What Filipino immigrants can expect from the upcoming Amnesty Law

My Happy Familya!

What Filipino immigrants can expect from the upcoming Amnesty Law

As much as the politicians handling the GOP end of the immigration reform bill in the works hate to admit it, the bill is nothing short of an amnesty. Just like the epic immigration amnesty bill signed by Ronald Reagan into law in the 80s, the current proposed law will offer a way for millions of undocumented immigrants, around 11 million of them, to become US citizens. This is very welcome news for anyone who stayed in the US after their visas expired. From tourists who overstayed to students who couldn't get an H-1 sponsor to even seafarers who decided to jump ship, the proposed immigration reform law offers real hope after so many years of waiting and hoping. Increasingly, a large proportion of Americans have come to grips with the reality that something had to be done about the millions of people in their midst who are living in legal limbo. This is nothing but a step in the right direction. However, there are two key provisions in the bill that Filipino immigrants should be mindful of. These provisions will dramatically change the long-standing patterns of legal Filipino migration to the United States. If you plan to petition your relatives to the US after you have become a citizen, you might want to read up on the items below. They can impact your future plans and your family's unity.

The two key provisions of the proposed bill that will impact many Filipinos are: the proposed elimination of sibling petitions and the proposed elimination of petitions for adult children regardless of whether they are married or not. The senators backing these proposed changes would prefer that most of the immigrants the US takes in every year enter through visas that require skills or professional training. Much of the support for immigration reform on the Republican side arises from both the need to find a way to legalize America's huge population of undocumented aliens as well as a shift in the flow of legal migration from family unification to skilled labor migration. Close to 65% of America's current immigration flow are due to family unification and only 14% are due to the business needs of American employers. One of the Republican senators pushing for the deletion of the two provisions above, Lindsay Graham of South Carolina is very clear regarding his motivations. To Mr. Graham, America's immigration system should shift from a family chain-migration model to a professional skills model that serves the economic needs of the country.

Right: My Sister that I am longing to be with me!

Chain migration versus economic migration

While it appears on the record that the GOP supporters of immigration reform favor an orderly process for immigrants to enter the US, they are focused on a skills-based model for immigration while Democrats tend to favor a family-based model. What are the differences between the two and how are these differences reflected in the proposed elimination of adult children petitions and sibling petitions?  

Chain migration occurs when someone successfully migrates to the United States on a labor-based visa or as a spouse of an American. Once in the US, the person will then petition relatives such as parents, siblings, or children from their home country. Once these individuals get a green card, they then repeat the process. GOP supporters of immigration reform have a problem with this. The selection criterion as to who gets in and who stays out, in the case of chain migration, is family relationship. It does not matter whether the person being petitioned has skills or work experiences that are in demand in the US or would benefit employers in the United States. In their minds, the whole point of immigration should be to benefit the United States instead of the individual families doing the petition. 

Cousin: Longing to be with our Siblings

Democrats, on the other end of the equation, have a different spin on the issue of 'chain migration.' In their eyes, the family reunification provisions of the revised Immigration Law of 1965 should be viewed in light of the previous immigration laws the United States passed before 1965. Prior to this law, most of the immigration laws in the United States were racist and exclusionary. For example: Mexicans were excluded or restricted by certain laws. In the 1880s, Chinese faced a wholesale exclusion from the United States. The restrictions had a racial element that continues to be unpleasant to this day. From the Democrats' standpoint, immigration has human rights elements and has universal fairness elements. It should be looked at not just from a purely US-centered perspective but from the perspective of historical fairness. 

The reality of the need for economic migration

Regardless of how the GOP and Democrats iron out their differences, both sides cannot escape the looming demographic reality facing the United States: it needs economic immigration. We're not just talking about who will pick lettuce, do janitorial work, or care for elderly as caregivers and nurses, this looming economic reality goes beyond that. If you look at certain economic subgroups of America's demographics, you will see that certain group's rate of replacement are close to or already flat lining. The United States is hardly alone in experiencing this demographic time bomb. Canada has a declining native Canadian population and has had to rely on immigration to get the demographic, and tax, base it needs to remain viable in the future In the future, the US will need more people to do white collar and managerial work in addition to the 'jobs few Americans want to do.'  On this score, the GOP backers of immigration reform are right on the money. Will the rest of the country see it though before it reaches a crisis stage?

 

Right: My Eldest Sister

Practical Implications

The phase out of the adult children petition and the sibling petition will not impact people that are  already under petition. These individuals will be 'grandfathered' in. They will just have to wait until the backlog clears and they can be processed and enter the US. Once the phase out is in place, this does not mean that family members of immigrants in the US have no other options. They are more than welcome to get in line through skilled immigration. In fact, even if they don't have much skills, they can still apply for the low-skilled migration visa that is being proposed by the GOP in the current immigration bill. For families, this is, of course, a serious blow. This will mean families will be split up between adult children in one country and parents and underage siblings in another. 

As for siblings, this will create a geographic division between family members. In terms of economic development, this might spur an increase in remittances to family members left behind. At the very least, it will mean the remittances will be for the long haul instead of stopping once the family members reunited in the United States. In terms of immigrant communities, the emphasis on professional or skills-based migration might lead to a shift away from ethnic communities of immigrants but to a more fully dispersed migration pattern. Why? Better skilled immigrants tend to have better English skills and higher educational levels. This will allow them to assimilate faster and more widely into the general American mainstream population.

It is obvious that these phase outs were not intended for the benefit of immigrants-they would prefer the status quo-instead, the changes are aimed to protect US economic interests. Whether this is a smart move or not, we will only see after a few decades when all the long-term implications of the change play out.

Right: Dad were crying when we bid goodbye!
I can't wait for my dad to come to US soon!