If 5 isn't enough: Here is 10 Myths about Immigration

From: http://www.communitychange.org/our-projects/firm/our-work/general-information-on-immigration/top-10-myths-about-immigration

top 10 myths about immigration

By Leo Anchondo of Justice for Immigrants

1. Immigrants don't pay taxes.  

Immigrants pay taxes, in the form of income, property, sales, and taxes at the federal and state level.  As far as income tax payments go, sources vary in their accounts, but a range of studies find that immigrants pay between $90 and $140 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes.  Undocumented immigrants pay income taxes as well, as evidenced by the Social Security Administration's "suspense file" (taxes that cannot be matched to workers' names and social security numbers), which grew by $20 billion between 1990 and 1998.

(Source: http://www.immigrationforum.org/about/articles/tax_study.htm)

2. Immigrants come here to take welfare.

Immigrants come to work and reunite with family members.  Immigrant labor force participation is consistently higher than native-born, and immigrant workers make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force (12.4%) than they do the U.S. population (11.5%).   Moreover, the ratio between immigrant use of public benefits and the amount of taxes they pay is consistently favorable to the U.S.  In one estimate, immigrants earn about $240 billion a year, pay about $90 billion a year in taxes,  and use about $5 billion in public benefits.  In another cut of the data, immigrant   tax payments total $20 to $30 billion more than the amount of government services they use. 

(Source: "Questioning Immigration Policy - Can We Afford to Open Our Arms?", Friends Committee on National Legislation Document #G-606-DOM, January 25, 1996.http:www.fas.org/pub/gen/fcnl/immigra.html)

3. Immigrants send all their money back to their home countries.

In addition to the consumer spending of immigrant households, immigrants and their businesses contribute $162 billion in tax revenue to U.S. federal, state, and local governments.  While it is true that immigrants remit billions of dollars a year to their home countries, this is one of the most targeted and effective forms of direct foreign investment.       

(Source: http://www.cato.org/research/articles/griswold-020218.html)

4. Immigrants take jobs and opportunity away from Americans.

The largest wave of immigration to the U.S. since the early 1900s coincided with our lowest national unemployment rate and fastest economic growth.  Immigrant entrepreneurs create jobs for U.S. and foreign workers, and foreign-born students allow many U.S. graduate programs to keep their doors open.  While there has been no comprehensive study done of immigrant-owned businesses, we have countless examples: in Silicon Valley, companies begun by Chinese and Indian immigrants generated more than $19.5 billion in sales and nearly 73,000 jobs in 2000.

(Source: Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway, and Stephen Moore, Immigration and Unemployment: New Evidence, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Arlington, VA (Mar. 1994), p. 13.)

5. Immigrants are a drain on the U.S. economy.

During the 1990s, half of all new workers were foreign-born, filling gaps left by native-born workers in both the high- and low-skill ends of the spectrum.  Immigrants fill jobs in key sectors, start their own businesses, and contribute to a thriving economy.  The net benefit of immigration to the U.S. is nearly $10 billion annually.  As Alan Greenspan points out, 70% of immigrants arrive in prime working age.  That means we haven't spent a penny on their education, yet they are transplanted into our workforce and will contribute $500 billion toward our social security system over the next 20 years.

(Source:  Andrew Sum, Mykhaylo Trubskyy, Ishwar Khatiwada, et al., Immigrant Workers in the New England Labor Market: Implications for Workforce Development Policy, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Prepared for the New England Regional Office, the Employment and Training Administration, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Boston, Massachusetts, October 2002. http://www.nupr.neu.edu/11-02/immigration.PDF)

6. Immigrants don't want to learn English or become Americans.

Within ten years of arrival, more than 75% of immigrants speak English well; moreover, demand for English classes at the adult level far exceeds supply.  Greater than 33% of immigrants are naturalized citizens; given increased immigration in the 1990s, this figure will rise as more legal permanent residents become eligible for naturalization in the coming years.  The number of immigrants naturalizing spiked sharply after two events: enactment of immigration and welfare reform laws in 1996, and the terrorist attacks in 2001. 

(Source: American Immigration Lawyers Association, Myths & Facts in the Immigration Debate", 8/14/03. http://www.aila.org/contentViewer.aspx?bc=17,142#section4)

(Source: Simon Romero and Janet Elder, "Hispanics in the US Report Optimism" New York Times, Aug. 6, 2003)

7. Today's immigrants are different than those of 100 years ago.

The percentage of the U.S. population that is foreign-born now stands at 11.5%; in the early 20th century it was approximately 15%.  Similar to accusations about today's immigrants, those of 100 years ago initially often settled in mono-ethnic neighborhoods, spoke their native languages, and built up newspapers and businesses that catered to their fellow émigrés.  They also experienced the same types of discrimination that today's immigrants face, and integrated within American culture at a similar rate.  If we view history objectively, we remember that every new wave of immigrants has been met with suspicion and doubt and yet, ultimately, every past wave of immigrants has been vindicated and saluted.   

