gold-from-straw:

rowanthesloth:

This started as a Facebook rant, and then ballooned into a more comprehensive dissertation on the racist history of U.S. immigration policy and citizenship generally (or as comprehensive as a dissertation can be that was written in 6 hours in a sleep-deprived state).

I’m sure I missed some important points. Feel free to reblog with relevant information and corrections. Some of this was new information to me, and I may not have understood it perfectly, or explained it well. Please copy, paste, and share any or all of this information wherever you think it might do some good. Links are provided not only as sources, but also as starting points for additional reading about any of the topics summarized below.

Part I: Immigrants Are Not A Threat

• The number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has been slowly
  declining since it peaked in 2007. (i.e., there is no current
  immigration “crisis” in the U.S.)
  
• Between 2009 and 2016, the
  number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico living in the U.S.
  declined by around 12.5%. (i.e. unauthorized immigration is not an issue
  of Mexicans “sneaking” across the U.S.’s southern border.)
  
• The U.S. civilian workforce includes 8 million unauthorized immigrants
  (~5% of people working or unemployed and looking for work), down
  slightly from a peak of 8.3 million in 2008, but essentially more or
  less level since 2007. (i.e., no, undocumented immigrants are not coming
  here to leech off U.S. government benefits, which would be impossible
  for them to claim in any case.)
  
• Only 6 U.S. states have seen
  an increase in the number of undocumented immigrants since 2009. 7
  others have showed a decrease, and the rest have showed no change.
  
• Since 2003, there has been a steady decline in the number of
  undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. 5 years or less, and a
  steady increase in the number who have been here 10 years or more.
  (i.e., an increasing share of the undocumented population are adults who
  have been contributing to the U.S. economy for at least a decade,
  living and working and raising their families here.)
• Illegally
  crossing the border into the U.S. is a misdemeanor for first-time
  (adult) offenders, on par with such crimes as driving more than 25 mph
  over the speed limit or shoplifting, and carries a penalty of a fine or
  up to 6 months of jail time.
• In 2014 42% of the undocumented population of the U.S., and
  66% of new undocumented arrivals, were visa
  overstayers. (i.e., they entered the U.S. legally, but overstayed the
  terms of their visa, and would not have been prevented from entering the U.S. by a border wall.)
• A growing number of people who do cross the U.S./Mexico border without a visa are refugees from Central America,
  fleeing violence, persecution, and poverty. By and large, they do not
  seek to evade border checkpoints, but openly present themselves and
  request political asylum. (i.e., they would not have been prevented from
  entering the U.S. by a border wall.)
  
• The
  proposed border wall is a ludicrous and unconscionable waste of tax
  dollars, even if you believe stricter immigration standards are warranted.
• Apart from the initial misdemeanor offense of being in the country illegally,
  undocumented immigrants are less likely (and in many cases, far less
  likely) than native-born U.S. citizens to engage in criminal activity,
  especially violent crime. (i.e., trying to blame a general crackdown on
  illegal immigration on gang violence is disingenuous.) 
• [additional source on immigration and crime statistics] 

In summation: There is no immigration crisis in the U.S., and no real reason to be cracking down now, other than to score points with the party base, or as a distraction.

Part II: Legal Immigration Is Not A Reasonable Option For Most People

• The
  process of legal immigration to the U.S. is opaque, complicated,
  expensive, time-consuming, restrictive. An applicant can do everything
  “right” and still end up waiting years or decades for a visa. 
• Fewer than 1 million immigrants per year are granted permanent
  residency (green cards), out of 6 million applicants. That number includes asylum seekers. (Permanent
  residency is not the same thing as citizenship, which can take an
  additional 5 years.) 
• No more than 7% of the green cards issued annually in the U.S. may be
  granted to citizens of any one country. This seriously limits
  immigration opportunities for people from more populous countries, such
  as Mexico, India, and China. 
• Around 66% of legal immigrants are admitted to the U.S. on the basis of
  family ties (limited to children, parents, spouses, and fianc(e)és of citizens or legal permanent residents). Another 13% are granted employment visas.
  17% are accepted for humanitarian reasons, such as refugees.
• Legal immigration for the child or spouse of a legal permanent resident
  (green card holder) can take 5-10 years. This is a serious strain and
  hardship of family relationships.
  
• Unless you
  are a highly skilled (and highly educated) immigrant in an in-demand
  field, obtaining an employment visa can take 6 years or longer.

In summation: unless you have money, a lot of free time, an outstanding skill set, a keen ability to cut through red tape and navigate bureaucracy, and/or a strong family support system already established in the U.S., you can forget about immigrating legally.

