Most Say Immigration Policy Needs Big Changes | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

Is the our political system reflective of how most of us think?  Does it represent us?  Most Americans want immigration fixed but most politicians are uncomfortable with the issue and most pundits cloud the issue with ideological twists that further prevent us from seeing immigration as a pretty clear cut issue we all want addressed and fixed once and for all.  Again,  the Pew Foundation gives us facts and sheds light when we need it most…

“Americans overwhelmingly say the nation’s immigration policy is in need of sweeping changes. Overall, 75% say immigration policy needs at least major changes, with 35% saying it needs to be “completely rebuilt”—among the highest of seven policy areas tested.

Yet the broad public agreement that immigration policy should be revamped is not matched by consensus on how to deal with illegal and legal immigration.”

via Most Say Immigration Policy Needs Big Changes | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Immigration, Public Policy, immigration policy

Heritage Foundation Cuts Ties to Jason Richwine – from The Atlantic Wire

What do barbie dolls and the Heritage Foundation have in common?  Barbie dolls are to sexism as the heritage foundation is to racism —  they both used to be bastions of each ideology but today they appear increasingly useless and irrelevant.

The Atlantic Wire reports that the Heritage Foundation is running for cover as the facts come out about one Jason Richwine, a former Harvard student who wrote his Ph.D. thesis exploring the presumed intellectual inferiority of Hispanics in America.  The Heritage Foundation used the controversial Harvard former student to publish a recent report arguing about the so called costs of immigration for America.

The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank born in the aftermath of the Nixon era when America saw itself through the eyes of a popular media, government and academia largely of European ancestry and xenophobia towards all things not “White” or of European origin.  This world view was forged at a time when civil rights at home and Vietnam abroad crushed the former American dream which was forged in a 1950s America which was being torn asunder by hippie kids and non-White civil rights marchers.

Today the modern expression of these reactionary movements are anti immigration, states rights and anti affirmative action diatribes that fly in the face of the facts of an America that needs every once of talent and muscle from its growing “brown majority.”

Recent demographic reports show that Rodriguez is now the most numerous last name held by new born babies in our country.  Tomorrow is here and the Heritage Foundation seems to be trying to cover the overwhelming historical truth with an increasingly ineffective ideological argument about the size of a broken barbie doll umbrella.

 

“Jason Richwine, co-author of a controversial report from the Heritage Foundation that criticized the potential cost of immigration reform, has resigned from the organization. The resignation follows revelations that Richwine’s college dissertation argued that …”

via Heritage Foundation Cuts Ties to Jason Richwine – Philip Bump – The Atlantic Wire.

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The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union | Pew Global Attitudes Project

European hegemony may no longer be sustainable.  The European economic community is being held together by a fragile piece of paper called the Euro.  Aside from the currency, which a Pew Foundation survey reports is still favored by most European countries, there is little else Europeans agree about or even like about each other.  Perhaps the onslaught of diversity perceived by growing right wing groups is the only glue left to hold Europeans together.  The current economic crisis has seen much conflict and scapegoating regarding immigrants from mostly the African continent; but now Europeans seem to be turning against one another.

“The European Union is the new sick man of Europe. The effort over the past half century to create a more united Europe is now the principal casualty of the euro crisis. The European project now stands in disrepute across much of Europe.

Support for European economic integration – the 1957 raison d’etre for creating the European Economic Community, the European Union’s predecessor – is down over last year in five of the eight European Union countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2013. Positive views of the European Union are at or near their low point in most EU nations, even among the young, the hope for the EU’s future. The favorability of the EU has fallen from a median of 60% in 2012 to 45% in 2013. And only in Germany does at least half the public back giving more power to Brussels to deal with the current economic crisis.

The sick man label – attributed originally to Russian Czar Nicholas I in his description of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century – has more recently been applied at different times over the past decade and a half to Germany, Italy, Portugal, Greece and France. But this fascination with the crisis country of the moment has masked a broader phenomenon: the erosion of Europeans’ faith in the animating principles that have driven so much of what they have accomplished internally.”

MORE via The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union | Pew Global Attitudes Project.

Filed under: Immigration, Civic Engagement, Economic Recession, European Alliances, Blogosphere, Community Tragedy, geopolitical, ideology, ethnicity in politics, Culture Think, International Relations, European Community, Euro

Unauthorized Immigrants: How Pew Research Counts Them and What We Know About Them | Pew Research Center

The Pew Research Center provides us with the facts and figures on the immigrant issue… Visit Pew by reading the article below and tell us what you think …

“What we can tell from our data that, to a degree is not widely appreciated, the unauthorized immigrant population is made up of young working families. The majority of unauthorized immigrant adults are here with family members — spouses and children. Our estimates are that unauthorized immigrants have between 4.5 million and 5 million children under 18 who are U.S. citizens because they were born here. Those children are affected by this proposed legislation because their parents have the potential of being able to remain here legally and not be subject to deportation.

