MetaFilter posts tagged with Immigration

IQ and the Nativist Movement

MisantropicPainforest — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:46:18 -0800

Jason Richwine has resigned from the Heritage Foundation. Richwine is the author of a the Heritage report, "The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer." In 2009, Richwine earned his doctorate from Harvard University, and his dissertation was titled "IQ and Immigration Policy", which argued that Hispanic immigrants have lower IQ than white native immigrants. Heritage has responded: "The dissertation was written while Dr. Richwine was a student at Harvard, supervised and approved by a committee of respected scholars. The Harvard paper is not a work product of The Heritage Foundation. Its findings do not reflect the positions of The Heritage Foundation or the conclusions of our study on the cost of amnesty to U.S. taxpayers, as race and ethnicity are not part of Heritage immigration policy recommendations." A member of Richwine's dissertation committee, George Borjas, responded: "“I have never worked on anything even remotely related to IQ, so don't really know what to think about the relation between IQ, immigration, etc,” Borjas told me in an email. “In fact, as I know I told Jason early on since I've long believed this, I don't find the IQ academic work all that interesting." Scholar of immigrant identies and fellow Harvard-PhD holder, Diego von Vacano: "I am stunned by the lack of rigor and intellectual depth evinced by Richwine’s dissertation. The work makes extremely simplistic assumptions about “race,” immigration, and the link between IQ and genetics. Even a neophyte in matters of genetics/genomics can see the gaping holes in Richwine’s logic." More: INFIGHTING: Conservatives Bash Heritage Immigration Study And interview with Byron York. Why Did Harvard Give a PhD for a Discredited Approach to Race and IQ?

Abuela, did you ever figure out how to stay in love?

bilabial — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:59:31 -0800

I have found the spoken word poetry of Denice Frohman. I bring her to you. She's from NYC and works in Philadelphia. The first performance I stumbled on was Dear Straight People from her preliminary performance at Women of the World Poetry Slam 2013. Weapons, also from this year's Women of the World. She won the championship. This is the finals. The editing is terrible, but she comes on at 7:16. And the other ladies are also awesome. Abuela (do you remember you yet?) An anti littering campaign on local Philadelphia news in 2010 she speaks about raising awareness. Gangsta Poetry from 2009. She is active in the Philly Youth Poetry Movement. And at Tedx Philly she and Gregory Corbin ask how we can encourage young people? Denice also recently performed at an immigration rally. I lost it when she said "like proper has a sound." And that's when I knew I had to make this my first post on the blue.

Made-for-TV moment

Catchfire — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:30:45 -0800

On Wednesday, dozens of armed Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) agents raided several construction sites in Vancouver, Canada looking for undocumented workers. The raids struck many foreman as excessive, especially when, in one case, they were looking for two specific workers who were quickly located. And then they discovered the CBSA was accompanied by reality-television filming crews.

The Pinky Show: Our Goal is to always be learning new information...

ovvl — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:31:29 -0800

Pinky & Bunny are cute little kitties who live in the Mojave Desert. Their friends are Mimi & Kim (and sometimes grumpy old Daisy). They like to make videos about contemporary issues with a progressive view. Bunny died on Jan 25, 2013. "Oh wait. Did I mention it's hosted by a cartoon cat with an annoying monotone voice? Well it is." Selected moments: The Pinky Show Trailer Encounter on Radical Education: Cats in Slovenia! We Love Museums... Do Museums Love Us Back? (Kim speaks). How to Solve Illegal Immigration (Daisy speaks). (not to be confused with Pinky and the Brain, which is something else).

No Lawful Status

Secret Life of Gravy — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:20:34 -0800

Coming this summer: North Carolina [will be] the only state that will clearly mark all people who are not U.S. citizens – everyone from business executives with “green cards” to students on visas – with a newly designed driver’s license. However, Republicans are trying to block the issuing of driver's licenses to immigrants who have qualified for a two-year reprieve from deportation. Those immigrants have been deemed by the federal government and the state attorney general’s office as being lawfully present in the U.S. Why is this happening now? For the first time in more than a century, North Carolina has a Republican governor, a conservative majority on the state Supreme Court and Republicans controlling both legislative chambers. Other recent proposed or passed legislation of interest: The harshest cuts in unemployment benefits in the country. Making female nipple exposure a felony punishable by imprisonment. Firing all the members of the states' regulatory bodies, including all the members of the Utilities Commission, the Coastal Resources Commission, the Environmental Management Commission, and the Wildlife Resources Commission.