Part III: The History of Immigration and Citizenship Rights in the U.S. is Racist AF, in Case You Hadn’t Heard

• The
  U.S. has a long history of restricting and withholding citizenship rights from people of “undesirable” ethnicities and
  nationalities (usually non-white). (i.e., there is no good historical
  precedent for equating legality with morality.)
• The 3/5ths Compromise of 1787, written into Article 1 of the U.S.
  Constitution, declared each enslaved African person to be counted as 3/5ths of a
  person, for the purpose of establishing proportional representation in
  the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. Slaves were not,
  of course, represented by the new government, and were considered
  property rather than citizens under the law.
• The Naturalization Act of 1790 granted U.S. citizenship to all free
  white residents “of good moral character” who had lived in America for
  at least two years, regardless of where they had been born. Subsequent
  laws passed in 1795 and 1798 increased the term of residency
  requirement.
• The passage of the 14th Amendment in 1868 granted birthright
  citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., regardless of race or ethnicity (with the exception of Native Americans), cancelling out the 3/5ths
  Compromise.
• In 1870, African immigrants were granted the right to become
  naturalized citizens. Non-white male citizens were granted voting rights
  by the 15th Amendment, but were often prevented from exercising them effectively by
  Jim Crow laws. Asian immigrants were still barred from becoming
  citizens.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned virtually all immigration
  from China until its repeal in 1943. It was the first immigration law
  passed by Congress.
• The Dawes Act of 1887 granted citizenship to Native Americans who
  agreed to disassociate from their tribes. Native men who agreed to this were
  granted the right to vote. 
• Throughout the 19th century, government policies routinely forced
  Native American tribes off the land they had occupied for centuries, in
  order to make more room for white European settlers. Today, Reservation
  lands make up only 2% of U.S. geography. Many Native traditions were
  outlawed, including traditional religious practices, in an attempt to destroy and erase Native cultures. Children were taken
  from their families through programs of forced assimilation, and sent
  to boarding schools, where they were not permitted to speak their own
  languages or even use their own names. Many children died due to poor
  conditions and harsh treatment at these school, and many more never saw their families again. It is estimated that the
  pre-contact population of the territory now occupied by the U.S. was
  between 4 and 18 million. On the 2010 census, just over 5 million U.S.
  citizens reported themselves to be Native American, or Native American plus another race.
• The California Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibited all non-U.S. citizens
  from owning land in California. The law was primarily intended to target Japanese
  immigrants, but also resulted in many other Asian immigrants losing
  their land, since foreign-born Asians were still not permitted
  naturalized U.S. citizenship.
• The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set the first numerical limits
  on immigration. It restricted immigration to no more than 3% of the
  number of people reporting the same ethnic origin in the 1890 U.S. census,
  to the great advantage of immigrants from Northern European countries,
  and disadvantage of all others. 
• The United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind Supreme Court ruling (1923)
  officially declared South Asian immigrants to be non-white, and
  retroactively stripped them of their citizenship, by arguing that they
  had obtained it illegally.
• The Immigration Act of 1924 further increased restrictions on
  immigration from Catholic countries, Eastern Europeans, Arabs,
  Jews, and many other non-white ethnicities. It virtually banned all
  Asian immigration, while leaving Northern European immigration virtually
  unlimited. 
• The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 finally granted birthright citizenship, and the right to vote, to all Native Americans.
• During the Mexican Repatriation (1929-1936), between 400,000 and
  2,000,000 people of Mexican heritage were forcibly deported to Mexico.
  It is estimated that around 60% of them had birthright U.S. citizenship.
  The justification used at the time was that the region of the U.S. that
  they lived in had been ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848. The U.S.
  wanted the land, but decided that the people living on it were still
  Mexicans, and should therefore be sent “home”. (But actually it was all about stirring up racial resentment and scapegoating Mexicans for the Great Depression.)
• The Magnuson Act (aka Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act) of 1943 granted Chinese immigrants citizenship and voting rights.
• During WWII, the U.S. turned away thousands of Jewish refugees, many of whom later died in Nazi concentration camps.
• Also During WWII, the U.S. stripped Japanese Americans of their citizenship rights and forced them into internment camps.
• Operation “Wetb*ck” in 1954 resulted in many more legal U.S. citizens
  being deported to Mexico, besides resulting in a number of other civil
  rights violations.  (I know tumblr loves Woody Guthrie, so here’s a song he wrote about this particular policy and the people who lost their lives to it, as performed by Woody’s son Arlo.)
• “Equal opportunity” immigration was not implemented until the
  Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Since 1970, there has been a
  sharp decline in immigration from European countries, giving rise to
  racist rhetoric concerning white Americans possibly becoming a racial minority at some point in the future, in
  spite of the fact that nearly 2/3 of the current U.S. population is
  white. 

