Immigration in the US

Research, Links and Notes on terms used in the US

‘Alien’ as a term for immigrants

Naturalization test
The words:

Naturalization:
“admit a foreigner to the citizenship of a country” alter a word so it conforms to the language it’s being brought into. Etymology - from the word natural - by birth (1559) admit (an alien) to rights of a citizen

(http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=naturalize)

Naturalize - “to introduce (organisms) into a region and cause them to flourish as if native”

Natural - normal, ordinary, everyday, established, customary, innate, native (antonym - abnormal, exceptional)

Alien
Used to have resident alien cards, now US Permanent Resident Card (Green Card)

Definition
Belonging to another person, place or thing: strange
Foreign
From another world
Extraterrestrial
Differing in nature or character
Foreign born resident who has not been naturalised
A person, animal or plant from another family, race or species

Etymology - 1300-50 - Latin alienus (foreign, strange) from alius (other, another, someone else) - similar to alias Meaning ‘of another planet’ first recorded in 1944 -> Though this is relatively recent, it is still the meaning that most people have in their mind. Politically correct?

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=alien

Save
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (To see if immigrants can be granted benefits)
-> Advert for the system - sells it as a commodity

Various things
Alien registration number - on green cards

Motto inscripted on the Great Seal of the US... E Pluribus Unum - out of many, one

“Nearly 190 million people, about 3% of the world’s population, lived outside their country of birth in 2005” NY Times

E-verify - online process which verifies that people are legally allowed to work - database is full of inaccuracies which could lead to American citizens being denied jobs.

Green Cards

What Does the Law Say?

Section 264 of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides that, "Every alien in the United States … shall be issued a certificate of alien registration or an alien registration receipt card in such form and manner and at such time as shall be prescribed under regulations...." It also states, "Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him.... Any alien who fails to comply with [these] provisions shall be guilty of a misdemeanor" and may be subject to fine and/or imprisonment upon each conviction. The specific requirements and procedures for applying to replace a permanent resident card are included in the Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] at 8 CFR § 264.5.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=763fad861a41e010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=4f719c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD

Seems like quite a strict law - possible to be guilty of a misdemeanor for not carrying the card

• Cards issued prior to 1977 - no expiration date (recalled)

• Cards issued between 1977 - (Resident Alien Card) 1989 also no expiration but only recently removed from circulation

http://www.visaportal.com/images/resident_alien_card.jpg

• Since 1989 - (US Permanent Resident Card) expiration date, renew every 10 years, more secure card (presumably reason for reissue)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/GC_Altered.JPG

Information contained on a Permanent Resident Card

• Name
• Alien Number
• Date of Birth
• Category
• Sex
• Country of Birth
• Expiration Date
• Resident since
• Finger Print
• Photograph

LEGISLATION

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.f6da51a2342135be7e9d7a10e0dc91a0/?vgnextoid=fa7e539dc4bed010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=fa7e539dc4bed010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&CH=act

INA: ACT 222 - APPLICATIONS FOR VISAS

INA: ACT 232 - DETENTION OF ALIENS FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EXAMINAITON 1/

INA: ACT 236 - APPREHENSION AND DETENTION OF ALIENS

INA: ACT 262 - REGISTRATION OF ALIENS IN THE UNITED STATES


I just heard the politically correct term for an illegal alien is an "undocumented immigrant", isn't that like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"?
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/557735


Be careful in using illegal or alien, because both are offensive and require certain knowledge of this fact [She gets half a point for that. “Illegal immigrant” is libellous where it’s untrue, and where there’s a law of libel.]. It is better to avoid these negative terms, but use undocumented and without a passport if necessary.

Alien
Do not use to describe someone who has entered the country illegally. [Because it might offend legal aliens?]
Illegals, illegal aliens
Offensive terms for people without a passport, visa, or other legal document that entitles them to visit, work, or live in this country.

But it must be heartbreakingly complicated to be politically correct: “It is important to remember that Spaniards are not Latinos.”
http://www.vdare.com/fulford/how_to_write.htm


How to Report Illegal Aliens and Still Be Politically Correct
Aren't aliens from outer space?
Illegal aliens is a term that most Americans use, but many prefer not to because of how it sounds. Frequently, when talking about illegal aliens people will say, "I hate that term." Well, there are several acceptable ways to discuss people who are in the U.S. illegally. Also, many illegal aliens eventually become U.S. citizens and we should treat these people with respect.
http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_4994918_illegal-aliens-still-politically-correct.html?cr=1


"Illegal alien" is a pejorative term that dehumanizes people. The National Hispanic Journalists Association has
urged media organizations to stop using the phrase:

Many find the term offensive and dehumanizing because it criminalizes the person rather than the actual act of illegally entering or residing in the United States. The term does not give an accurate description of a person's conditional U.S. status, but rather demeans an individual by describing them as an alien. At the 1994 Unity convention, the four minority journalism groups -- NAHJ, Asian American Journalists Association, Native American Journalists Association and National Association of Black Journalists -- issued the following statement on this term: "Except in direct quotations, do not use the phrase illegal alien or the word alien, in copy or in headlines, to refer to citizens of a foreign country who have come to the U.S. with no documents to show that they are legally entitled to visit, work or live here. Such terms are considered pejorative not only by those to whom they are applied but by many people of the same ethnic and national backgrounds who are in the U.S. legally."
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/143358/retailers_dump_offensive_%22illegal_alien%22_halloween_costume%3B_meanwhile_fox_calls_it_%22fantastic%22/


A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term "illegal alien" from the state's official documents.
"I personally find the word 'alien' offensive when applied to individuals, especially to children," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "An alien to me is someone from out of space."
She has introduced a bill providing that: "A state agency or official may not use the term 'illegal alien' in an official document of the state." There would be no penalty for using the words.
In Miami-Dade County, Wilson said, "we don't say 'alien,' we say 'immigrant.'"
http://rightwingnews.com/mt331/2007/02/banning_the_term_illegal_alien.php


National Association of Hispanic Journalists

Furthermore, an estimated 40 percent of all undocumented people living in the U.S. are visa overstayers, meaning they did not illegally cross the U.S. border.

