Markulas wrote:I'm curious to know what everyone believes citizenship should be based on? Should we allow immigrants into our borders? How many many? For what reasons? Is the citizenship test too difficult (although they are changing it)? Can you pass the citizenship test? What does it mean to be a citizen? etc.
Well, I think it's important to keep immigration and citizenship separate.
I'm torn on the criteria we should employ for immigration. I'm in favor of a relatively open immigration policy, in keeping with the history of the United States as an immigrant nation where people can come to seek opportunity. But at the same time, I understand that many would-be immigrants have trouble assimilating, whether due to cultural differences, linguistic differences, unemployability, or other reasons. I also understand that we want immigrants to benefit the nation as well as using it (ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you and all that). So a balance needs to be struck.
I'm in favor of the employment and education visas that we grant, although these are typically temporary. If someone wants to come here to learn from an institution that wants to teach them, or to work for an organization who wants to employ them, I'm all for it.
I also want people to be able to move to the United States simply because they want to come here (within reason, of course). There's a serious incentive issue, though. Those immigrants who do have the linguistic, cultural, and functional skills to easily assimilate into American society tend to come from other advanced Western nations. These nations share many of our best features: fairly high standards of living, well functioning economies, political stability and security. Thus, citizens of these nations don't have huge incentives to emigrate. Citizens of impoverished nations do have strong incentives to come here. However, they also lack the ability to easily assimilate. I do not think that ease of assimilation should be a test as to whether a person can come to America or not, however, the factor does deserve some consideration.
I think that in general I would say:
Folks with technical expertise in the field should assess how many immigrants America is capable of handling. We should then permit that many immigrants, allowing us to be as welcoming as is reasonably possible.
Some significant percentage of these slots should go to those who have valid work/educational/family reasons for wanting to come to America (that is, they have some connection beyond just "I want to live there.") These people should receive priority.
The remaining slots should be given to those who simply want to live in America. Experts should study the consequences of divvying up these slots in various ways, and should eventually choose a division which allows reasonable opportunity for everyone from first-world Europeans to third-world Africans. Race, religion and culture should not be taken into account, but cultural factors (which I understand can sometimes be a proxy for race religion and culture) should be taken into account to a certain extent.
As for citizenship: Those who are legally in the United States should have a straightforward path to obtaining citizenship. That's not to say that citizenship should be automatic or easy to obtain, but the process for getting it should be clear and transparent. A significant residency requirement should exist, along with basic familiarity with America, in terms of history and civics and so forth. Productivity should be taken into account. Someone seeking to become an American citizen should be doing something, whether that something is holding a job, raising a family, performing philanthropy, whatever. The person should demonstrate that their presence here yields a positive contribution. The individual seeking citizenship should also demonstrate that they're capable of getting by in America. This does not require speaking English, but the skill might be very helpful. Basically, the would-be citizen should prove that they're capable of accomplishing basic tasks like acquiring and preparing food, abiding by American laws and regulations, finding a place to live, and so forth. The way that the country works shouldn't be alien to them.
So:
1. Let in as many immigrants as practical.
2. Give priority to those who have connections with America.
3. For those without connections, achieve an equitable distribution between geographic, cultural, and economic backgrounds.
4. Grant citizenship to those who reside legally for a substantial amount of time, are familiar with the country, are contributing to the country, and are capable of getting by in the country.
As Somali suggested, Funkmasterr and Midnyte might want to look up the difference between "alien" and "citizen."
