Immigration policy and known unknowns
Monday, 11 January 2010
Fazal M. Kamal
EVEN though the flow of immigrants to the United States has slowed down considerably post 9/11, primarily due to the tightening of restrictions and to some extent because of the global recession which has hurt the world's largest economy deeply, immigration continues to remain a live and sensitive point---and in some quarters an inflammatory one---on this nation's agenda. It's likely to take a livelier tone sometime this year as the time for comprehensive immigration reform legislation nears.
In the meantime somewhat imperceptibly and, with an eye on the upcoming policy reforms, without any fanfare some of the more stringent immigration enforcement strictures of the past administration are being relaxed. Last month, for one instance, the Obama administration quietly announced that it would overturn one of the harsh immigration enforcement measures enacted by the Bush administration following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
All of this---the present relaxation of the harsher strictures as well as the forthcoming reform legislation on immigration---will affect people coming from all across the world including, naturally, Bangladesh. As in many other countries Bangladeshi immigrants contribute in huge numbers to the economy as a whole and particularly to the foreign exchange earnings and foreign currency reserves of the country both of which have attained record figures in recent times.
US immigration policies, of course, have altered radically from the days this country became independent. The first naturalisation act made being white a condition of gaining citizenship. Consequently, as Ellis Cose writes, the courts heard cases from would-be white people who appeared something else. "In 1922," adds Cose, "a Japanese national who had lived in the United States for 20 years told the Supreme Court that most Japanese hailed from Caucasian 'root stocks'…Next year, a high-caste Hindu claimed he too was white. The justices found him no more persuasive (than the Japanese)."
Be that as it may, from this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said, those who arrive in the United States fleeing torture or persecution abroad will no longer be received with incarceration. Instead, many of those seeking protection will again be permitted to live freely in the country while an immigration judge considers their applications for permanent asylum, according one report.
This step reportedly is the latest in a string of little-noticed initiatives by the DHS to reconsider some of the most controversial enforcement policies of the Bush era. The administration in August launched an overhaul of the immigration detention system, which had grown out of control as the number of detainees doubled in just five years to more than 440,000 annually. Some of them were simply lost in the system, a report states, while others fell ill and died due to poor medical care, and the Obama administration has promised to stop such abuses.
Among other such initiatives the government has largely stopped workplace raids that resulted in the arrest, deportation and even criminal charges for many unauthorised workers. The raids that were intended to warn companies which hired unauthorised persons, according to studies, mostly just hurt the workers themselves. The DHS has also curbed the authority of state and local police forces to demand immigration documents from anyone stopped for minor offenses like traffic violations, saying that such checks should be done only for those jailed on criminal charges, particularly for serious criminal offenses.
Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations says that now the Obama administration is focusing on expanded audits of the paper trail that companies must keep on their workforce. Arrests and deportations of workers are down, but large fines against the companies are up, providing strong incentives for them to maintain a legal workforce. Though, Alden continues, "this is hardly a benign approach…but it marks a departure from the Bush policy of summarily jailing and deporting any unauthorised workers arrested in the raids."
There is little doubt that over the years the United States, like many other countries, has benefited from the inflow of migrants---from menial work to innovations and inventions. Speaking to Inter Press Service, Jeni Klugman, director of the Human Development Division of the United Nations Development Program, underscored that migrants, low- as well as high-skilled, made a positive contribution to the host country's economy. But evidently not all are in agreement on that point and, therefore, immigration persists as a fiercely debated issue.
The recent initiatives taken by the US government are only first steps, states New America Media, and President Obama's administration "is still facing criticism from its own liberal allies that it is simply continuing the Bush administration's enforcement policies. Indeed, by any of the hard measures---detentions, criminal prosecutions, deportations, the number of Border Patrol agents---there has been no softening of the toughest immigration enforcement campaign in recent U.S. history." Still, Edward Alden concludes, "the changes in the last year are significant, even if they are as yet little recognised. Indeed, the administration itself has not made much effort to advertise the new measures. With the tough fight looming ahead next year on comprehensive immigration reform, it is easy to understand why."
Hopes and prayers
In his address to Parliament in the New Year President Zillur Rahman said that the great challenge for the Bangladesh government now is to materialise the dream of the charter for change of the ruling Awami League. He declared, "We have to overcome this challenge by our united efforts. The political practice should be changed first if the dreams of Charter for Change are to be realised. There should be an end to politics of conflict."
Besides he underlined the fact that opposition members in Parliament "should also play a suitable role in the process of national development and take part in policy formulation and thereby in the process of achieving the Charter for Change. We have to come out of the practice of 'oppose for the sake of opposition'."
On the same day addressing the Third International Environmental Conference opposition leader and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia urged the government to create a national consensus on protecting the environment, and demanded enactment of relevant laws and stringent neutral implementation of those. "Environment is not any party's unilateral agenda, rather it is linked to our national existence. So I am urging to form national unity at least on this issue. We are ready to provide all sorts of cooperation," she added.
With these two declarations as the backdrop it is worth wondering if the government will take some tangible initiatives to begin the process of bringing into reality its avowed goals as enunciated in its Charter for Change. Because without any substantive actions mere pledges and promises are only words without any significance. For the sake of the present and future of the nation the people will certainly continue to hope that concrete measures will be undertaken to create a shared vision, at the very least on some issues.
However, as we know from experience nothing can be taken for granted. In this context it maybe pertinent---and it becomes yet more relevant now given the result of a recent survey which does not appear to tally with ground realities in the country--- to quote the former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when he in effect said that the US administration of the day had no idea what it was doing by invading Iraq: "As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there're some things we do not know. But there're also unknown unknowns; the ones we don't know we don't know."