(Source: Census Data: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf)

8. Most immigrants cross the border illegally.

Around 75% of today's immigrants have legal permanent (immigrant) visas; of the 25% that are undocumented, 40% overstayed temporary (non-immigrant) visas.

(Source: Department of Homeland Security http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/statistics/index.htm)

9. Weak U.S. border enforcement has led to high undocumented immigration.

From 1986 to 1998, the Border Patrol's budget increased six-fold and the number of agents stationed on our southwest border doubled to 8,500.  The Border Patrol also toughened its enforcement strategy, heavily fortifying typical urban entry points and pushing migrants into dangerous desert areas, in hopes of deterring crossings.  Instead, the undocumented immigrant population doubled in that timeframe, to 8 million-despite the legalization of nearly 3 million immigrants after the enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986.  Insufficient legal avenues for immigrants to enter the U.S., compared with the number of jobs in need of workers, has significantly contributed to this current conundrum. 

(Source: Immigration and Naturalization website:http://www.ncjrs.org/ondcppubs/publications/enforce/border/ins_3.html)

10. The war on terrorism can be won through immigration restrictions.

No security expert since September 11th, 2001 has said that restrictive immigration measures would have prevented the terrorist attacks-instead, the key is effective use of good intelligence.  Most of the 9/11 hijackers were here on legal visas.  Since 9/11, the myriad of measures targeting immigrants in the name of national security have netted no terrorism prosecutions.  In fact, several of these measures could have the opposite effect and actually make us less safe, as targeted communities of immigrants are afraid to come forward with information. 

(Source: Associated Press/Dow Jones Newswires, "US Senate Subcommittee Hears ImmigrationTestimony", Oct. 17, 2001.)

(Source: Cato Institute: "Don't Blame Immigrants for Terrorism", Daniel Griswold, Assoc. Director of Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies http://www.cato.org/dailys/10-23-01.html)

5 Myths about Immigration

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043001106.html

5 Myths about immigration

By Doris Meissner

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Despite the fact that we are a nation of immigrants -- or perhaps because of it -- immigration continues to be one of America's most contentious topics. The new law in Arizona authorizing police to arrest individuals who cannot show documents proving that they are in the country legally has set off a fresh bout of acrimony. But as in the past, much of the debate is founded on mythology.


1. Immigrants take jobs from American workers.

Although immigrants account for 12.5 percent of the U.S. population, they make up about 15 percent of the workforce. They are overrepresented among workers largely because the rest of our population is aging: Immigrants and their children have accounted for 58 percent of U.S. population growth since 1980. This probably won't change anytime soon. Low U.S. fertility rates and the upcoming retirement of the baby boomers mean that immigration is likely to be the only source of growth in what we call the "prime age" workforce -- workers ages 25 to 55 -- in the decades ahead. As record numbers of retirees begin drawing Social Security checks, younger immigrant workers will be paying taxes, somewhat easing the financial pressures on the system.
It's true that an influx of new workers pushes wages down, but immigration also stimulates growth by creating new consumers, entrepreneurs and investors. As a result of this growth, economists estimate that wages for the vast majority of American workers are slightly higher than they would be without immigration. U.S. workers without a high school degree experience wage declines as a result of competition from immigrants, but these losses are modest, at just over 1 percent. Economists also estimate that for each job an immigrant fills, an additional job is created.Moreover, immigrants tend to be concentrated in high- and low-skilled occupations that complement -- rather than compete with -- jobs held by native workers. And the foreign-born workers who fill lower-paying jobs are typically first-hired/first-fired employees, allowing employers to expand and contract their workforces rapidly. As a result, immigrants experience higher employment than natives during booms -- but they suffer higher job losses during downturns, including the current one.


2. Immigration is at an all-time high, and most new immigrants came illegally.
The historic high came more than a century ago, in 1890, when immigrants made up 14.8 percent of our population. Today, about two-thirds of immigrants are here legally, either as naturalized citizens or as lawful permanent residents, more commonly known as "green card" holders. And of the approximately 10.8 million immigrants who are in the country illegally, about 40 percent arrived legally but overstayed their visas.
It's worth noting that although the unauthorized immigrant population includes more people from Mexico than from any other country, Mexicans are also the largest group of lawful immigrants. As for the flow of illegal immigrants, apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border have declined by more than 50 percent over the past four years, while increases in the size of the illegal population, which had been growing by about 500,000 a year for more than a decade, have stopped. This decline is largely due to the recession, but stepped-up border enforcement is playing a part.


