Immigration

Immigration is defined as “the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country” Many years ago in our country and many others, immigration was needed to increase the population, expand the economy, and take hard working jobs. We live in a country where nearly everyone’s ancestry can be traced back to an immigration story, whether they came from Ireland during the potato famine, from Germany to settle in cities such as Cincinnati, or from Asia to become rich in the California gold rush, it is an undeniable fact that immigration is part of us. But, in today’s world, it seems that immigration and immigrants have taken on a negative connotation as it has in years past. In reality however, extensive studies have shown that immigrants
The simple answer is there is no “line” in the United States. There are generally three ways that a person can reside in the United States on a temporary or permanent basis. Employment, family reunification, or for humanitarian protection. For an immigrant to come to the United States on employment purposes, they must already have a job lined up with an employer. They must also meet the requirements of certain job skills and education and only if the employer cannot find a natural born U.S. worker to take the job. The requirement for permanent residence gets even harder, requiring high levels of education and professional experience in that particular field. Because of the lack of experience and opportunities available in developing and poorer countries like Mexico this is often not an option and only available for those usually of the upper-class in strong economic countries. The next option is family-based immigration. This is when a family member residing in country seeks to come join another family member in the U.S. Natural born citizens of the U.S. can petition to bring their spouses, parents, children, or siblings while Lawful Permanent Residents, those admitted through a green card, can only petition for spouses and children. For some categories, there are always visas available, but for others there is limit to the amount eligible to come in every year. This means that after this quota is filled, there is no more room left and the rest are put on a backlog. The last option is for those fleeing their countries from fears of persecution based on race, religion, membership of a social group, political opinion, or national origin. Every year, the United States sets a limit to the number of refugees that can be accepted into our country, a low number that our current president has threatened