In addition, the unauthorized families include roughly three-quarters of a million adults who are either immigrants here legally or U.S. citizens who are family members of these unauthorized immigrants. Some may be spouses, some of them are children who are older than 18. So that means that the total number of people who might be affected by the proposals is much larger, probably between 16 million and 17 million people. This demographic dynamic is not well-known or widely-appreciated. It’s often a big surprise to people.”

via Unauthorized Immigrants: How Pew Research Counts Them and What We Know About Them | Pew Research Center.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Children and Poverty, Civic Engagement, consumers, Demographic Change, Immigration, News, Parenting, Congress and immigration legislation, Immigration, immigration debate

Malden woman attacked by man accusing Muslims of Marathon bombings – Metro – The Boston Globe

No one ever talks about it.  It is taboo.  Or perhaps, it is not important in our mostly Western European culture.

As we have developed a culture of fear, xenophobia, and antipathy towards foreigners, we have begun to kill our American Dream.  We dislike people who look poorly dressed, “dark,” or otherwise not like “us.”  We forget, or perhaps our history books don’t explain and our grandparents did not share, that most people who came through Elis Island came here with few  belongings, lived in very modest quarters and felt as isolated and alienated as today’s monolingual and “lost in America” recent immigrant population.

Mexicans, Haitians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Puerto Ricans, many, many, groups are portrayed as “less than American” and continue to be seen as different from the mainstream ideal.  An ideal that may now be shattered after the savages who attacked innocent people in Boston.  The facts are developing at this time.  But the monsters in the two FBI photos are nothing like the “dark guy” ridiculously and irresponsibly described by CNN’s John King with Wolf Blitzer supporting.

“I want to be very careful about this, because people get very sensitive when you say these things,” King said Wednesday. “I was told by one of these sources who is a law enforcement official that this is a dark-skinned male.”

America is now more diverse than ever.  It’s mainstream leadership is woefully out of touch with the silent growing segment of the population that is destined to inherit our tomorrow.

The Boston Globe reported a story that confirms the damage mainstream media does to our fabric when they echo the fears and phobias suffered by less educated Americans…  By less educated we don’t mean did not go to College–we mean people who were raised and educated by parents and schools that failed.  Some of these people have high degrees and are millionaires who lead our nightly broadcasts…

“Every day, Heba Abolaban of Malden checks on her family in war-strafed Syria, where water, bread and electricity are in short supply. She was far more worried about them than about herself on Wednesday morning when she put her baby daughter in a stroller and headed into the sunshine to a play group with a friend.But as they strolled down Commercial Street, an angry-faced man charged toward the petite woman, his hand balled into a fist. He punched her hard in the shoulder and screamed curses inches from her face. Then he pointed at her and …”

More via Malden woman attacked by man accusing Muslims of Marathon bombings – Metro – The Boston Globe.

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Immigration reform: Getting there | The Economist

The most powerful force behind immigrant reform is Hispanic Americans who are here legally or were born here and can all vote…  This group is greatly impacted by actions against immigrants which they see closely connected with their own identity and perhaps their political interests.

Whatever happens through the mechanics of Congress it remains clear that Hispanic public opinion, ever growing and important, is clear on the side of welcoming Hispanic immigrants no matter how they got here, who want to work towards the American dream.

The London Economist lays out the political machinations on the Hill and asserts that the Hispanic vote is a force to be reckoned with.

“EVERY major policy issue has been resolved,” declared Charles Schumer, one of eight senators seeking to draft a bipartisan bill to reform America’s immigration system. The “Gang of Eight”, he continued, would unveil their proposal in days; it would putter through the

via Immigration reform: Getting there | The Economist.

Filed under: Immigration, Civic Engagement, Blogosphere, Demographic Change, ethnicity in politics, Culture Think, immigration policy, Hispanic vote

G.O.P. Opposition to Immigration Law Is Falling Away – NYTimes.com

Latino population growth, touted by some and warned by others for decades now, is finally a tangible reality.  The impact of demographic change and the potential that it is having on workforce, consumer and political markets is the subject of much conversation these days and it is finally breaking the xenophobic fever of some in the Republican establishment, traditionally more liberal, and even on the fringe…

“Republican opposition to legalizing the status of millions of illegal immigrants is crumbling in the nation’s capital as leading lawmakers in the party scramble to halt eroding support among Hispanic voters — a shift that is …”

MORE via G.O.P. Opposition to Immigration Law Is Falling Away – NYTimes.com.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Changing Media Paradigm, Civic Engagement, consumers, Discrimination, ethnicity in politics, Immigration, Latinos, census; immigration; births; fertility; Latinos; Hispanics; Mexican Americans; child health, demographic, Latinos, Xenophobia

