Immigration and citizenship
Mike Munger links to a New York Times article on the Dutch response to Muslim immigrants and rightly calls it interesting but grim reading. Read that article first. There are two parallel points I would make to responses in the United States to immigrants from Latin America.
First, crime is very low among first generation Latino immigrants (even undocumented) but it can grow with subsequent generations, particularly if people feel marginalized. There is no easy answer to this, but current state laws that essentially transform Latinos into targets for police will backfire.
Second, there was a very poignant quote that relates directly to efforts in the United States to deny citizenship to people born in the country to undocumented parents:
In the United States, citizenship once granted is never questioned, said Mr. Overbeek of VU University. “But in Europe it’s never quite established, no matter how long you’ve been here. Here it’s still, ‘When did you get here, and when are you going back?’ ”
East of Amsterdam, in Almere, the youngest city in the Netherlands, 30 percent voted for Mr. Wilders.
Shopping in the city center, Raihsa Sahinoer, 24, born here of Surinamese immigrants, was not surprised. “Wilders says we all have to go back even if we were born here,” she said. “It’s not only about Muslims, it’s about colored people, too.”
She lives as the Dutch do, she said. “But they tell us if you’re colored, you’re not Dutch.” Does she feel Dutch? “No,” she said, then paused, then asked: “What is Dutch?”
Denying citizenship (or looking at Latino citizens warily simply because of how they look or talk) will certainly make things worse. The more you pass laws to marginalize people, the more resentful they will become. And as more marginalized people become resentful, there is greater opening for neo-fascist ideas to popularize (and perhaps take violent form).
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This is the favorite for Gamblers and Bettors to be Republican Nominee :
Rick Perry : "We must say to every Texas child learning in a Texas classroom : we don’t care where you come from, but where you are going, and we are going to do everything we can to help you get there. And that vision must include the children of undocumented workers"
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Rick Perry continues : "That’s why Texas took the national lead in allowing such deserving young minds to attend a Texas college at a resident rate. Those young minds are a part of a new generation of leaders, the doors of higher education must be open to them. The message is simple: educacion es el futuro, y si se puede"
TownHall.com
Rick Perry: Secure the Border, It's a War Zone
By Katie Pavlich
August 15, 2011
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/08/15/rick_perry_secure_the_border,_its_a_war_zone
Some excerpts :
However, as Tom Tancredo pointed out in a recent Politico Op-Ed, Perry may have a strong border security stance, his illegal immigration policy stances are questionable.
When I ran for president in 2008, I tried to pressure the Republican candidates to take a hard line against illegal immigration. For this, Perry called me a racist.
When he first took office as governor in 2001, Perry went to Mexico and bragged about his law that granted “the children of undocumented workers” special in-state tuition at Texas colleges, the first state in the nation to do so.
“The message is simple,” Perry concluded, “educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.” Education is the future, and (echoing Cesar Chavez’s slogan) yes we can.]
Just a few weeks ago, Perry defended his decision to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. He said “to punish these young Texans for their parents’ actions is not what America has always been about.”
Perry opposed Arizona’s tough anti-illegal immigration law SB 1070. “I have concerns,” he explained, “with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas.”
He spoke out last year against using E-Verify to prevent illegal immigrants from getting jobs as state employees, who get their paychecks from the taxpayers. He insisted it “would not make a hill of beans’ difference.”
Numbers USA, a group that supports immigration control, gives Perry a “D-“ for his positions supporting amnesty, open borders, and opposing border security.
And Kerry Picket of the Washington Times asks: Do Conservatives Want Perry's DREAM Act too?
In the midst of a number of conservatives believing Governor Rick Perry, Texas Republican, is the GOP's answer to taking on President Barack Obama, squishy aspects of Mr. Perry's background are being overlooked. As a border state governor, Mr. Perry signed state immigration law in 2001 known as the Texas DREAM Act. Here is an excerpt from a speech Governor Perry gave during the border summit in August of 2001:
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