The President Speaks on Fixing America's Broken Immigration System

[Spitfire of ATJ]

[LittleGirl]

1. Tears

I am a grandchild of immigrants and married to an immigrant. "We were all strangers" hit me hard. Why?

Because I'm immigrating to an European country right because we could not find peace in America. All we could see was job insecurity and hate of those "strangers" and my immigrant spouse and I decided we should leave now. Before he lost another position over downsizing, restructuring and corporate greed. We gave it 5 yrs and I have tears because gridlock in Congress is the status quo and that's what the this awful government wants. Their hated knows no other way and we said...

F* it. We left.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. Can't say I blame you. I know someone from South Africa who is thinking of going back....

She said there is more freedom there. Plus you can't be black like her and walk the street after dark from the bus stop after work without fear of assault, rape or murder from either a carload of racist bastards or the cops in this country.

[LittleGirl]

4. That's downright pitiful

I feared road rage and open carry gun nuts but damn...that's just sad. I wish her well.

We just wanted a work/life balance so that we wouldn't lose our savings just trying to survive. We're a decade away from retirement and feared that another job loss would force us to use up our meager savings so close to retirement. If we were 30 yrs old, we would have stuck it out but we're not.

[GreatGazoo]

2. When I stayed in a hotel in Canada recently, there was a magazine in every room

encouraging readers to immigrate to Canada. Articles on how to start the process. Lists of jobs to be filled. Feel good pieces about other immigrant families enjoying the standard of living, education and opportunities of Canada. At Pearson there were more than 30 lanes for processing incoming immigrants and families were sprawled on the floor waiting their turn. The officer who checked my passport coming into Canada was a woman in a hijab. Canada actively recruits the best immigrants and is set up to process them.

What a difference.