The Difficult Immigration Process

  As I continue studying immigration in this course, I tend to notice different trends or central ideas that cross between all areas of research. A couple weeks ago, I wrote my blog post discussing the concept of hostility. I described how many students from Green Card Youth Voices faced hostility when arriving in the US, and how it is something that many immigrants in general have encountered. Racism is something deeply embedded in our society and as I read immigrant stories, it just reinforces that concept.

    In this blog post, I want to discuss another common theme- the difficult immigration process. When reviewing the course readings for this week, I came across the “I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status” and found how lengthy and nitpicky the application is for immigrants to fill out. The form is 20 pages long, in small font, and asks so many questions. Seeing all these concise details required to file status reinforces the concept of how difficult the U.S Government makes it to immigrate. Looking over this reminds me of a comedic video I have seen in the past, where Americans are asked Citizenship Test questions. The Citizenship Test is another requirement for immigrants and although the fact that many immigrants fail it and can’t immigrate is sad, this video is ironic because it shows many Americans would not be able to pass the Citizenship Test either (Vox). And while this video is meant to be somewhat funny, the difficult process immigrants face is not funny at all. For example, Eliyas Sala writes in Green Card Youth Voices how “the chances of coming [to the U.S are] very low. For the whole world, 50,000 people get it out of 19 million per year” (Sala 83). This is a very minuscule amount of people who want to come to the U.S and can not get in. It just further proves the point of how selective and strict the US Government is on immigration policies.

    Looking at the application and reading the Citizenship test, it feels as though the U.S Government is actively trying to turn away immigrants. What this raises is questions for us as citizens of the U.S- is this what we believe our nation's ideals are? Is it okay for us to have treated immigrants this way and should it continue? And if not, what can we do to create change?


(Photo credit: Nitish Meena, royalty free photo from unsplash.com)

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