I always knew there was something funny about you.

Turned out, the ship had actually docked in Hoboken.

Hah. My grandparents both got (separately) Ellis Island, according the records I found there. And then moved to Buffalo for a few years. At least they were used to the cold??

I had a thing, but suffice to say: illegal immigration is a problem, but I don't think it's as big of one as it is being made to be, and there's a lot of underlying -isms and fear at play. There always has been, even with waves of legal immigration. I think we already have adequate tools to deal with it, but they are unevenly used and that's just as much the fault of the business community (hey, that's us!) as it is the gov't (also us!) (employer verification, etc.)

I don't believe you can really compare the US to countries in europe wrt to immigrants cause we have a whole different cultural myth going on. We've got more ingredients in our salad, so to speak, and adding new ones...it isn't as shocking when you bite into a new veggie. God, was that tortuous or what?

I'm pale enough for them.

This. This. This.

I always knew there was something funny about you.

Well that, among other things.

Also, don't tell anyone, but my French grandfather was actually a Communist.

It occurs to me that I don't even know if my Dad's parents ever became citizens.

My parents did for pragmatic work-related reasons when it became clear they weren't going back north. Also, to have a say in shit.

It's so cute that it's only now that they're finding themselves utterly baffled by large portions of Americans.

Linguistically, no language is set; it's constantly evolving and morphing to reflect the culture. Look at how the Normans affected the English language; look at how Crusaders brought Arabic language and culture back with them. Language isn't sacred; it's a constantly changing tool that reflects the needs of the population.

Educationally, many immigrants are generally functionally bilingual, which is a hell of a lot more than can be said of most American children. Allowing for information about human rights, health services and laws governing proper legal rights to be disseminated in a form used by a signifigant portion of an area's population, whether "legal" or not, is humane and sensible.

In my experiences, most immigrants are working to learn the language, but adding a second language is a wee bit hard when you are trying to raise a family, or subsist on less than minimum wage job(s).

It's hideously expensive, and takes a very, very long time to get citizenship, or even a work visa. I have a friend from Peru, who is a lawyer, and she had to come here and work illegally before she married; she wanted to be closer to her sister and friends.

France is not the beau ideal when speaking of immigration, having, as they have had, an amazingly xenophobic and, IMHO, hateful approach to Muslim citizens -- CITIZENS. I'm no expert, and certainly there are probably considerations I am unaware of, but I am thinking of the prohibition against the wearing of headcloths for Muslim women. It's as offensive as forcing Jews to wear yellow armbands, or prohibiting Christian from wearing a crucifix or saint's medal, to my way of thinking.

Kristen, unfortunately, I think it is. At least, in California. My ex-bf's small, privately owned company (the one where MM temped) used to close down for a week every year at the holidays. You had to use vacation pay or not get paid.

It's just so "fear of the other".

I have to agree that I think this is a main impetus. America is largely focused on an "us or them;" we set up dichotomies all the time, and want to protect some largely conceptual idea of "us" or "the way things should be/used to be" instead of focusing on how to actually solve an issue based on logic, reason, common humanity and ethics.

NOT ideologically-based morals; ethics.

America is largely focused on an "us or them;"

I'd revise that to Humans.

We like the binary. It's easy.