3. Today's immigrants are not integrating into American life like past waves did.
The integration of immigrants remains a hallmark of America's vitality as a society and a source of admiration abroad, as it has been throughout our history. Although some people complain that today's immigrants are not integrating into U.S. society as quickly as previous newcomers did, the same charge was leveled at virtually every past wave of immigrants, including the large numbers of Germans, Irish and Italians who arrived in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Today, as before, immigrant integration takes a generation or two. Learning English is one key driver of this process; the education and upward mobility of immigrants' children is the other. On the first count, today's immigrants consistently seek English instruction in such large numbers that adult-education programs cannot meet the demand, especially in places such as California. On the second count, the No Child Left Behind Act has played a critical role in helping educate immigrant children because it holds schools newly accountable for teaching them English.
However, the unauthorized status of millions of foreign-born immigrants can slow integration in crucial ways. For example, illegal immigrants are ineligible for in-state tuition at most public colleges and universities, putting higher education effectively out of their reach. And laws prohibiting unauthorized immigrants from getting driver's licenses or various professional credentials can leave them stuck in jobs with a high density of other immigrants and unable to advance.


4. Cracking down on illegal border crossings will make us safer.
The job of protecting the nation's borders is immense, encompassing nearly 7,500 miles of land borders, 12,380 miles of coastline and a vast network of sea ports, international airports, ports of entry along the Mexican and Canadian borders and visa-issuing consulates abroad.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have dramatically strengthened our borders through the use of biometrics at ports of entry, secure cargo-shipment systems, intelligence gathering, integrated databases and increased international cooperation. The Border Patrol has nearly doubled in size in the past five years, to more than 20,000 agents. The Department of Homeland Security says it is on schedule to meet congressional mandates for southwestern border enforcement, including fence-building. And cooperation with the Mexican government has improved significantly.
Still, our southwest border is more a classic law enforcement challenge than a front line in the war on terrorism. Antiterrorism measures rely heavily on intelligence gathering and clandestine efforts that are unrelated to border enforcement.
The seasoned enforcement officials I have spoken with all contend that if we provided enough visas to meet the economy's demand for workers, border agents would be freed to focus on protecting the nation from truly dangerous individuals and activities, such as drug-trafficking, smuggling and cartel violence.

5. Immigration reform cannot happen in an election year.
The politics of immigration can be explosive and can chase lawmakers away, especially as elections near, with the result that Congress infrequently and reluctantly updates immigration laws. However, all the significant immigration bills enacted in recent decades were passed in election years, often at the last minute and after fractious debates.
This list dates back to the Refugee Act of 1980, which established our system for humanitarian protection and refugee and asylum admissions. Next came the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which made it illegal to hire unauthorized immigrants and provided amnesty for 2.7 million illegal immigrants. The Immigration Act of 1990 increased the number of visas allotted to highly skilled workers. And the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act charged immigration agencies with implementing significant new law enforcement mandates.
Legislative attempts to make urgently needed changes fizzled in the House in 2005 and in the Senate in 2006 and 2007, and the to-do list for this Congress is substantial. But ruling out immigration reform, whether because Congress has other priorities or because it's an election year, would be a mistake. The outline for immigration legislation that Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and his Democratic colleagues unveiled last week, together with the uproar over the Arizona law, may help convince lawmakers that there's no time like the present.

10 Things That Frustrate Me

1. When people flake/When people tell you they will do something and then don't do it


2. When people stare at you while you are jamming in your car


3. When people stare at you because your friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, or person you are with is not your same race/ethnicity


4. When guys you do not know try to talk to you like you know them and expect you to be happy to gain their attention


5. When people are ignorant


6. When people bully, harass, or otherwise degrade other people simply because they are different.


7. When people victim blame or find some way to say "He/she was asking for it"


8. When people don't listen, they just hear.


9. When people hold beliefs they cannot back up with logic


10. When people refuse to attempt change.

Canvassing

Today I canvassed with my friend, Mike; my mentor, Lacey; and Lacey's intern, Ryan. We walked around a neighborhood knocking on doors and if we were able to find anybody at home, then we talked to the person on our list about issues they cared about and how they could use their vote to influence that issue that they cared about. In an hour and a half, we knocked on 77 doors, talked to 14 of the people on our list, convinced 12 to go out and vote, got 4 people to sign pledge cards, and got two people to agree to volunteer. Over the following weeks before election day, we will be continuing to canvass as well as phone banking to Get Out The Vote!

