Strollerderby : immigration

Girl Forced to Choose Between Parents and Country

KeriF — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:03:00 GMT

Here's a gut-wrenching decision most of us will thankfully never face. When her parents were deported, 13-year-old Noriko Calderon was forced to choose between them and her home country of Japan, the place she has lived her entire life. Japan is the only home she has ever known, its language the only one she can speak, its customs the only ones she understands.

So did Noriko leave her home to follow her parents, or choose to stay behind without them?

"Japan is my homeland," Noriko said, explaining her decision to stay in the country and live with an aunt.

Noriko's parents, Arlan and Sarah Calderon, illegally emigrated to Japan from the Phillippines in the early 1990s. They married and had Noriko, all while living in Japan illegally. Their case has garnered widespread attention in the country, as people watched the couple's legal battle all the way to the nation's top court, which finally ruled that Noriko's parents could not stay in the country.

Supporters of the Calderons argue that Japan's strict immigration laws violate human rights. Be that as it may, the Calderons knew the law when they entered Japan (they got in using fake passports) and still chose to raise their daughter there. They knew the risks. Presumably, the Calderons believed that Japan offered better opportunities for them and their daughter. And in that sense, they at least partially succeeded: Noriko was raised in Japan and will continue to live in that country, at least until she is 18.

Japanese law prohibits the Calderons from returning for five years, though they have applied for a special waiver to return after one year. If they don't get the waiver, Noriko won't see her parents until she turns 18.

What would you do if you were Noriko?

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Kid to Malia Obama: Save my Dad

JeanneSager — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:27:00 GMT

His letters to her father weren't working, so a Brooklyn fifth grader set his sights on President Barack Obama's daughter, ten-year-old Malia.

Tween to tween, child to child, Chigozie Okorie asked President Obama's eldest daughter to help keep his father from being deported to Nigeria.

The letter, handwritten by the fifth grader, begs Malia to bend her father's ear on behalf of Okorie's dad, a Nigerian immigrant who spent eighteen months in prison twenty years ago on drug charges (he was the driver for a heroin ring in 1989). Chibueze Okorie, now forty-seven and a respected member of his Brooklyn community, where he is a minister who works with prisoners to help them re-enter society at the end of their sentences.

A federal law passed in 1996 targets all immigrants who have commited crimes for deportation - no matter the severity of the crime, no matter their current status. Okorie's name came up during the crackdown on illegal immigrants under President George W. Bush. His request for a pardon made big news last year when a pardon lawyer wrote to then-President Bush "This might sound racist, but [the applicant] is about as honest as you could expect for a Nigerian. Unfortunately, that's not very honest." The lawyer, Roger Adams, was canned for his racist remarks, but Bush took his advice - he denied Okorie's request for clemency.

Now Okorie is facing imminent deportation - and separation from his ten-year-old son, a United States citizen, after more than two decades of living in here and becoming a productive member of society. His son's letter congratulates Malia Obama on her father's election as president and notes that he's happy she and her sister have found a new school. He hopes their mom will have time to help them with their homework like his father does with him.

The senor Okorie is hoping that the appeal of a child to a father will help his cause. "A good father will understand the need of his child," he told the NY Daily News. "It is the need of my son to see me get the pardon so that I can be free to continue to take care of him."

I admit a bias here - my biggest gripe with the plight of illegal immigrants is the word "illegal." Regardless of what kind of life you are escaping, if you came here illegally, you still have that abuse of the law to contend with - and face. If they came here legally, however, I don't see why the government can't work with them - especially when there are children involved. And Chigozie Okorie did come here legally. He's hit his stumbling blocks, but he's more than made up for his mistakes. Is there any legally born American who can say they've never made a mistake? Is there any legally born American who can say they would take being separated from their child lying down?

I don't know that it's up to Malia Obama to speak to her dad about this; I'd hope for the children's sake that the Obamas keep their girls separate from these kinds of letters - if only because they're so young and explaining all of these issues is so complex. But I'd hope the president himself gets hold of this letter and takes a look at all the issues, and thinks not just as president but as a parent.

Image: NY Daily News

Woman Gives Birth on Airplane, Abandons Baby in Airport

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:02:00 GMT

A sad and strange story out of New Zealand: authorities there are reporting that a pregnant Samoan woman boarded a flight from Apia to Auckland last week and gave birth while on-board the plane. While early rumors suggested that the infant had been found in the airplane lavatory, it's now reported that the newborn was fond in a trash can in the airport in New Zealand's largest city. The baby and mother are both now reported healthy, in the hospital.

How was a heavily pregnant woman allowed to board a plane, in violation of both airline and national regulations? And was the woman, reportedly a member of a group of immigrant workers who regularly arrive from Samoa for seasonal agricultural work, so in need of mone that she couldn't afford to stay home and give birth? Was she seeking the New Zealand citizenship most Samoans are denied (even though the law changed in 2006 and no longer grants citizenship by birth alone)?

