The Dream Act

A recent survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation studied the public opinion for the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act is a federal legislation that would provide undocumented students brought to the U.S. as children with the opportunity to earn permanent legal status upon meeting certain requirements.

The results from the survey showed 70% of Americans favor the DREAM Act an increase in support compared to results from a similar 2004 poll which placed public support at 58%. Perhaps another small step a more peaceful strategy towards the immigration issue. Would you support this act?
For more detailed report: DREAM Act report

After all is said and done..

This week for class we are giving a 5 minute presentation on our topics, my being Immigration. We must present from our topic is anything we learned from our experience and research. And it got me thinking well after researching and reading polls focusing around laws, views, and variety of effects immigration has on a country, what truly have I learned about immigration? And for the longest time I was having a hard time choosing what I was going to discuss. Until I found my answer after editing my paper. That first immigration is inevitable, that all countries deal with the migration of different cultures. And what I learned is how this issue is compared across states. Going through how different countries are being viewed by their desirability, the graph below is one of the ones I'm going to use in my presentation. 

Coming of Age: Between Two Worlds

America is known for being a melting pot. From the Pew Hispanic Research Center recently released a new study "Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America is an article covers how Hispanics are the largest and youngest minority group in the United States. To break down this statement, think of it this way, 1-in-5 school children is Hispanic. 1-of-4 newborns is Hispanic. We are looking at the next generation of the young minority group who will in one way or another help shape America in the coming 21st century. But wait there's more.

The following report focuses on Hispanics who are between the ages of 16 to 25 in which the path to adulthood is starting to becoming a clear path, from high school, college, and setting out into the "real world."

Unfortunately for them they are caught between two 'real world' or two different cultures, in which they live in America  yet they are Latin American. The report covers the attitudes, values, social behaviors, family characteristics, economic well-being, educational attainment and labor force outcomes of this next generation. In the graph below shows the survey done by the Pew Hispanic Research Center survey.

The article goes more into depth of the findings but basically the data gives a mixed picture. While the young Latinos are satisfied with their lives and optimistic about their futures; they are still much more likely than other American youths to drop out of school and become teenage parents.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center's National Survey of Latinos, more than half (52%) of Latinos ages 16 to 25 identify themselves first by their family's country of origin, be it Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador or any of more than a dozen other Spanish-speaking countries. An additional 20% generally use the terms "Hispanic" or "Latino" first when describing themselves. Only about one-in-four (24%) generally use the term "American" first.
It focuses on the issue of Identity and Assimilation: This nation has a history of immigration assimilation, its more than economic or social dimensions it also has a psychological dimension. Over the course of several generations immigrant family loosens its sense of identity of their old world and binds to the new one. When divided amongst cultures it is easy to loss sense of being caught between keeping the old traditions yet learning the new ones. What do you think?

If your interested in reading more here is a link for a full report: Between Two Worlds

America a land of unfulfilled dreams?

In a recent released Gallup study of U.S. Hispanics showed a result of 1 in 7 or  an estimated 4 million U.S. Hispanics would migrate permanently if given the opportunity. With about 2 million adults saying they would move to countries such as Mexico (32%), Canada (8%), Spain (8%), and the United Kingdom (5%) shown below is the graph of Hispanic adults in the U.S. whom are mostly likely to move permanently.

 

         The results were based on interviews conducted in 2009, focusing on U.S. Hispanics born in the U.S., born outside the U.S., U.S. overall, and finally Latin America overall. What was interesting to see was the U.S. Hispanics born in the U.S. of those who would like to migrate was 12% but for U.S. Hispanics born outside the U.S. responded with 18% would like to migrate. Which raises the question, "If America is having such an issue of a high percentage of people wanting to immigrant into America, why have some already given up on the dream?"

        

From the research Gallup has come up with some potential answers. First potential migrants who are less integrated are worse off economically.  Meaning for those who have been born outside of America are caught between two worlds, in which they are only comfortable with other Hispanics, feel more discriminated against, and who also don't speak English very well. 

       

Which causes the second problem of affording healthcare for themselves and their families. And while they live in the land of the free U.S. Hispanics who would like to migrate feel as though they are not enjoying the benefits, and are ready to give up on the dream in order to move somewhere new for other opportunities. What do you think?

For more information: Four Million U.S. Hispanics Would Like to Migrate Permanently

Also if you would like to complete a survey contact: SocialandEconomicAnalysis@gallup.com

President Obama reaches out to the Youth through MTV

On Thursday Oct.14th President Obama addressed the nation's youth during "A Conversation With President Obama,"  a live broadcast which aired commercial free on MTV, BET, and CMT.

President Obama touched on many divisive policy issues such as 'don't ask, don't tell', health care, and immigration. One of the audience members actually stood up and told her story of the complications surrounding legal immigration:

"An audience member, who moved here from Colombia as a teenager, got emotional when speaking about how her three-year wait for a green card is complicating her ability to see her 92-year-old grandmother for "a last time." In response to her story, the president explained his administration's efforts to streamline legal immigration for people with the potential to greatly contribute to this country"

President Obama responded by saying there is controversy in confronting the issue of accelerating the process of legal immigration while also curbing the stream of potential terrorists from overseas and securing the  U.S.'s southern borders from violent gangs. But it is a focus of his [President Obama's] team to find solutions in order to make the experience of coming to the States a faster process to citizenship. What do you think? Can a fast process to citizenship exist without bureaucracy tangling up the process and is it in the best interest in America to find one soon?

If your interested in seen the video you can watch the initial address here: "A Conversation With Obama"
Here he addressing Illegal Immigration: "President Obama Discusses Illegal Immigration" 
Another address which is better quality: "Obama Speaks on Issue of Immigration"

Youth vs. Brains

From Gallup recently released this study which focused on the amount of youths migrating to different countries and comparing their numbers to the amount of educated persons also migrating. One of the studies looked at different percentages of developed regions whom are more likely to attract younger people than educated people. Australia overall have the highest potential net migration at 155%, with Youth having the highest percentage at 271% v. the 186% potential net brain gain index. Potential Net Migration Index created by Gallup is three indexes to gauge the likely changes to the population if people who say they would like to migrate permanently actually move where they want. Higher the score the larger potential for net population gain. But another interesting result showed that the US is more likely to attract the less educated with Canada ranking highest in both net brain potential and youth. What do you think? Would you rather have more brain or youths and is this important for countries to consider when thinking of tightening borders?

Immigration Reform: 1 on 1 really getting to the issues

Today in one of my classes we had a speaker, named Sonny Garcia, come in who works for Illinois People's Action. He wanted to share some of his insight on what it was like to be a part of an organization set on empowering those with no knowledge of their rights and doing something about it. The speaker was an former student of ISU and actually organized marches during the 2006 Immigration Reform was at the peak height of interest. Since then he became a part time organizer for Illinois People's Action telling us about what it was like going to community to community asking leaders within the Latino community was some main issues were. That by going around the community doing one on one interviews he was able to first establish the main issues ailing the community. From there he taught us that by first educating, creating situations of 'what it so and so changed' and through empowerment small changes occurred within the community. He noticed that while education, health care, jobs, and police with racial profiling all of these issues were symptoms of a broke down immigration reform problem. What do you think? Is America creating more issues for itself by having such a strict Immigration Reform?