My thoughts on Immigration

Submitted by: Dhara Shah

The major reason people emigrate from their homelands is better future aspects such as better financial stability, better working hours and better living standards. Despite all these opportunities, there are many issues that immigrants face while trying to obtain the equality in their status-quo. Some of these issues are different visa levels, job insecurities, racial discrimination, language problems and cultural barriers that each and every immigrant has to cope up with.

Initially, all immigrants face cultural clashes and have difficulty in communication since English is not their first language. Moreover, everything seems different, if not new – the attire, the weather conditions, the transport system, the traditions, mannerisms, language pronunciations. There is a lack of awareness and knowledge of how the system works which adds to their anxiety and uncertainty to deal with situations. Adjusting with these new situations can be drastic for many as they feel uprooted from their homeland and miss their near and dear ones. They feel homesick and alienated from the outside world. Most of the times, they experience difficulty in assimilating with the group since it is natural that people from same nationality often form their own private groups and are conversing in their local languages making it difficult for the other immigrant to enter that group.

The topic of immigration is very close to me since I have experienced the trauma of it. As a personal experience, I would like to share it with you.

I am an immigrant from India. My fiancé came here three years back, finished his master’s degree, got a job and now is on H1 – B visa. (Work visa). After marriage, I will be on H-4 visa (dependent on H-1 visa). This visa does not allow me to work anywhere legally in the United States. I am not allowed to do my family business nor do I have a right to start any new business in the US since I am not granted a work permit. From what I have been told, I cannot even do any kind of voluntary work.

I have seen many married women on H-4 visa, who are basically home makers, who get bored at home- unemployed and lonely … waiting for their husbands to return home after a day’s work. They are the same women who are well educated, independent and working back in their home country. Sadly, even their degrees are not valid in the US education system or to put it blatantly, you need a US degree if you want a US job.

Hence the only choice left with them to earn decent money is to invest more money into their education. (No wonder, the US economy earns $ 1.2 billion every year from the education fees of the immigrants!!) Hence they have to pursue a Master’s or an equivalent degree (in most cases re-do it) for at least a year and then get into the job market.

I did not want to be a victim of the US system and to avoid this scenario, I came to US as a regular student on F-1 visa (despite having a double master’s degree) to study MS in Human Resource Management and after finishing my course, I shall start job hunting just like other students.

Also, while choosing the field of study, the immigrant students like me might have to compromise on their choices. Say, someone from China or Japan or India wants to pursue education as their career but everywhere I went, the only answer I got was that not only would it be difficult to get a job but there are practically nil chances of getting a work visa sponsored from any educational institute. And without work authorization, the immigrant loses its very purpose of immigrating to a new country.

But there is more to it; immigrants have to struggle harder than the US citizens to get the same job title as many companies and institutions would prefer only green card holders or US citizens for their positions like aerodynamics, bio-medical fields, defense, military and genetics amongst many others. Apart from the secrecy issues, the companies do not prefer to hire immigrants as they shall have to bear the cost of sponsoring the H-1 visas.

Hence, many immigrants land up doing menial tasks and highly underpaid jobs at gas stations, provision stores, motels, bakeries, cleaning beauty salons or waiting upon tables in restaurants. You see huge crowds of people every morning at places like Home Depots where people come with only one hope- work… They are ready to do any job for a meager amount of money. With the economic recession looming at large, they prefer to have some income rather than go home with empty hands and starved stomachs.

And for illegal immigrants, the situation is even worse. They cannot legally sign a lease or rent an apartment, cannot have an access to bank accounts and are not eligible to get any kind of insurance. Even after getting an underpaid job, there is no guarantee that they would be paid for their work done because if the employer does not pay them, what can they do?? They cannot report the employer to the police as without any documents, they have no basis to fight for their rights. They constantly live in the fear of getting deported to their home country. Many a times, they do not approach a doctor for diagnosing their illness only because they are afraid that they might not be treated because there are no official records in the US health department; not to mention that they cannot afford the exorbitant fees of the doctors. These immigrants can never visit their home country again because if they do, they will not be able to enter the US again and hence they end up losing touch with their families, friends and relatives. They also face the risk of losing their cultural heritage and not passing the age old traditions to the next generations. Their children will never be able to understand the significance of their traditions, will not read and write their mother tongue and would always be psychologically and emotionally distant from their homeland and their relatives residing therein.

It is not that ALL immigrants enter the US illegally. They have been permitted legally into the country, they pay as much taxes as any other US citizen and yet they do not have an equal right in jobs, casting votes or other regular state benefits.

For instance, people on H-1B immigration are legal immigrants and hence they have work permit. But they can work for any one employer only. I.e. source of income should come only from their primary employer. They are not allowed to invest in any other business (except stock markets) or work for multiple employers. Also, most of these employees are “at-will” employees meaning they can be hired and fired with a good reason or even without a reason by their employers at any time. All other employees also face the risk of getting fired anytime but unlike citizens, immigrants’ do not get unemployment allowance from the government and if they fail to get a new job within a month, their work permit is revoked. Hence, it is not just a question of job security but also a question of staying legally in the US.

Due to this reason, the green card holders and permanent residence are sought after since they have more opportunity to get a job than the immigrants, have greater job security and access to all state benefits. Immigrants from India, China, Canada, Mexico and Philippines face a major problem in getting their green cards approved. The approximate time duration to get the green card may be prolonged anywhere between 5-10 years, not to mention the tedious and the lengthy paper work. Unbelievable and ridiculous as it might sound, but to acquire a legal status in United States, illegal immigrants fake marriage with a green card/US citizen holder in the visa consulate and even trade enormous amount of money to get that legal status!!

Immigrants often face racial discrimination. One of the major reasons for racial discrimination is that the US citizens feel that the immigrants replace their job positions. But this is not always true. In fact, the US economy actually gets a boost by the immigrants since the immigrants contribute $ 10 billion every year to the US economy.

Also, there are so many immigrants who have established start ups and founded huge corporate giants and created thousands of jobs for people across the country. To name a few - Google, Yahoo!, e-bay, nvdia, Sun Microsystems were all start ups by immigrants. The Silicon Valley, the IT hub of the world is the major factor fuelling the US economy in its hard times and is practically run by the immigrants. This is not because they have replaced the jobs of US citizens but because the US do not have enough skilled man power to do the IT and computer jobs.

All said and done, there is no denying that US is a great country. On a positive note, if you are a legal immigrant and you succeed in getting a decent job, the financial growth in US is undoubtedly better than anywhere else. You have a chance to save more amount of money than you will probably earn in your home country. The standard of living and the lifestyle is much better than most of the other countries. In developing countries like India, there are no holidays on weekends and the employer expects you to work sometimes even on Sundays, in some cases without an overtime. The job timings are stretched from 12-14 hours and the incentives are not that high.

The working conditions in US (infrastructure, personal space, access to best technology) is far better and the job timings in many cases are quite flexible provided you finish your assigned task and submit it before deadlines. Unlike the developing countries, the work environment is very conducive and people are constantly encouraging and appreciating the good work done by you. The country gives respect to anybody who does his/her work with commitment and dedication, no matter how big or small the task may be.

However with my views given, for immigrants I would say that – It is true that America is a land of opportunities but I am not sure if it gives “equal opportunities” to ALL …