We'll probably never know. But let's hope the mother and child are able to recover from this bizarre beginning to their life together.

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Should Schools Separate Non-English Speaking Kids?

JeanneSager — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:29:00 GMT

At first blush, I would have said separating non-English speaking kids from their English speaking peers at school is a segregationist tactic that hinders the chances of immigrant children from success.

But a New York Times story that follows kids at the Cecil D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., begs the question - if kids can succeed separately, wouldn't throwing them in with English-speaking kids be the real hinderance to academic success?

The story follows a group of kids in the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) program at Cecil D., kids from a host of Latin and South American countries plus China, Sri Lanka and more. These kids aren't just learning English while their peers study Spanish; they're in an ESOL classroom for social studies, math and almost every other subject. And as their teacher - an immigrant herself who was the first in her French-Canadian family to learn English when they moved to the U.S. - points out, there's a vast difference between the words they pick up from their English-speaking classmates in the cafeteria and those used in a classroom. No one is talking about "imperialism" at the lunch table.

In a story recently about a mid-western private school that's banned kids from speaking anything but English within its walls, I focused on the efforts to make American kids more competitive in the global economy by encouraging bilingualism. Being exposed to immigrant classmates is GOOD for American kids.

I would say, overall, the opposite is true too. I learned best in the assimiliation language courses in college; when the professor refused to speak anything but French for the course of the day. Was I confused at first? Oh yeah. I wasn't out in left field, I was in the parking lot. But slowly, you can't help but learn. Beyond language, there's also exposure to American customs, and cultural assimiliation, to some degree, is necessary to survive. Kids should retain a cultural identity, but they need to at least understand which new customs they are adopting - or avoiding.

It's a debate I don't know that any educator can truly answer. The kids at Cecil D. are performing well on tests, they say they're happy (watch the video), and the school does introduce them into "mixed" classes as their English language skills develop. Perhaps that's the real answer - starting with segregation that has a logical endpoint, segregation that results in assimilation.

What do you think? Would you fight this if it happened at your kids' school?

Image: New York Times

North Dakota Passes Law Establishing "Personhood" at Conception

Kate Tuttle — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:01:00 GMT

In the latest salvo against abortion rights, North Dakota's house of representatives this week passed a law defining a fertilized egg as having all the rights of a human being. The bil, which passed with a 51-41 vote, will now move to the state's senate for its consideration. If it is approved, legal challenges are expected that could end up in the United States Supreme Court -- a body that is now widely seen as having a five-justice majority willing to restrict abortion rights first enumerated in the 1972 Roe v. Wade ruling.

Dan Ruby, the Republican state congressman who sponsored the bill, says it's not intended to ban abortion, simply to define when life begins -- a question that has mystified thinkers for centuries, but apparently is obvious to the North Dakota Republican Party -- and to give that life "some protections under our Constitution."

This is hardly the first or the only legislative assault on Roe, and it certainly won't be the last. It is, however, part of an interesting new political/religious movement that uses the term "personhood" to attempt to define not only fetuses, but blastocytes (what's next, follicles?) as fully-fledged human beings deserving of all the legal status of a baby, child, or adult. The so-called "personhood movement" aims to roll back abortion rights by means of state legislative action, primarily working in states that outlawed or restricted abortion in the days pre-Roe, when each state had its own laws regarding reproductive rights. In defining even a fertilized egg as human, backers are not only taking aim at abortion but also at many forms of birth control, which operate by preventing fertilized eggs from implanting in the woman's uterus. It could also result in pregnant women being prosecuted for behavior said to endanger their fetuses.

I'm interested in this movement, and wonder when they will turn their attention to granting "personhood" rights to children who have already been born. One group of persons whose rights need protecting is children who are US citizens but whose parents are not -- an estimated 100,000 parents were deported over the past decade whose children, having been born here, should be enjoying all the rights of other US citizens, rather than left behind by their parents or forced to return to countries with fewer opportunities for them. And how about extending "personhood" rights to gay Americans who would like to marry and raise their children together, just as their straight friends and relatives do?

The religious right's emphasis on what happens before birth and after death is mystifying to me at times. I'd like to remind them that there's life after birth, and protecting those lives seems a much better use of everyone's time, energy, and attention.

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Australia Rejects Doc's Immigration Application Because of Down Syndrome Kid

Amy S.F. Lutz — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Australia is facing a critical shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas, necessitating the hiring of many foreign doctors and nurses. So, you'd think government officials would be thrilled when one of those doctors, Germany's Bernhard Moeller, applied for permanent residence after working for the past two years at Wimmera Base Hospital.

But no. Because one of Dr. Moeller's three kids has Down Syndrome, his application was rejected. Thirteen-year-old Lukas was considered "likely to be a permanent drain on taxpayer funding," according to news reports, although Lukas goes to a typical school and plays cricket and football.