In addition, the association has always denounced the use of the degrading terms “alien” and “illegal alien” to describe undocumented immigrants because it casts them as adverse, strange beings, inhuman outsiders who come to the U.S. with questionable motivations. “Aliens” is a bureaucratic term that should be avoided unless used in a quote.
While Webster's first definition of the term "alien" is in accordance with the government's interpretation, the dictionary also includes other, darker, meanings for the word, such as “a non-terrestrial being," "strange," "not belonging to one," "adverse," "hostile." And the Encyclopedia Britannica points out that "in early times, the tendency was to look upon the alien as an enemy and to treat him as a criminal or an outlaw." It is not surprising then that in 1798, in anticipation of a possible war with France, the U.S. Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which restricted "aliens" and curtailed press freedoms. By 1800 the laws had been repealed or had expired but they still cast a negative shadow over the word.
In modern times, with science-fiction growing in popularity, "alien" has come to mean a creature from outer space, and is considered pejorative by most immigrants.
Illegal alien
Avoid. Alternative terms are "undocumented worker," or "undocumented immigrant."
http://www.nahj.org/nahjnews/articles/2006/March/immigrationcoverage.shtml



Immigration Cartoons

Various Satirical Cartoons Above

Kevin Kallaugher cartoon

These are satirical political cartoons and although they are out of context, it is fairly reasonable to assume that they were originally produced for a newspaper or political magazine. This, straight away, gives the work a context and thusly a suggestion of a general political alignment. This particular cartoon was produced by an artist named Kevin Kallaugher for ‘The Economist’ which is an international news magazine that has been deemed liberalist and supports ideas of globalisation and immigration. It is a cartoon that uses the building of the wall along the US/Mexico border to comment generally on the US immigration policy, shown by the heading “America’s attitude toward immigration in a nutshell”. The main aspect that they wish to put across is that the policy is confused and somewhat ineffective. It is confused as they wish to prevent illegal immigration and limit immigration as a whole by placing numeric values on the numbers of various types of people that are allowed into the country. However, at the same time they are demanding workers from all levels, more so than than the US can provide, and while this is the case they rely on immigrants to fill these positions. Moreover, the way the US tries to tackle the issue actually does quite the opposite. They assume that people are leaving their countries because they are disadvantaged and uninhabitable, so they invest money into their economies. This results in more jobs for women as they are more suitable for the jobs assembling small parts and so there are many men that become prime candidates for emigrating. Also, as the women begin to get older, they are replaced by younger women and so they too have more of an impetus for leaving. This collective of newly redundant people then naturally emigrate to places which have links to their countries, and they are countries within the US zone of influence, they are a likely target for these people. This cartoon makes light of how the US have these policies which mean that they want to reduce the amount of people moving there, but at the same time desperately want these immigrants to do various jobs that they don’t have the American workers for. This is made clear with a caricature of Uncle Sam, who is used here as a personification of the US government, telling the Mexican immigrants to stay out while requesting that they help build the wall to prevent them from emigrating.

Another area where the US has some fairly contradicting policies over immigration is in their positive approach to globalisation. They want to take part in a global exchange of trade, capital and technology amongst other things, but have a polar view of immigration as they are willing to lift border controls in the case of capital flow, but impose tighter and tighter restrictions on immigrants as it is a case of control and regulation.

A much more general reason that the American policy on immigration seems to be somewhat unreasonable is that they are a nation of immigrants. Their roots are rich and varied, but “each group of arrivals, once established, has fought to keep newcomers out”. So while they are a nation derived from many different groups, something they remain proud of, they do not want to see further immigration which in some respects seems to be hypocritical.

With this in mind, it is clear to see how it is possible to become quite passionate about the topic, and others like it, and it is natural to want to find an outlet for this view. Producing work such as this is making a clear statement of your political position which is interesting as making such a declaration is something that would potentially affect subsequent projects that you should choose to take part in. This is as such, as newspapers and magazines of a conservative persuasion may not want to employ a cartoonist who has made clearly liberal work in the past. Furthermore, a number of these cartoons are fairly negative in their critique of various governments which poses more issues over future employers as it would potentially alienate you from the possibility of carrying out any visual work for government bodies. However, in making this type of imagery, the artist is professing strong views and therefore is not likely to want to produce work that is against what they believe were they approached by a publication or body with opposing views.

This is a particularly necessary issue to give thought in such a case as work like this has clear ownership, and while it has been published by a separate body, usually these cartoons have the name of the author attached to it and often it will be a regular slot in a the publication. In this way, the artist will begin to accumulate a reputation for such work and it is difficult to move away from this.

The exception to this idea of an artist or designer deciding what work to do based on their principles is where their motivation is not values or ethics, it is their desire to create work and earn money, whatever the situation they are faced with. It is, therefore, extremely necessary to decide what your own guiding motivation is and to what extent you would abandon your own views to produce work and earn a living.