(no subject)
Tiny creeping outrage of the day:
I work in an immigration law office. We help people file green card applications. Each application requires a medical exam and complete immunological history done by a licensed Civil Surgeon. The USCIS (that's United States Citizenship and Immigration Service; they replaced Immigration and Nationalization Service in March of 2003 in the great Department of Homeland Security shuffle) issues clear guidelines for which vaccines are necessary for people of which age: Hep B up to 19 years of age, polio for newborns up to 17-year-olds, seasonal flu shots from age 50 up, etc. etc. The CS must either document previous vaccinations to fulfill these requirements or else administer them at the time of the exam.
Now. There is one case in which we have had USCIS send the examination forms back to us no less than 3 times because of missing, incomplete or incorrectly documented immunological histories. When our clients go back asking the CS to correct them, they're told "That's how we always did them for New Orleans (the NO Sub-Office) and they never complained." (New Orleans is no longer there to accept your shoddy work.) When we send them a letter instructing them how to do it properly, our instructions are summarily ignored. The worst part is, each time these people go back they are paying for a doctor's time and getting nothing in return. Each time USCIS sends back an exam, that's another six months on the processing time for their green card. In the time they've spent applying for permanent residence here, they could have become Canadian citizens all over again. It's ridiculous.
This is a pretty good example of how immigrants undergo continual abuse and neglect at the hands of most institutions in this and any country. First, they avoid institutions in general because of the uncertainty and difficulties involved in finding the right person to talk to or the right place to go. I know I did the same thing in Japan- avoided the doctor, the dentist, the bank teller whenever I could. When I did go, even if my Japanese was impeccable the tendency on their part to misinterpret was high. I went to a dermatologist with an allergic rash and was told I had pimples. I asked for stamps at the post office and was told, in a loud voice, that they didn't sell envelopes.
It's the same here, although perhaps not as extreme as it is there: we patronize immigrants, we belittle them, we assume we know what they want, we try to give it to them and get them out as quickly as possible because we are uncomfortable with their accents or patterns of speech or facial expressions or what-have you. Our doctors neglect and mistreat them; our lawyers and police dismiss their complaints out of hand; our lawmakers demonize them to stir up voters. We marginalize them because they are not American, and they avoid us because we are impatient, loud and quick to jump to conclusions about them.
We forget that we are immigrants, that all our ancestors were at some point new and unfamiliar peoples on these shores and this soil. How strange and off-putting they must have seemed to the Americans of that era, how foreign the smells of their cooking or the cut of their clothes. Many of the immigrants who came to this country have experienced prejudice and institutional neglect, and while we may accept those injustices as things of the past, should we really allow them to continue in the present?
Volunteering for an immigrant advocacy group is seeming as good a cause as any other these days. I find myself believing, more and more, that our country's future lies in encouraging immigration and diversification; but then, who doesn't think that their job is vital to the nation's future? (Rhetorical question.)
I work in an immigration law office. We help people file green card applications. Each application requires a medical exam and complete immunological history done by a licensed Civil Surgeon. The USCIS (that's United States Citizenship and Immigration Service; they replaced Immigration and Nationalization Service in March of 2003 in the great Department of Homeland Security shuffle) issues clear guidelines for which vaccines are necessary for people of which age: Hep B up to 19 years of age, polio for newborns up to 17-year-olds, seasonal flu shots from age 50 up, etc. etc. The CS must either document previous vaccinations to fulfill these requirements or else administer them at the time of the exam.
Now. There is one case in which we have had USCIS send the examination forms back to us no less than 3 times because of missing, incomplete or incorrectly documented immunological histories. When our clients go back asking the CS to correct them, they're told "That's how we always did them for New Orleans (the NO Sub-Office) and they never complained." (New Orleans is no longer there to accept your shoddy work.) When we send them a letter instructing them how to do it properly, our instructions are summarily ignored. The worst part is, each time these people go back they are paying for a doctor's time and getting nothing in return. Each time USCIS sends back an exam, that's another six months on the processing time for their green card. In the time they've spent applying for permanent residence here, they could have become Canadian citizens all over again. It's ridiculous.
This is a pretty good example of how immigrants undergo continual abuse and neglect at the hands of most institutions in this and any country. First, they avoid institutions in general because of the uncertainty and difficulties involved in finding the right person to talk to or the right place to go. I know I did the same thing in Japan- avoided the doctor, the dentist, the bank teller whenever I could. When I did go, even if my Japanese was impeccable the tendency on their part to misinterpret was high. I went to a dermatologist with an allergic rash and was told I had pimples. I asked for stamps at the post office and was told, in a loud voice, that they didn't sell envelopes.
It's the same here, although perhaps not as extreme as it is there: we patronize immigrants, we belittle them, we assume we know what they want, we try to give it to them and get them out as quickly as possible because we are uncomfortable with their accents or patterns of speech or facial expressions or what-have you. Our doctors neglect and mistreat them; our lawyers and police dismiss their complaints out of hand; our lawmakers demonize them to stir up voters. We marginalize them because they are not American, and they avoid us because we are impatient, loud and quick to jump to conclusions about them.
We forget that we are immigrants, that all our ancestors were at some point new and unfamiliar peoples on these shores and this soil. How strange and off-putting they must have seemed to the Americans of that era, how foreign the smells of their cooking or the cut of their clothes. Many of the immigrants who came to this country have experienced prejudice and institutional neglect, and while we may accept those injustices as things of the past, should we really allow them to continue in the present?
Volunteering for an immigrant advocacy group is seeming as good a cause as any other these days. I find myself believing, more and more, that our country's future lies in encouraging immigration and diversification; but then, who doesn't think that their job is vital to the nation's future? (Rhetorical question.)