Full Stop

roomthreeseventeen — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:48:35 -0800

"We wait for the economy to improve, DOMA to go away, the passage of UAFA, anything to finally allow us to live peacefully in the US near our family. We wait for our time to join those who are fighting for our families." The DOMA Project and why LGBT and HIV Equality Is at the Heart of Immigration Reform Immigration Equality's Statement on President Obama's immigration reform plan Marco Rubio Doesn’t Want Immigration Reform to be a Gay Rights Issue The Effect of DOMA on Binational Couples

Why have the white British left London?

iffley — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:32:45 -0800

"With a time-lapse camera, it would appear that London is pulsing as generations and ethnic groups move up and move out." The BBC reports that something quite remarkable happened in London in the first decade of the new millennium. The number of white British people in the capital fell by 620,000 - equivalent to the entire population of Glasgow moving out. Insightful analysis from Mark Easton, especially concerning the story of Dagenham and the effect of the Ford motor plant over the last few decades.

Announcement of the government of Canada

bdz — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:04:56 -0800

To deter abuse, Canada’s refugee system has changed.
People who have arrived with groundless claims for asylum are removed faster (then before).

The Government of Canada has started a billboard campaign in Miskolc, Hungary's third biggest city, to inform people about the changes of its immigration law. (Many who previously immigrated to Canada used to live in this city and its surrounding area.)

Also, two Global News reports from Canada:

The Outsiders. The harsh realities of being a Hungarian Roma refugee in Canada.

(Previously)

Yearning to Breathe Free

chavenet — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:07:25 -0800

President Obama called on Congress, in a speech today in Las Vegas, to advance an immigration overhaul that includes a plan “that finally deals with the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are in this country right now.” We’ve got to -- we’ve got to lay out a path, a process that includes passing a background check, paying taxes, paying a penalty, learning English, and then going to the back of the line behind all the folks who are trying to come here legally, that’s only fair. All right? So that means it won’t be a quick process, but it will be a fair process and it will lift these individuals out of the shadows and give them a chance to earn their way to green card and, eventually, to citizenship. Though he didn't mention it in the speech, Administration officials said that in contrast with the Senate framework, the president will call for immigration benefits to be extended to same-sex couples when one person is an American. The complete transcript of President Obama’s remarks on immigration on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Migration flows across the world

ocherdraco — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:09:53 -0800

Peoplemovin illustrates the migration flow in and out of the countries of the world. Click on a country's name on the left to see its emigrants stream to countries on the right; click on a country on the right to see where its immigrants come from. Click in between the country lists to see information on top migration origins and destinations, and the largest migration corridors.

"Where are the Africans?"

infini — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 01:08:04 -0800

A Liberian-American reflects on the experiences of Africans who have moved to the United States, a growing community that accounts for 3 percent of the U.S.'s foreign-born population.

That's me in the corner

MuffinMan — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:37:34 -0800

The findings for England and Wales from the 2011 British Census have now been released. The BBC provides a handy guide to changes by area while The Guardian has a neat infographic and a set of Top 10 Charts. The headlines: The UK has more immigrants, especially from India, Poland and Pakistan and most clearly in London and the South East. In 2011 13% (7.5 million) residents of England and Wales were born outside the UK; in 2001 this was 9% (4.6 million). Data England and Wales have become more ethnically diverse. The White ethnic group accounted for 86.0% of the usual resident population in 2011, a decrease from 91.3% in 2001 and 94.1% in 1991. Data Fewer people describe themselves as Christians. Between 2001 and 2011 people who identify as Christian fell from 71.7% to 59.3% and an increase in those reporting no religion rose from 14.8% to 25.1%. Data Women have become more important in the labour market. The Census estimates that there are 602,000 more people who are employed than the Labour Force Survey (LFS) indicates. Most of the observed differences are for women, with the Census estimating that there are 538,000 more economically active women than the LFS and 272,000 fewer economically inactive women than the LFS. Data Notable points: The resident population in England and Wales was 56.1 million in 2011, a rise of 3.7 million from 52.4 million in 2001. Married people are now in the minority. The number of people renting from a private landlord has nearly doubled in 10 years. There are 8,259 Jedis in Wales and 176,632 across the UK. There are 1,893 Satanists, 2,400 Scientologists and 7,906 Rastafarians. Fewer than 1 in 5 people in Wales are Welsh speakers. Boston, Lincolnshire, has the highest proportion of Eastern Europeans. Oxford has the most agnostics. Four out of five people said they were in good or very good health. But Wales, where a quarter of adults are unqualified, dominates the poor health league. 84,000 people consider themselves Cornish, more than double the figure for 2001. More than 1m people identify as mixed race. Some quirks of the survey: Blackpool is the divorce capital. Kensington is a hub of miners. Rushmoor, Hampshire has the most Buddhists. More than a quarter of people in the Isles of Scilly do not have central heating, apparently. Islington has the most singletons. King's Lynn has a lot of caravans. People work hard in the Lake District. A third of people in Blaenau Gwent, southeast Wales do not travel abroad. Norwich is godless. People in South Buckinghamshire have the most cars.

