Thursday, June 30, 2011

why invest in immigrants' children

I feel strongly about this issue.

A friend recently told me that her girlfriend's daughter declined a full scholarship to a university because her parents brought her to the United States when she was two-years old, thus, at age 18 she still does not have legal U.S. citizenship.

Could there be anything worse than that?

Would anyone willingly constrain an individual from furthering their education in order to become a productive and contributing member of society, and rather encourage that the individual be dependent on others in society to provide for their needs - for the rest of their lives?

Yes, I feel strongly about this.  I should stop.

But, it gets even worse.  Here is an article about a recent study: Illegal Immigrants' Children Suffer, Study Finds.  It illustrates how many of the children who are born in the U.S. suffer because of their parents' decisions long before they even graduate from high school.  Of course, this is because, as it states in the article: "The undocumented are viewed in current policy debates as lawbreakers, laborers or victims - seldom as parents raising citizen children."  The author of the study reveals that there are currently approximately four million children of illegal immigrant parents in the United States (91 percent are citizens).

"Poor cognitive development can lead to lower school performance, which in turn can lead to higher dropout rates, an undertrained work force and lower economic productivity."

"Ignoring these children has costs for society" the author of the study states.

It is clear that all of us will benefit if we invest in illegal immigrants' children, whether citizens themselves or not.

2 comments:

Barb's blessings said...

Oh, Liz, I can't tell you how strongly I agree with you. Our immigration system is so broken and for so many years it was so simple to cross the border illegally or even legally and just stay which makes them illegal. There reasons for coming here are to make a better life for their children -- the same way we would do anything for our children. We have two friends of our children whose parents brought them here as babies. They have never known another life -- this is their country. They have been stellar citizens, graduating from high school, never in trouble, but can never become the people they want to be and can never reach their full potential because they don't have documents. It is SOOOOO sad. I hope they will eventually pass the dream act or something similar. Children who were too young to make the choice to enter illegally do not deserve the life we have forced them to live.

Can't wait to see you tomorrow.

Love, AB

Lindsey said...

I'm torn on this issue. I shouldn't even start... ;)