'It Gets Better' Charlotte

So tonight, I attended a candle light vigil to remember LGBTQ young people who are subjected to homophobic harassment. Some of them become depressed, some even commit suicide. A 2007 report from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide then their heterosexual peers." A statistic like that makes me wonder how people can ignore or be ignorant to the plight of LGBTQ youth. The vigil was very action oriented, it was a way to motivate our community to not just mourn those who have died or be upset at the continued harassment, but rather to use that as our strength, to bring us together to fight for change. The youth who spoke both at the vigil itself and at the discussion afterwards brought up so many great points. One said that although this vigil was able to gather so many people to fight for change, that it is sad that we have to even have it at all. This is such a good point, these issues are not so hard to grasp, people just want to be treated as people no matter how they are different. So why is it that people have to fight for basic civil rights? I have a sticker on my planner that carries that same message, it says, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are not 'special rights.'"I can only hope that someday, bullying will not continue simply because of the person one loves. And when that day comes, it will be a much more equal and better place. So I will fight for change and I hope you will join me and the many others who are in the fight.

Nocturne

So for my Arts & Society: Theatre course, we were required to first read and then attend a performance of the play Nocturne, which was being performed here on campus. Now if you ever intend to see or read this play, please stop reading as the entire story will be explained in the rest of this post and I would hate to ruin it for anyone. First so you understand this play, it is a monologue play meaning one character tells the story rather than multiple characters interacting to tell you the story as in a movie. It is also a memory play so it is very fragmented and the story is told like your mind remembers the events so there are many random things brought into the play as that is how the mind forms memories. The play starts with these words, "Fifteen years ago I killed my sister." The narrator is given no name only social designations (son, brother). Then he goes on to tell exactly how he "killed" his sister. He was driving down the road on the way home from work and he decided that instead of going directly home, he would pass his house and go to his favorite place to sit and think. He was jamming to some music when all of the sudden his sister ran out from their driveway in front of his car. He tried to stop, but couldn't (We later learn that the breaks had failed). He swerves and over-corrects and hits a tree. He breaks a few ribs and is injures, but manages to get out of the car and go to see that it was indeed his sister whom he had run over and in fact, he had decapitated her. He ends up in the hospital and his mother comes to see him and she tells him about the brakes and that he is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, but she says it as if she wishes that wasn't all he was being charged with (He says). That is the last thing his mom says to him ever. She is later admitted to a mental hospital because she is unable to cope with the grief. His father has a similar problem coping, but he handles it by attempting to kill the narrator by putting a gun in his mouth. The mother stops the father from shooting him and he leaves the house and runs away. He ends up in New York where a lady gives him an apartment to stay in and he gets a job at a bookstore where he is able to take a lot of books. He uses the books and some twine to make himself furniture. He later buys a typewriter which he doesn't use for two years. He eventually moves to another apartment and buys real furniture. He then uses the typewriter to write a fiction version of his life story which he names Nocturne. He meets a girl who helps him get it published and who he starts dating for a while. He realizes he cannot be intimate and he parts ways mostly due to embarrassment. One day he receives a letter from his father with his father's own shortened version of his life story and a note saying that he has testicular cancer and is dying and that the narrator should come see him. There is also money attached for him to take the train. The narrator does go see his father and his father dies that night. The narrator returns home with the thoughts of getting back together with the girl and writing again.


Note: There are more elements which I have not touched on including the piano and the tie ins, but I decided not to make it too long.

Take Back The Night

Tonight I volunteered at and attended a program called Take Back the Night! Take Back the Night is a program to honor survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. At this particular Take Back the Night, the scene is a large group of students around the Belk Tower. There is a resource table and a table for the Feminist Union on campus. It begins with a survivor telling her story of the many years of abuse in her marriage. Then with some speakers to discuss resources on campus. Resources including Campus Police, the Counseling Center, and the Student Health Center. As they are speaking, Luminaries all around the area are being lit and each person in attendance is receiving a candle and all of those candles are being lit for the candle light vigil. Then a man comes up to speak and has all the men in attendance come up to the front and make a pledge not to commit or condone violence against women. Amazingly the men make up almost half of the population in attendance. Then many other survivors come up and tell their stories. To conclude, everyone is brought over to the Garden of Hope and a moment of silence is taken to remember those who were killed from domestic violence. The whole thing was amazing, sad and yet inspiring that so many people could come together and work to end such a horrible phenomenon in our society.


Note: I made this purple because that is the color to represent domestic violence awareness.