Who writes this crap?

marienbad — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:36:57 -0800

The 4th Estate corrects its numbers - "That journalism struggles with racial diversity is old news, but a study released on Thursday by The 4th Estate tried to quantify the magnitude of the problem. The organization released an infographic showing that, among the 38 most influential newspapers in the country, 93 percent of front-page articles about the 2012 election were written by white reporters. The infographic received a host of coverage." "The 4th Estate first released its findings in an infographic titled, “Bleached: Lack of Diversity on the Front Page.” The study broke down stories according to election issue to show that white reporters dominated coverage across every topic, writing 91.1 percent of front-page stories on the economy and an overwhelming 98.2 percent of stories on immigration. Friday’s graphic, with the relatively tamer title, “Newsroom Diversity: A Look at Diversity on the Front Page,” has whites writing 86.6 percent of stories on the economy and 94.8 percent of stories on immigration."

My love is a fever, longing still for that which longer nurseth the disease

Phire — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 23:33:58 -0800

"I don't see anything anti-American about not wanting to become an American citizen; it's similar to the fact that I don't know how to swim. I'm not anti-water; it just never mattered that much to me and my life is fine without it." Why I'm Still Not An American, an essay from a British green-card-holder with complex roots and complex feelings.

Sat Sri Akal, Sardarji

infini — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 03:58:48 -0800

The history of the Sikh Diaspora in USA and Canada goes back to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 1897. Emerging as a casteless alternative to the ongoing Hindu Muslim wars in India, the Sikhs have always been known as a martial tribe, their prowess and courage respected by the British and others alike. Colloquially addressed respectfully as Sardarji, the men take Singh (lion) as their middle name while the women bear the name Kaur (princess). This custom further confirmed the equality of both genders as was the tradition set by the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak. The first Sikh Organization was The Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society organized in the spring of 1912. Later in that year they purchased a house in Stockton to serve as a Gurdwara. A second Gurdwara was established in El Centro in 1948. They participated fully in the revolution to free India from British along with the Ghadar(Revolution) party. Early Sikh immigrants had to face legal, social, economic and even physical barriers to material success. They were not allowed to bring their spouses from Punjab, and if they married an American citizen, she would lose her citizenship by such marriage. The Aliens ineligible for citizenship could not buy, own, or lease agriculture land. Most of the Sikhs started life in America as farm laborers, many of them finally became landowners and successful farmers. In 1956, Dalip Singh Saund became the first East Indian born person to be elected to the US House of Representatives. In the 1940s, Saund helped launch a successful effort to convince the U.S. Congress to pass the Luce-Celler Act of 1946, which granted naturalization rights to Indian immigrants (then sometimes referred to as "Hindus"). Thus began the next era in history for Americans from the subcontinent - Governer Nikki Haley of South Carolina is Sikh.

They actually talk - face to face.

gimonca — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 05:30:32 -0800

Why do the Somali men congregate on the sidewalks downtown? Royal Ross, from the downtown business association for Faribault, Minnesota, a small town just outside Minneapolis, answers the question for you. The very short answer: everything's just fine.

The Dream

roomthreeseventeen — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 07:44:49 -0800

President Barack Obama's administration will reportedly announce Friday that it will stop deporting and grant work permits to nearly 1 million immigrants who entered or remained in the United States. The policy change, described to The Associated Press by two senior administration officials, will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. It also bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the so-called DREAM Act, a long-sought but never enacted plan to establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the United States illegally but who have attended college or served in the military.

