I was hanging out last night some more with Francis, my new Brazilian friend. He was telling me about how after living here for three years, he'll become legal and be well on his way towards European citizenship. He asked me what the US's policy is. You know, like how long does after you arrive in the country illegally do you become legal? Or how do you get in legally? Or can you go to school/college if you're illegal? I realized that despite all the recent debate on the topic, and my personal interaction with many Mexican immigrants through Habla, I have no idea what the current state of US immigration policy is.
Francis just could not comprehend, no matter how I tried to explain the complexity of American politics and rhetoric and geographic isolation and terror-inspired xenophobia, how difficult is it to immigrate into a country that itself consists of immigrants averaging only a few generations.
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it's incredibly difficult to get citizenship. basically our country has a highly xenophobic, terrorist-paranoid immigration policy. and we're losing foreign students at a ridiculous rate because they can't get student visas. this is obviously the saddest part about the situation because there are so many people around the world who got their education in the US and know what a wonderful country it is. there won't be another similarly pro-american student generation until our policy changes.
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