is not unheard of; as a Green Card holder one is obliged to carry it at all times.

A common proposition made by anti-immigration voices is that US companies are less likely to employ American citizens because they can pay immigrants much lower salaries. This might be true of particular industries, but jobs that require a higher level of technical skill and education (i.e the most desirable, well-compensated ones) are certainly not being given to undocumented workers. For example, it is doubtful that the wage disparity between two doctors, one born in India and the other in Wisconsin, working at the same hospital is very large. Similarly, I can guarantee that you will not find an illegal immigrant working in the IT department of any reputable company. No such organization would expose itself to that serious a risk.

There are other, softer reasons to fix the immigration system, too. The cultural benefits of immigration are obvious and plentiful; in England in the mid-20th century, there was a huge influx of immigrants from Asia. Their presence immeasurably added to the richness and diversity of art, music and cuisine (and let me tell you, my beautiful country of birth needs all the help it can get in that last category).

Obviously, the flow of immigrants needs measures of control, but people from other countries do so much more than just work, they add vibrancy and color (pun somewhat intended) to our cities and bring with them the diversity that is the hallmark of the 21st century.