Ensuring the Health Care Needs of Women: A Checklist for Health Exchanges – Kaiser Family Foundation

Latina women lead all groups in the number of babies born, yet are disconnected from a regular provider, health insurance and quality continuos care.  The current healthcare reform may leave many families outside the CAC safety net because they may not qualify for services due to their immigrant status.  Learn more about women’s health at the Kaiser Family Foundation website below…

“To inform the development of the state health insurance Exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, this checklist identifies key coverage, affordability and access issues that are important for women. Based on lessons learned from women’s health research and the Massachusetts experience, the checklist considers essential health benefits, implementation of no-cost preventive services including contraception, provider networks and affordability, outreach and enrollment efforts, and the importance of including gender and other demographic characteristics in data collection and reporting standards. It was jointly authored by policy experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation, The Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health at The George Washington University.”

More via Ensuring the Health Care Needs of Women: A Checklist for Health Exchanges – Kaiser Family Foundation.

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The Policy ThinkShop on Facebook: How do you think Healthcare Reform is working in New Jersey? What about the poorest and most vulnerable in these time of change?

New Jersey is reorganizing its healthcare system, including urban hospital that are vital to New Jersey’s poorest and most vulnerable. What do you think?

MORE via Facebook.

Filed under: Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Immigration, Latinos, Maternal and Child Health, Medical Research, Minority Males, New American Electorate, News, Parenting, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Public Health, Public Policy, Unemployment, Women's rights

Second-Generation Americans | Pew Social & Demographic Trends

You know what they say about statistics.  When aggregating and analyzing statistics and what they tell us about social trends, we must be careful because the devil is always in the details…. It depends what we are comparing to what…  Of course that second generation is doing well compared to their struggling first generation, “off the boat” parents–but there is some truth that coming to America can still be somewhat of a dream.. You be the judge.  Read the Pew Foundation’s work on Second-Generations …

“Second-generation Americans—the 20 million adult U.S.-born children of immigrants—are substantially better off than immigrants themselves on key measures of socioeconomic attainment, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. They have higher incomes; more are college graduates and homeowners; and fewer live in poverty. In all of these measures, their characteristics resemble those of the full U.S. adult population.

Hispanics and Asian Americans make up about seven-in-ten of today’s adult immigrants and about half of today’s adult second generation. Pew Research surveys find that the second generations of both groups are much more likely than the immigrants to speak English; to have friends and spouses outside their ethnic or racial group, to say their group gets along well with others, and to think of themselves as a “typical American.””

MORE via Second-Generation Americans | Pew Social & Demographic Trends.

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Pew Hispanic Center – Chronicling Latinos Diverse Experiences in a Changing America

Healthcare reform and Immigrant reform are both on the policy table.  We all need to be at that table supporting a reasonable and fair solution to the important issues of the day:

Who gets to come to America and what quality of life they will have when they get here.

At the Policy ThinkShop we will be blogging resources and information to keep you on top of these important public policy topics.  Stay tuned…

“Nearly two-thirds of the 5.4 million legal immigrants from Mexico who are eligible to become citizens of the United States have not yet taken that step. Their naturalization rate—36%—is only half that of legal immigrants from all other countries combined, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of federal government data. A nationwide survey of Hispanic immigrants by the Center finds that nearly all (93%) who have not yet naturalized say they would if they could. But barriers such as a lack of English proficiency and the financial cost of naturalization are identified as reasons why many legal immigrants have not yet done so.”

Related:

Report: A Nation of Immigrants

Data: Statistical Portrait of the Foreign Born, 2011

Report: Unauthorized Immigrants: 11.1 Million in 2011

Report: Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero

via Pew Hispanic Center – Chronicling Latinos Diverse Experiences in a Changing America.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Children and Poverty, Civic Engagement, consumers, Health Literacy, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Immigration, Latinos, Maternal and Child Health, News, Public Health, Public Policy, healthcare reform, immigration policy, immigration reform, Latinos, Mexican Americans, The Affordable Care Act

The Path Not Taken | Pew Hispanic Center

Immigration is a very personal experience that has as many reasons for leaving as it does for staying.  Pew continues to provide interesting profiles of the immigration experience which are worth looking at and discussing…

“Nearly two-thirds of the 5.4 million legal immigrants from Mexico who are eligible to become citizens of the United States have not yet taken that step. Their rate of naturalization—36%—is only half that of legal immigrants from all other countries combined, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

Creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are in the country illegally is expected to be one of the most contentious elements of the immigration legislation that will be considered by Congress this year. Mexican immigrants are by far the largest group of immigrants who are in the country illegally—accounting for 6.1 million (55%) of the estimated 11.1 million in the U.S. as of 2011.”

via The Path Not Taken | Pew Hispanic Center.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Demographic Change, Immigration, Latinos, Mexican Americans