I know stuff about mothering and I know stuff about teaching, but I know diddly-squat about political maneuvering and even less about immigration. Jeff has been challenging my mindset regarding illegal citizenship schemes. Feeling inadequate makes me want to learn more, so I need your help. Tell me how you feel about granting U.S. citizenship to immigrants who choose to procreate for the sole purpose of obtaining a passport to America. Forget Ron Paul! I got two measly hits off his name. I'm happy with my 12 readers, if they're happy with me.
4 comments:
Countries all over the world have rules about citizenship. Most countries choose either blood or place of birth as a basis for citizenship. The US has a combined system-where anyone born on US territory is a US citizen, and where children born in foreign countries to US citizens are (usually) citizens [derivative citizens, meaning their citizenship is derived from their parents' citizenship].
I guess because I'm a US citizen and have grown up with this system, I like it.
So I think children born here should be treated as our own--US citizens, and they are.
As for their parents getting citizenship--under US immigration law, they don't automatically get citizenship. If people are procreating just to get citizenship, then there's some serious lack of guidance on the procreators part. Having a US baby does not confer status on the parents. They are often deported, here and in the US, causing tremendous familial strife.
While some people may think having a US citizen baby is a "ticket" to America, I think more basic, human needs are at work. I think our alien workers have babies for much the same reason as our citizens do--they're in love, they want to have a family, or they had sex and forgot to plan about the consequences.
When we invite guest workers to help us with our economy, they come in as people--with lives, with wants, with desires. They need to have the ability to make relationships, build families, and have the basic, fundamental freedoms all humans have.
We can't have a whole tier of people living in the CNMI and keep them without rights, without the fulfillment of basic human needs. It's wrong.
How that plays into citizenship, I'm not sure. But I think people who've been here a while should be able to get on the track for citizenship, for full political rights and equality. And I think we should have a moratorium on alien workers and an outright ban on some jobs--no more "waitresses" or dancers or masseuses.
jmho.
Bonnie, you didn't hit any nerve at all on immigration. I don't have strong immigration feelings one way or another, and I don't know much about it either. Where I'm from in the northeast it isn't a big issue, unlike say Texas, California and Arizona. I just don't like the idea of cheating the system, sneaking across the border to plop out a kid, which was the extent of my comment. I similarly don't like Koreans who fly over to give birth in the U.S. for their kid to escape military service down the line. My experience living overseas is that no country offers anywhere near the comparitively liberal immigration that the U.S. does, and I find it kind of annoying. I can't even realistically work in western Europe if I wanted. My kids were born here and can't buy land here, which I find outrageous. I was looking at defecting to Canada when Bush won in 2004 and even that was hard to do, but that was probably just to make myself feel better on that horrible election night, which came soon after the Yankees dropped a 3-0 lead on the Red Sox in the ALCS. That was a dark few weeks of my life.
On other matters, if there is any blog of value that I think and believe will succeed, it is yours. You play a vital role in the community, you're honest, and you are one of the few people with those two factors going on. I think ultimately all our blogs with small exception will be read by fellow CNMI residents for the most part, and I'm confident that yours and mine and others will see steady growth with or without Ron Paul. There are some blogs, I see, that are dying on the vine, as people tend to give up.
The Saipan Bloggers get mad traffic. All of you have the level of traffic that I had a year ago. There are people who have been blogging for two years who only get 5 hits per day. I don't think any of the Saipan bloggers get less than 30.
As for immigration, I know what I'm supposed to think. Unfortunately for my elders, I don't agree with a lot of what they have to say.
When I think of it like school zoning, I understand. Then again, when the kids I turn away walk out the door, I am always left feeling heartless. What's best for our country is a discussion that will never end, but should never be stifled.
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