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 Editorials | Opinions | June 2006 
U.S. Should Alter Criteria for Citizenship
 Conor Fridersdorf - sbsun.com
| | The grave at the Arlington West cemetery of Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus A. Suarez del Solar, killed in action in Iraq by a US cluster bomb. A native of Tijuana, Mexico, Suarez immigrated to the United States with his family in the late 1990s. |
With Memorial Day weekend just passed, it is worth remembering all those American military personnel who have fought and died for our freedoms. Among them are many immigrants.
Roughly 30,000 noncitizen immigrants are active members of the military today. At a time when immigrants are routinely criticized for failing to assimilate or lacking loyalty to their adopted nation, it is heartening to honor those newcomers who've pledged their lives to protecting American interests.
We all owe them our thanks.
In recent years, servicemen with green cards have been eligible for citizenship immediately. It's a path to citizenship everyone should be able to get behind, one that should be expanded to all immigrant troops who want to take the oath of citizenship for the country they serve.
It's unfashionable these days to assert that immigrants who particularly benefit the United States should receive a leg up, but I favor expanded incentives that go beyond the military. It's already easier to immigrate to the United States if you're an exceptional athlete or scientist.
But why not privilege any immigrant who passes a moderately difficult English-fluency test in their home country? Why not privilege any immigrant who demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of American history and civic practices? I'd like to see bustling schools in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Manila, Philippines, where would-be immigrants are studying split infinitives and the Federalist papers to quicken the day they're given their legal papers. The cost of administering tests overseas is well worth an immigrant population that speaks our language, understands our values and demonstrates a willingness to sacrifice to attain citizenship.
An advantage also could be given to foreign citizens who advance U.S. interests abroad. Iranian dissidents opposing their regime's nuclear armament are helping the United States as surely as Air Force strategists deciding whether a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities is possible. It might be counterproductive to cherry-pick anyone doing good work abroad, taking them away from that work by encouraging their immigration here. On the other hand, rewarding those who do a decade's good work by allowing them to immigrate quickly might encourage many of their compatriots to take up the same work.
All these ideas are predicated upon the belief that an immigrant isn't just an economic actor, an attitude that too many people on both sides of the immigration debate take these days.
Sure, a temporary guest-worker program might be a net economic benefit if executed correctly. But since when is economic efficiency all we care about? Would you rather have an immigrant who produces $5 of economic benefit per day for the United States, speaks only Spanish and never votes, or an immigrant who produces $1 of economic benefit every day, speaks English fluently and thinks long and hard about the best Congressional representative to elect for the job? I'd take the latter immigrant every time, but I suspect that many people who favor President Bush's guest-worker program think differently.
Roughly four decades ago, President Kennedy admonished Americans, ``ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country.'' New immigrants, upon hearing the same admonishment, could be forgiven for thinking that they can give their country low-wage labor and not much else. Securing that labor is the driving force behind our immigration policy. A ``path to citizenship'' is based on proving employment, not proving patriotic loyalty or social assimilation.
That's a shame.
This country should be asking immigrants to learn our language and embrace our values, requests that signal we want to respect newcomers as equals rather than use them to make widgets more economically.
Conor Friedersdorf manages The Sun's blog on immigration issues. The blog, designed to provide a forum for opinions and information on immigration, is at www.beyondbordersblog.com. |
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