Thursday, September 16

I'm a minority, too!

Speaking out in favor of immigration in Go Ahead, Leave the Door Open, Brian Doherty mentions a
Samuel Huntington-style concern for "cultural integrity" and "national identity," the protection of which is not among the granted powers in the Constitution, as near as I can tell.
In his article, Huntington claims "America is becoming a dangerously Balkanized country." This is the other side of identity politics. The more one insists on one's cultural identity, which is usually minority and in contrast to a perceived majority, the more the majority is going to feel threatened, and react with this kind of idiocy. I say this as one of the intelligent minority (oops...).

1 comment:

Prince Roy said...

Brian Doherty has never adjudicated visas, apparently. Blaming visa woes on increased 9/11 security concerns is largely bunk. It takes literally seconds to clear 98% of visa applicants for security purposes.

And his note about businesses unable to get visas for their employees ignores the other (main) side of the story: oftentimes, these employees wait until the last minute to apply, two weeks or less before they need to be in the US. 9/11 has nothing to do with the delays--exponentially increasing numbers of visa seekers combined with limited resources at embassies and consulates do.

And he should look at other places for the fall (if any, this is debatable) of applicants to US universities. #1: cost. A US education is increasingly expensive and uncompetitive as tuitions rise due to federal and state budget deficits. #2: US universities do a piss poor job of marketing overseas. By comparison, schools of the UK and Australia carry out very aggressive activities, at least here in India. Not so for the US. Still, there are more foreign students in the US now than ever before. And India just replaced China as the biggest single source, with over 80,000 per year.

Finally, the biggest problem with student hopefuls: we are required by law to consider them as intending immigrants; the burden is squarely on them to prove otherwise. Anyone with experience in the field will confirm that very few students from developing countries return home after completing their studies in the US.