Texas welcomes wealthy Mexican immigrants, rejects working class undocumented

[1776Forever]

Thursday, April 7, 2011
Weekly Diaspora: Texas Excludes Low-Income Latinos from Census, Expedites Visas for Wealthy Mexican (5:57 pm)

By Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger

http://www.theittlist.com/ittlist/ind/5958/weekly_diaspora_texas_excludes_low-income_latinos_from_census_expedites_vis/

Newly released census figures show that the Latino population in the United States surged by 43 percent in the last 10 years, comprising 50 million people. According to New America Media’s Nina Martin, this marks the first decade since the 1960s when the number of Latino births exceeded the number of immigrants. But, the increase notwithstanding, it seems that a sizable portion of the Latino population may not have been counted at all....

Texas redistricting discounts Latino population

In large part because of high Latino population growth, in fact, Texas is set to gain four new congressional districts—and the battle over their geographic make-up has already begun, notwithstanding the exclusion of several hundred thousand Texans....

By contrast, only 2 percent of the 11,000 Mexicans who have sought asylum from cartel violence gained entry into the United States, according to the Texas Observer’s Susana Hayward. Del Bosque adds that “Mexicans who invest $500,000 or more in a company that creates at least 10 jobs can obtain U.S. residency in a matter of months,” thereby avoiding the growing immigration case backlog in the United States. (As of February 2011, the average waiting period for immigration cases was 467 days—a 44 percent increase since 2008.)

It’s a stark reminder that the escalating furor over immigration reform is as much about class as it is about race, nationality or culture.

..........

This is a very informative article and I suggest you read it all. It will be very interesting to see where this goes in the future.

[WatsonT]

1. The focus was on the rich versus poor angle there

but not the legal versus illegal. That is an important distinction.

Also, most countries put professionals before unskilled laborers when it comes to immigration. Canada does it, as does every European country I've looked in to. It makes sense. This isn't the 1800s, we aren't struggling to find cheap labor to fill our factories.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Indeed, wealth or skills is a common criteria

[Nevernose]

5. And there arent many skills that 1st world nations need from us

My wife and I have been looking at getting the hell out for a while now, but finding a decent country with the kind of sociopolitical stability I desire plus a culture that is familiar enough that my teenage daughter is willing to go has not been easy. We might be able to pull off the Alberta tar sands and apply for citizenship after a few years.

But England? Hah! Unless you're an "entrepreneur" (code for "rich") or have an extremely specialized Ph.D, they're not hiring. We were actually offered jobs in Asia and in the Middle East, but the corruption of one and my daughter's desire to not be raised in a culture even more misogynistic than our own put the nix on that. Plus there's the issue of retirement.

Between the two of us, my wife and I speak four languages (English, French, Spanish, and Chinese, plus I can curse fluently in Yiddish if the situation ever arises), and have three and a half Master's degrees -- you'd think we'd be able to find something, right?

Oh, well. In another couple of years my kid will be off to college and I can go wherever I want. I'll even still be young enough to join the Peace Corps, if the tea party hasn't completely dismantled it as some sort of Kenyan plot to conquer the world.

[dkf]

3. Uh yeah. Immigration requires sponsors so the American taxpayers don't have to foot the bill.

Why would we want people who will be a drain on the rest of us? It's one thing to take care of our own, which we don't do a good job of anyway, and another to take on everyone else's care.

[jwirr]

4. But they only reject the workers after they finish their work. Then and

only then are they sent back.

[Edweird]

6. Fine by me. Come here and spend your money instead of driving my wages down.

[aikoaiko]

7. Seems to me the difference is between legal and illegal immigration.

But yes, it is easier for the rich to attain legal residency than the poor.