In conclusion: America’s history on immigration policy and its
treatment of those it considers outsiders has always been shady as heck,
and pretending otherwise (”HOW is this happening in AMERICA????”) is blatant historical erasure.

I
do not bring up any of these things because I hate America, or think
that anyone else should, but I think we should be honest about our
history, and the suffering that history has caused, and continues to cause. We can learn from the past, and do better going forward, but only if we understand and acknowledge
what our history is and how it impacts the present. “Make America Great Again” denies the negative
aspects of our past, and is disrespectful and dismissive towards the people who remind us that America
has never been “great” for them.

Here endeth the history lesson.

English history is very similar. I’ve lived in the uk for 13 years, I’m white, degree educated and work in an in-demand job (teaching), but I’m still not an English citizen. I have indefinite leave to remain which means I took the stupid citizenship test (which is mind blowingly ridiculous and skews results to people with a very particular type of memory) and still couldn’t get my British passport because I couldn’t afford it. The price keeps increasing as well, so as the man said when I got my LTR, “oh if you JUST pay another £1000 you can get a passport” and then looked at me like a freak when I laughed and said I’d had to borrow the money to get my visa! That was 7 years ago – now the price is more like £1700 i think – still out of my price range for a little while!

jkks:

remember the smeraldo blog?? apparently it updated today and ..

the colours, and the bighit universe logo 💀

vocabwithbts:

신다 // To Put On/To Wear

•

아무튼 날 만날 때는 컨버스를 신지마

무엇보다 벗기가 무척이나 힘들잖아

•

Anyway, when you meet me, don’t wear Converse

It’s too hard to take them off of you

•

From Converse High

•

In honour of Run ep. 53 because I had to:

lol has this been done before

jinfrombts:

jinfrombts:

jinfrombts:

as we can see the editor is a jin stan

cmimiu:

BTS Converse High Mistranslation:

스치면 인연 스며들면 사랑

이라고 누가 말했었는데

넌 아예 내게 물들어버렸나

The Widely Translated (and sadly accepted) Lyrics:

You pass by and become connected

You enter in and become love

Someone said that before – But I am just colored by you

The Accurate Translation (lost in translation and widely ignored):

‘You touched me, it was Fate.

I got soaked, it was Love.’

Someone had once said this (about falling in love).

But I am completely stained by you.

The Actual Meaning behind the lyrics:

Someone had once said that chance encounters are Fate. And love is like getting soaked. You can’t hide it. But in my case, I’m completely drenched and stained by your love. Because I like you that much that.

[honestly it pisses me off that people don’t even realise how wrong some of these translations are🙄]

earthshaker1217:

fire-iv:

jesterball:

dudeholdmybeer:

thebeachboys:

thebeachboys:

who was the first animal to fuck instead of budding or something.. he mustve been like mm.. oo damn girl this feels good LOL

microbrachius dicki

loch ness monster

fuck ness monster

fucking was invented in Scotland

Well okay then.

min-yoongls:

How to start a fight: Jikook version

Jimin: I know we don’t always see eye to eye but-

Jungkook: That’s because you’re short

solitics:

marsincharge:

platovevo:

platovevo:

listen i also hate those dumbass political cartoons about kids and their phones but at the same time you’re a fool if you flat out deny there are negative aspects to the way we communicate in the social media age

facebook and instagram strategically time your notifications after you post something to make you waste time scrolling. those two platforms also come to mind as being particularly performative (“look at this beautiful picture-ready thing i’m doing today”) although any social media encourages that. snapchat’s streak feature, as well as those stupid emojis next to people’s names, exist solely to suck you into using the app every day. twitter and instagram display your follower count, and facebook displays how many friends you have. tumblr cultivates a culture of oversharing, and although you can have one-on-one conversations on here, most “communication” takes the form of shouting from a soapbox. all of these things are related to the problem of privacy online, which many of us simply assume doesn’t exist and should therefore be tossed aside so that we can dissect and manufacture every detail of our selves and desires online. you can’t honestly tell me these things are of no concern for the way we understand ourselves and others, and our relationships to the world.

I love this post. Also note that social media (the Internet truly), in a way that TV hasn’t been able to achieve, allows advertisers to be more intimate and targeted than they’ve ever been before. Through platforms like Instagram and Facebook, we basically declare to them the things we desire, interact with most often, the places we go, etc…

All that information is scraped from us and used for all sorts of stuff. To get us to buy things, to get us to watch things, to sway our opinions on so many things.

Thank you! Whenever there’s one of those boring cartoons people about phone obsessions on Tumblr loser their shit and go “well people use their phones for reading! For learning! For communicating long distance! If you don’t think that’s amazing don’t talk to me” and completely ignoring the fact that people are on their phones too much for the wrong reasons and it IS damaging their mental health