What happened to the "welcoming" society?

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

So a computer glitch has wreaked havoc across this year's green-card lottery which allows 55 thousand foreigners applying for US work permits to get access to the US work market. In result the 2011 lottery was called off and will be invalidated.

But instead of working to fix the software problem, the proposal coming from the GOP is what? Scrap the whole green-card lottery system altogether. One of the reasons? It's "possible" that some terrorists could get into the US through obtaining a green card. Wow.

Last time I checked, "America is a land of immigrants" and "America is a welcoming society, the land of the unlimited opportunities" were two of the most often used patriotic soundbites used by all politicians and pundits in the US. Along with "Land of the free" and "The American dream", of course. So what has changed?

Comments

[op-tech-glitch.livejournal.com]

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Those wafers look yummy.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

A lot has changed. Irrational, uncompromising, ultra-partisan extremism has taken over US politics.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Which again serves to underscore how much like the rest of the Western world the USA is. Unless you mean to tell me that the Europe licking the jackboots of the Far Right is not serving irrational, uncompromising extremism. This is not the answer, the USA reverting back to its "welcoming" attitude of the 1920s, when it only welcomed those who met narrowly and rigidly defined categories without regard to logic or basic humanity is. For instance the policy toward refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan displaced by US policies there has been an obscenity.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

What changed? How about it's not the 19th century anymore? How about only China and India have more people than we do?

We can't take everyone who wants to come anymore and if we're smart we'll copy Canada's system but be a bit more hard edged about who we take. Also, being welcoming =/= let in anyone. We've always had a screening process.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

"We can't take everyone who wants to come anymore"

Yes, and that's why you've put quotas. Since the 20th century.

"We've always had a screening process"

Indeed. Now the proposal is to abolish it altogether. Or am I getting this wrong?

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I won't be satisfied until this:



Looks like this:

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

We're still a lot more welcoming of unskilled immigrants than Europe is, but apparently the GOP thinks that our youth want to pick grapes in this weather.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Yes you are, but Europe has never claimed to be more welcoming than country X. This brings us back to the quoted soundbites. I'd add one more: "This is what we stand for" (whatever This is). You don't hear that in Europe that often. Or in any other place, to that matter.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, that's one of the things many of us did in high school during the summer....uh, did I say us, I worked fast food places. I got my sun at the beach ;)

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Last time I checked, "America is a land of immigrants" and "America is a welcoming society,

And it still is.

I guess it's perspective, your focus seems rather based on some narrow parameters and jumps to a wrong conclusion. As of 2006, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than all other countries in the world combined. The number of first- generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007 1,046,539 persons were naturalized as U.S. citizens in 2008. Wikipedia's source. (http://books.google.com/books?id=aaimTNHDzZYC&pg=PA32&dq&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false)

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

That's true, and yet my point is - what happens from 2011 onwards? You're right, it's a very focused question.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

The welcoming spirit of America is alive and well. It's just that there's a fringe group which has become louder than the moderate majority and has hijacked (part of) the discourse. Whether they'll get things their way is another story.

Wait, what?

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Neither border is CLOSED.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

By that logic, Obama shouldn't even be President, but look what happened.

Your sarcasm is noted.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

It may be a moot point. If the crazies in the GOP succeed in not raising the debt limit and thus torpedo the economy, nobody will want to come here anyway.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

One can only hope.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Actually it won't work that way.

If the US economy tanks the sovereign debt crisis in Europe causes pretty much all of the EU to tank,

With the US and EU economies in the tank here is no one left to buy all the crap the Chinese make and the majority of their cash reserves become suspect in value at best and more likely worthless leading to wide scale unemployment and their economy tanks.

Russia, India, Israel, Japan, and South Korea will all be hurt so much by the loss of their export markets that their economies tank as well.

With the US, Eu, China, and most of the remainder of the 1st/2nd world in the dumps global oil demand collapses and all those oil rich countries take a big hit (albeit their economies may not completely fall off the edge of the world.

With the world now in the throws of a global depression foreign aid and export markets dry up for 3rd world countries leaving them in even worse shape than they are today.

In the end the only major countries I have any faith in riding out the storm reasonably intact would be Australia, Canada, and Brazil and as bad as things might get in the US they are probably going to be a LOT worse in most other places and I could see immigration here actually pick up, not decline.

[jlc20thmaine.livejournal.com]

What's the dem's plan again?

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me.

Gee you must be almost as old as I am if you remember all those mantras ;)

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

It took me about a day around the mostly-US political forums to memorize those.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

I agree with the GOP, we should scrap the green card system immediately.






And just let as many people who want to come here come.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Here's where the GOP disagrees with you. :)

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

We evidently want to go back to that marvelous idea of immigration quotas again, that's what. As far as the degree to which the USA was welcoming....as with the reports of the death of Samuel Clemens this was propaganda of the heavily exaggerated sort.

[harry-beast.livejournal.com]

Last time I checked, "America is a land of immigrants".
In what century did you last check? It may surprise you, but there are some Americans who were born in the USA. Bruce Springsteen for example.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

OK, I'll give you Bruce Springsteen!

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

Too many brown people come into the country this way, better to just scrap it.