Problems with our asylum application process

This report sheds light on the problem with the current asylum process in the US. It is often very difficult for immigrants to get asylum seekers to get visas, and the reasons behind these difficulties are seemingly unjust. One problem with the current process is the 150-day period that asylum seekers must wait (after their initial application) before they can request employment authorization. To worsen the situation, this 150-day period can be lengthened, for years in many cases. It is lengthened whenever there is a “delay request[ed] or caused by the [asylum] applicant.” A report by the Human Rights Watch finds that these delays are often unnecessary. Another criticism of the asylum process is the lack of lawyers provided to applicants. As we talked about in class, criminal law is different from immigration law. This report points out an instance where immigration law takes advantage of this differentiation – the uncertainty of whether or not a lawyer will be provided at the hearing of an asylum seeker. Also included is the story of a double amputee and asylee who rode his bicycle 800 miles across Texas last month. The man hopes the ride will raise awareness for those rejected as refugees while trying to flee Mexico’s drug wars. This, along with many other efforts, will hopefully resonate through Congress and kickstart the stalling process of meaningful immigration reform.

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/11/14/2929901/bars-vulnerable-asylum-seekers-working-receiving-assistance/

Orphan Immigrant Family in Georiga

This is a touching video that addresses the issue of immigrant orphans in the US. The video focuses on one family, the Cabrera's, made up of three orphans from Mexico. Brianda, now 23, took on the responsibilities of a mother for her younger siblings, Diana and Jose, at an early age. The Cabrera's father died 13 years ago in Mexico. At that point, their mother moved the children to the US. Suddenly, the mother was hit by a car and killed shortly after the family relocated to Georgia. Brianda, only 14, was left to take care of Diana and Jose, who were 15 and 18, respectively. What a great job she's done; in the short video, you can see how strong the family is bound. Diana's emotions say it all around the 30 second point in the video where she describes the role her sister has played. The family stuck together and made it work, living on their own - without a guardian - for around nine years in the US. Due to the family's undocumented status, Brianda struggled to keep herself and her siblings well. She took on various odd jobs to help pay for education, food, and rent for the family. This video is definitely worth watching; it's humbling for the viewer and reminds us that no matter how bad things are going, there are people making do with far greater struggles.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2013/11/07/pkg-romo-immigrant-orphans.cnn&iref=allsearch&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2Fsearch%2F%3Fquery%3Dimmigration%26primaryType%3Dmixed%26sortBy%3Drelevance%26intl%3Dfalse#/video/world/2013/11/07/pkg-romo-immigrant-orphans.cnn

Proposed UK Immigration Reform

            This article is a question and answer overview of the UK’s proposed immigration reform. It starts out with a surprising thought – reducing UK’s net immigration from 200,000 down to the tens of thousands by 2015! That’s a big change; apparently they really feel immigration is causing problems. The major concerns regarding the reform are the pressures that the British feel immigration is placing upon education, as well as accusations of wages driven down by an increase of foreign employees.

            The immigration bill addresses the situation by asking landlords to check whether or not tenants are legally in the UK. Furthermore, banks will be required to check for citizenship before opening accounts. Also included in the bill is a 200 pound per year fee for temporary migrants to cover health care costs to the NHS. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the bill requires biracial marriages – specifically those between a person of English descent and a non-European – to be registered into a database.

            The bill is largely supported, but has some resistance. Liberal Democrats feel the bill is being “rushed through” Parliament. There is also resistance from landlords and hospitals, who feel the portions of the bill that concern them will cause problems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24626767

Filipinos and the U.S. Nursing Market

I found the topic of the role of Filipinos to U.S. nursing from the book and class discussion to be interesting. I found an article discussing the U.S. nurse labor market, which addresses the role of immigration, more specifically Filipino immigration. The article, written by Linda Aiken in 2007, shared that approximately 8 percent of roughly 3 million (in 2004) U.S. nurses were foreign educated. I thought this percentage was relatively low at first; I expected the number to be around 15 to 20 percent. With that said, I know there are plenty of universities full of nursing majors in the U.S.; I went to one in Iowa. Students of these programs earn thousands of degrees each year, which add up to U.S. maintaining half of the world’s stock of English-speaking nurses. These figures make it reasonable to see the relatively low number of U.S.-foreign educated nurses. The Philippines, which accounts for 30 percent of U.S. foreign-educated nurses, is denoted as the major source country for RNs. Furthermore, nurse immigration to the U.S. tripled from 1994 to 2007. Aiken lists two factors to explain this growth: changes in the demand for nurses in the hospital sector and changes in immigration policy. The first change was the inclusion of foreign nurses in the H-1A visa for temporary employment (1995). The second change was the addition of an INS screening program for foreign-educated nurses to offer permanent residence through employment.

           
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ad8c80ee-5034-4f73-8ee8-5afeb26b2b4a%40sessionmgr14&vid=7&hid=127

Migrant Boat Capsizes in the Mediterranean

            http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/10/lampedusas-migrant-tragedy-and-ours.html

            I wasn’t aware of the migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean until Dr. Fitzgerald mentioned it last class, but it certainly stuck with me. The boat took off from Eritrea and capsized off of Lampedusa, a Sicilian island about 500 meters from the coast. It is suspected that more than 300 people deceased out of the approximate 500 on the boat. It is believed that the captain lit a blanket on fire to signal that the boat needed help for a stalled engine. Rather than create this signal, he caused an explosion, which, along with the ensuing chaos, brought down the boat. The boat capsized at 4 A.M., leaving many inexperienced swimmers with no chance. A horrifying quote from survivor, Germani Nagassi, reads, “For five hours we were floating, using the dead bodies of our companions. There is nothing worse than this. There were many children. There was a mother with her four children, a mother with an infant, all lost at sea. My mind is scarred and in a terrible condition.”

            Unfortunately, this is by no means the first migrant boat tragedy in the Mediterranean. In the past year, around 1500 migrants have deceased in the Mediterraean, and some 20,000 in total over the past 20 years, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Health Care and Immigration

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1306636 - The New England Journal of Medicine

As immigration reform is tossed around the legislature, there are valid points made on both sides. One of the biggest issues that face either argument is the clash of our current health care system with a potential immigration reform. Right now, health care is very restricted for undocumented immigrants. It’s highly unlikely that a bill would pass that would provide undocumented immigrants with the right to standard Medicaid. If the 11 million undocumented immigrants are legalized, providing further health care for these immigrants with health care suddenly becomes a major issue. Oh by the way, ironic as many Americans may think, most immigrants are healthier than nonimmigrants upon arrival – according to this article. Within one or two generations, after adopting unhealthy American lifestyles, combined with a lack of health care opportunities, these immigrants begin to face health issues.