Let's see . . . health care for one boy with Down Syndrome, versus the 54,000 people in the community for which Dr. Moeller is in charge of providing intensive care services. Which party is really getting the better end of this deal? No wonder Dr. Moeller's rejection has aroused the ire of thousands of Australians, including Health Minister Nicola Roxon and Victoria state government Premier John Brumby. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this decision were reversed.

AP photo

Not So Fast! How Quickly Did Your Great-Grandfather Really Learn to Speak English?

Shannon LC Cate — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:01:00 GMT

New research challenges the oft-claimed anti-immigrant sentiment that "my ancestors came here and had to learn English and did so. Immigrants today should do the same!" In fact, a study by German professors Joseph Salmons and Miranda Wilkerson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison shows that:

"Not only did many early immigrants not feel compelled out of practicality to learn English quickly upon arriving in America, they appeared to live and thrive for decades while speaking exclusively German."

Like the conventional wisdom that no one was gay until 1969 or that no one had sex before marriage in the 1950's, the myth that the ancestors of (mostly white) long-time U.S. citizens were somehow better about jumping on the English-only bandwagon only hurts real people today. Let's lay it to rest and have a little patience with new neighbors while they struggle with the many aspects of living in a new country--including the language.

Image: archives.gov

Whites Quickly Becoming Minority in U.S.

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:18:00 GMT

Here's another fun demographic fact uncovered by the new Census Bureau report: not only are American whites of European descent having less babies, but Hispanics are having more. With 2.3 kids per mom, Hispanics are having more children than other ethnic group in the U.S. Still, Hispanic women today are having less children than their mothers did, mirroring the nationwide trend of reduced fertility.

High birth rates among minorities combined with immigration mean that by 2042, whites will be a minority group in the U.S. While the African American population is projected to remain pretty constant, Hispanic and Asian populations will double by 2050, to 30 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Perhaps we Americans will be forced to learn a language other than English after all. And we were doing so well getting every other population in the world to speak our Mother Tongue....

Photo: arlingtonva/us

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Valedictorian To Be Deported After Graduation

Amy S.F. Lutz — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:24:00 GMT

Arthur Mkoyan is a smart kid. His better-than-perfect GPA earned him the title of valedictorian of Bullard High School, in Fresno, California. He wants to study medicine.

But the U.S. government, apparently, doesn't think our country could use smart, driven people like Arthur. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to deport Arthur and his family back to Armenia ten days after his graduation.

Look, I get it. Authorities don't want to appear soft on immigration. There's a process, Arthur's family took ten years to exhaust their options, and they were unable to convince judges at any level that they might be in danger if they returned to Albania (apparently, Arthur's dad. Ruben, exposed corruption at the Armenian version of our DMV. Corruption at the DMV: who knew?)

But - not to get hokey here - wasn't this country built on the strength, ingenuity and talent of the immigrants who poured in over the last couple of centuries? In other words, if we don't want Arthur Mkoyan, who in the world are we looking for?

So, here's my idea: the valedictorian exemption. If you're here illegally, and you are the valedictorian of your high school, you and your family get to stay. The U.S. gets to keep some of its sharpest minds (whose education we've already funded through public schools, more often than not), and maybe a few students are motivated to work their asses off to earn what would be, for them, the ultimate prize. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Family Forgets 18-Month-Old At Airport

Amy S.F. Lutz — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:30:00 GMT

There's a reason why flight attendants always remind passengers to make sure they have all their belongings before disembarking: people are forgetful, and easily distractible. So forgetful that maybe those stewardesses should start reminding them to make sure they have everything before they get back ON the plane. You know, layovers can be so chaotic, with everyone rushing around to eat, maybe make some phone calls, use the restroom, that it's easy to lose track of important things like your passport, your visa . . . and your children?

That's what happened to a Filipino family yesterday. The family was emigrating to Winnipeg, and got off the plane during a layover in Vancouver. The boy's parents and grandparents weren't sitting together on the plane, and when they boarded again, each pair assumed the toddler was with the other pair.

And basically, they didn't realize they left their kid wandering around the Vancouver airport until airline employees found the boy - who, because he was a lap child, had no boarding pass or other identification - and cleverly used passenger manifests to figure out who he must be, and contacted the pilot.

Once the plane landed, the father immediately flew back to Vancouver to get the boy.

What's Filipino for "oops"?

Strollerderby : immigration

Girl Forced to Choose Between Parents and Country

Kid to Malia Obama: Save my Dad

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Should Schools Separate Non-English Speaking Kids?

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Woman Gives Birth on Airplane, Abandons Baby in Airport

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Should Schools Be Teaching Parents English?

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Lock in Your Kid's College Price NOW

North Dakota Passes Law Establishing "Personhood" at Conception

Australia Rejects Doc's Immigration Application Because of Down Syndrome Kid

Not So Fast! How Quickly Did Your Great-Grandfather Really Learn to Speak English?

Whites Quickly Becoming Minority in U.S.

Valedictorian To Be Deported After Graduation

Family Forgets 18-Month-Old At Airport