Better man the barricades, I'm coming in tonight

mattdidthat — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:18:52 -0800

EcoAlberto Park in El Alberto, Mexico, offers a unique experience: participating in an illegal border crossing. VICE Magazine filmed the trip.

The Irish in Latin America

Kattullus — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:42:30 -0800

The website of the Society for Irish Latin American Studies is full of information about Irish migration to Latin America. It's divided into four sections: The Homeland, about the origins of the settlers; The Journey, about how the Irish settlers traveled to Latin America, including the infamous Dresden affair; The Settlement, about the lives of the Irish in Latin America; Faces and Places, which has biographies of a wide variety of people, Mateo Banks, family murderer, Camila O'Gorman, executed lover of a priest, William Lamport, 17th Century revolutionary and Bernardo O'Higgins, Chilean independence leader, who gets a whole subsection to himself. There is also a list of Irish placenames and much else of interest to history nerds.

"What appears as discipline or “tough love” from one perspective often appears as abuse from another."

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:50:30 -0800

On Tiger Moms: "What the controversy surrounding Chua demonstrates, however inadvertently, is that parenting techniques are always grounded in basic assumptions about the way things are and what matters to us. And they are always guided by some answer to the most fundamental of ethical questions—how to live?" Via The Point Magazine, and, previously on Metafilter, Amy Chua's original article: Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

Arizona bans government funding of Planned Parenthood.

fragmede — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:53:02 -0800

Arizona leads with another ground-breaking move after their immigration bill. A bill that prevents "abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving public funds" has passed into law, says CNN. (Planned Parenthood lists 14 health centers in Arizona.) Meanwhile, a federal appeals court ruled that "Texas cannot ban Planned Parenthood from receiving state funds" for now, says the AP, so this latest move by Arizona may not go unchallenged.

"You can see it's not selling very well."

BobbyVan — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:30:59 -0800

The US Supreme Court today heard arguments in the case of Arizona et al vs. United States, which concerns the role of states in enforcing federal immigration law. Two years ago this month, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law SB 1070, considered by many to be the toughest anti-immigration law in the country. In an ensuing outcry, the legislation was called racist and its backers nativists, with several groups organizing boycotts against the state of Arizona. According to news accounts of the proceedings, "Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared inclined to uphold a controversial part of Arizona’s aggressive 2010 immigration law, based on their questions on Wednesday at a Supreme Court argument." But while judges did not appear to find constitutional problems with immigration status checks during routine stops, "the justices also said they were troubled by parts of the Arizona law that made it a state crime for illegal immigrants to not carry documents or seek work." [Transcript of today's argument.] The lead attorneys in the case will be familiar to those who followed the arguments over the Affordable Care Act: US Solicitor General Donald Verilli and Paul Clement. Previously on Metafilter.

Crisis Contrived

caddis — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:24:10 -0800

Most of what we think about Mexican immigration is wrong. If Congress had done nothing to secure the border over the last two decades — if it had just left the border alone — there might be as many as 2 million fewer Mexicans living in the United States today, Massey believes....

“Not only was the militarization of the border not a success,” Massey argues, “it backfired in the sense that it transformed what had been a circular migration of male workers to three states [California, Texas, and Illinois] into a much larger, settled population of families living in 50 states.”

The End of a Wave

Defenestrator — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:09:06 -0800

"Net migration from Mexico to the United States has come to a statistical standstill, stalling one of the most significant demographic trends of the last four decades." The full report from Pew Research Center. This interactive map [NY Times] puts America's many historical immigration trends in perspective. (previously).

"Will the last Mexican out of California please turn out the lights? That will be me."

neroli — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:41:47 -0800

The Deep Comic Roots of 'Self-Deportation' In last Monday's Republican debate, Mitt Romney announced that he supported an idea of "self-deportation," in which illegal immigrants would voluntarily return to their homelands. The concept was mocked by Newt Gingrich and called a "fantasy" in a Washington Post editorial. Yet the idea garnered conservative support: "'Self-deportation' Is No Joke" proclaimed one editorial. Except, actually, it is. The term was apparently coined back in 1994 by conservative Hispanic activist Daniel D. Portado...who is a fictional character created by Mexican-American satirists Lalo Alcaraz and Esteban Zul.