What is it about?
This paper makes a statistical case for the importance – to immigrants, their families and their communities – of immigrants being able to advance in status, to naturalization. It juxtaposes this analysis, with a review of the administration’s policies that make it impossible for many immigrants to secure status, permanent residence and citizenship. [If all of the current administration's policies pass legal scrutiny and are implemented, it will be far more difficult for large percentages of would-be citizens to naturalize]. The paper also shows that the current legal immigration system, which is heavily weighed to family-based immigration, actually produces skilled workers at roughly the same rate as the native-born population. The paper also argues that the US citizen children of undocumented residents do not enjoy the full legal protections, benefits and rights of citizenship. The overall theme is that America First is an anti-citizenship ideology. It puts many disfavored Americans, including citizens, last.
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Why is it important?
The paper exhaustively documents how at odds recent US policy developments have been to a healthy immigration system that advances qualified immigrants to permanent residence and citizenship, a process which (it shows) benefits immigrants, their families, and their communities. Instead, the current administration's policies have created significant new impediments to "moving forward" in status, and treat the US citizen children of undocumented persons, among other populations, as second-tier citizens.
Perspectives
The paper documents one of the major trends in US immigration policy, the full-throttled efforts to deny qualified persons legal status and citizenship to the detriment of the country.
Mr Donald Kerwin
University of Notre Dame
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Putting Americans First: A Statistical Case for Encouraging Rather than Impeding and Devaluing US Citizenship, Journal on Migration and Human Security, December 2019, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/2331502419894286.
You can read the full text:
Resources
"Trump's 5-Point Plan for Impeding Legal Immigration"
This article -- which outlines "Putting America First" -- juxtaposes the benefits of status, permanent residence and citizenship, with the administration's initiatives to block the path to naturalization, particularly for low-income, working class persons. It begins: "As a nation, we have historically celebrated the long, often arduous journey immigrants take to achieve United States citizenship. The promotion of citizenship – which holds the possibility of full membership in our constitutional democracy – has been a goal of successive administrations, and for good reason. A recent study by the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) shows that policies that allow immigrants to advance to more secure and permanent statuses, culminating in naturalization, benefit immigrants, their families, and the nation as a whole."
"A Personal Reflection on Hope in a Time of Crisis"
This blog references the administration's response to multiple humanitarian crises, including the impediments it has established to legal status, permanent residence and naturalization, as set forth in "Putting America First." It explores sources of hope at a time of crisis.
Contributors
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