When I was growing up, most citizens living under the socialist republic were not allowed to visit abroad, immigrate, or emigrate. The borders were shut tightly, holding everyone inside like a giant maximum-security prison controlled by the Communist Party and its dear leader.
The
government had an anti-emigration policy, immigration was suppressed, and
travel abroad was tightly controlled and only allowed to those who had a clean
record, deemed so by the Communist Party who investigated a person’s lineage, political
activity, land ownership, real estate, and private property. Emigration, the
actual moving and settling permanently in another country was highly discouraged
and so was immigration, the temporary movement of people from one country to
another.
If the
parents and grandparents were considered “objectionable” by the Communist
Party, that person never saw any meaningful jobs, promotions, admission to
college, free attendance, and other benefits only available to the lapdog
apparatchiks.
If a
person’s ancestors had fought the Communist Party, the Russian Bolsheviks,
owned land, a home, were considered bourgeois and undesirable. Few people would
want to associate with them or marry them lest they would be marked as well.
Their dossiers were compromised for life.
To escape
such a prison, one could try swimming across the Danube to Bulgaria, another
communist country, or cross the border west into Yugoslavia. A few married
foreigners to escape, many attempted defections while on temporary travel
abroad, if they could escape their assigned handlers, or were successful in
defecting in creative ways. Some were killed or imprisoned for life for such
attempts at escaping across the highly militarized border. If they managed to
escape, their families left behind were mistreated and even jailed.
An annual
quota of 11,000 ethnic Germans and 1,000 Jews were allowed emigration to West
Germany and to Israel in exchange for hard currency, German marks, or dollars,
paid by West Germany and Israel to the Communist Party coffers.
Studying
abroad during the socialist regime was only reserved for the children of the
Communist Party members who were higher in the elite hierarchy. Learning English
was discouraged as a foreign language, replaced by French and Russian.
University students were told “to stay away from the small American Embassy
library and to avoid and ignore exchange professors and students” and visitors
from other countries.
Approximately
2,500-3,000 Romanians were allowed to emigrate to the U.S. annually in exchange
for the most favored nation status (MFN) as part of the trade agreement of
1975. (Pinstripes and Reds, David Funderburk, 1987)
A certain
percentage of more recent emigres to the U.S. were winners of an annual
lottery. This type of visa is called the “diversity visa lottery” and requires
a high school diploma and at least two years of work experience. This visa is
also known as the green card visa and 55,000 people are chosen from those who
apply. Time
Is Running Out For Diversity Visa 2021 Applicants (immigrationdirect.com)
It is
interesting to note that the more educated individuals have a harder time
getting a visa, while the U.S. immigration policy encourages and allows the
flotsam and jetsam of the third world to come to the U.S. illegally through the
southern border in hopes that they will augment the Democrat voting rolls.
You could
say that our immigration policy is racist in terms of the number of Caucasians
allowed to emigrate and immigrate to the United States. “Between 2010 and 2020 about 97% of all refugees
were non-white.” Around 10 percent of the immigrants allowed into the U.S.
between 2010-2020 were white and Asian.
And there is
also the fiancé visa, K-1, the visa made famous by the reality show, “90 Day
Fiancé.” The prospective foreign fiancé has 90 days to come to the U.S. and get
married to a U.S. citizen.
Finally, there
are student and tourist visas. Students and tourists overstay their visas and,
if they are lucky, they are never returned to their home country. Out of
thousands of overstayers, only a few were deported back to their home
countries.
The F-1 visa
allows foreign nationals to stay after graduation, working for a company in the
U.S. for a period of 12-36 months. An article in 2020 stated that some foreign
students were actually “working” for fake companies. Thousands
of foreign students in U.S. on student visas may have 'worked' for fake
companies (nbcnews.com)
In addition to the F-1 visa, there is an M-1 visa for vocational training and
a J-1 visa for an exchange visitor program. The longer-term options for such
students are H1-B visas and LPR (lawful permanent residence) status. Foreign STEM
Students in the United States (congress.gov)
According to the Congressional Service Report of November 1,
2019, “More than 1 million foreign students in the United States on student
visas were enrolled in U.S. Of these, almost half (497,413) were studying STEM
disciplines. The countries that dominated such STEM disciplines were China,
India, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran, Nepal, Taiwan, Vietnam, Kuwait, and
Canada.” Foreign
STEM Students in the United States (congress.gov)
According to
the Pew Research, during the Covid-19 pandemic the foreign student college
enrollment in the 2020-2021 school year dropped by 15 percent, with less than a
million foreign students enrolled online and at U.S. universities. Foreign
student enrollment at U.S. universities fell 15% amid COVID-19 | Pew Research Center
The Atlantic authored an article in 2019 claiming that visa
overstays are the immigration crisis, not the southern border illegal
immigration. Since people on student visas are vetted, including medically, it
is hardly credible that such foreign nationals would pose a larger threat than
those flooding our southern border every day, unvaccinated and sick, carrying
diseases that Americans are not prepared to pay for and deal with in public, in
hospitals, and in school settings. The
Real Immigration Crisis: People Overstaying Their Visas - The Atlantic
Experiencing
a totalitarian regime where nobody is allowed outside the country’s borders is
oppressive but we have to be careful and not go to the extreme, throwing the
borders wide-open to a massive influx of unvetted and detrimental individuals
who are going to put a severe strain on our society. It is a dangerous
direction and it is no surprise that Governor Greg Abbott of Texas made good on
his promise to bus illegal immigrants from Texas to Washington, D.C. The first
bus arrived yesterday.
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