Let us all pray.
EVEN though the flow of immigrants to the United States has slowed down considerably post 9/11, primarily due to the tightening of restrictions and to some extent because of the global recession which has hurt the world's largest economy deeply, immigration continues to remain a live and sensitive point---and in some quarters an inflammatory one---on this nation's agenda. It's likely to take a livelier tone sometime this year as the time for comprehensive immigration reform legislation nears.
In the meantime somewhat imperceptibly and, with an eye on the upcoming policy reforms, without any fanfare some of the more stringent immigration enforcement strictures of the past administration are being relaxed. Last month, for one instance, the Obama administration quietly announced that it would overturn one of the harsh immigration enforcement measures enacted by the Bush administration following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
All of this---the present relaxation of the harsher strictures as well as the forthcoming reform legislation on immigration---will affect people coming from all across the world including, naturally, Bangladesh. As in many other countries Bangladeshi immigrants contribute in huge numbers to the economy as a whole and particularly to the foreign exchange earnings and foreign currency reserves of the country both of which have attained record figures in recent times.
US immigration policies, of course, have altered radically from the days this country became independent. The first naturalisation act made being white a condition of gaining citizenship. Consequently, as Ellis Cose writes, the courts heard cases from would-be white people who appeared something else. "In 1922," adds Cose, "a Japanese national who had lived in the United States for 20 years told the Supreme Court that most Japanese hailed from Caucasian 'root stocks'…Next year, a high-caste Hindu claimed he too was white. The justices found him no more persuasive (than the Japanese)."
Be that as it may, from this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said, those who arrive in the United States fleeing torture or persecution abroad will no longer be received with incarceration. Instead, many of those seeking protection will again be permitted to live freely in the country while an immigration judge considers their applications for permanent asylum, according one report.
This step reportedly is the latest in a string of little-noticed initiatives by the DHS to reconsider some of the most controversial enforcement policies of the Bush era. The administration in August launched an overhaul of the immigration detention system, which had grown out of control as the number of detainees doubled in just five years to more than 440,000 annually. Some of them were simply lost in the system, a report states, while others fell ill and died due to poor medical care, and the Obama administration has promised to stop such abuses.
Among other such initiatives the government has largely stopped workplace raids that resulted in the arrest, deportation and even criminal charges for many unauthorised workers. The raids that were intended to warn companies which hired unauthorised persons, according to studies, mostly just hurt the workers themselves. The DHS has also curbed the authority of state and local police forces to demand immigration documents from anyone stopped for minor offenses like traffic violations, saying that such checks should be done only for those jailed on criminal charges, particularly for serious criminal offenses.
Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations says that now the Obama administration is focusing on expanded audits of the paper trail that companies must keep on their workforce. Arrests and deportations of workers are down, but large fines against the companies are up, providing strong incentives for them to maintain a legal workforce. Though, Alden continues, "this is hardly a benign approach…but it marks a departure from the Bush policy of summarily jailing and deporting any unauthorised workers arrested in the raids."
There is little doubt that over the years the United States, like many other countries, has benefited from the inflow of migrants---from menial work to innovations and inventions. Speaking to Inter Press Service, Jeni Klugman, director of the Human Development Division of the United Nations Development Program, underscored that migrants, low- as well as high-skilled, made a positive contribution to the host country's economy. But evidently not all are in agreement on that point and, therefore, immigration persists as a fiercely debated issue.
The recent initiatives taken by the US government are only first steps, states New America Media, and President Obama's administration "is still facing criticism from its own liberal allies that it is simply continuing the Bush administration's enforcement policies. Indeed, by any of the hard measures---detentions, criminal prosecutions, deportations, the number of Border Patrol agents---there has been no softening of the toughest immigration enforcement campaign in recent U.S. history." Still, Edward Alden concludes, "the changes in the last year are significant, even if they are as yet little recognised. Indeed, the administration itself has not made much effort to advertise the new measures. With the tough fight looming ahead next year on comprehensive immigration reform, it is easy to understand why."
Hopes and prayers
In his address to Parliament in the New Year President Zillur Rahman said that the great challenge for the Bangladesh government now is to materialise the dream of the charter for change of the ruling Awami League. He declared, "We have to overcome this challenge by our united efforts. The political practice should be changed first if the dreams of Charter for Change are to be realised. There should be an end to politics of conflict."
Besides he underlined the fact that opposition members in Parliament "should also play a suitable role in the process of national development and take part in policy formulation and thereby in the process of achieving the Charter for Change. We have to come out of the practice of 'oppose for the sake of opposition'."
On the same day addressing the Third International Environmental Conference opposition leader and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia urged the government to create a national consensus on protecting the environment, and demanded enactment of relevant laws and stringent neutral implementation of those. "Environment is not any party's unilateral agenda, rather it is linked to our national existence. So I am urging to form national unity at least on this issue. We are ready to provide all sorts of cooperation," she added.
With these two declarations as the backdrop it is worth wondering if the government will take some tangible initiatives to begin the process of bringing into reality its avowed goals as enunciated in its Charter for Change. Because without any substantive actions mere pledges and promises are only words without any significance. For the sake of the present and future of the nation the people will certainly continue to hope that concrete measures will be undertaken to create a shared vision, at the very least on some issues.
However, as we know from experience nothing can be taken for granted. In this context it maybe pertinent---and it becomes yet more relevant now given the result of a recent survey which does not appear to tally with ground realities in the country--- to quote the former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when he in effect said that the US administration of the day had no idea what it was doing by invading Iraq: "As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there're some things we do not know. But there're also unknown unknowns; the ones we don't know we don't know."
Let us all pray.