Alien (law)

An alien is a person who owes political allegiance to another country or is not a native or citizen of the land in which they live. Aliens may live legally or illegally in their host country. Permanent residency refers to a person's visa status: the person is allowed to reside indefinitely within a country despite not having citizenship. A person with such status is known as a permanent resident. Aliens and permanent residents often have access to becoming a citizen of their adopted country depending on the length of time they have been in the new country.

Terminology

Terms used to describe aliens include:

• boat people
• illegal immigrant
• clandestine workers
• sans papiers
• unauthorized immigrant/ migrant/ alien/ worker/ resident
• paperless immigrant/ migrant/ alien/ worker/ resident
• undocumented immigrant/ migrant/ alien / worker/ resident
• criminal alien
• immigrant "without immigration status"
• illegrant "illegal immigrant" (slang) "Illegal alien" is the official term in legislation and the border patrol for a person who has entered the country illegally or is residing in the United States illegally after entering legally (for example, using a tourist visa and remaining after the visa expires).

Causes

People choose to become aliens for any number of reasons. Often their homeland is no longer a welcoming place or they see their new destination as a significant upgrade from their homeland.

War

One motive of immigration is to escape civil war or repression in the country of origin. Non-economic push factors include persecution (religious and otherwise), frequent abuse, bullying, oppression, ethnic cleansing and even genocide, and risks to civilians during war. Political motives traditionally motivate refugee flows - to escape dictatorship for instance.

The largest per-capita source of immigrants to the US comes from El Salvador, for which up to a third of the population lives outside the country, mostly in the US. According to the Santa Clara County Office of Human Relations.

Despite the fact that the U.S. government’ role in the Salvadoran conflict was unique in sustaining the prolongation of the civil conflict, the government and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) extended little sympathy to the people affected by the war. In the 1980s, the INS granted only 2% of political asylum applications, claiming that democracy existed in El Salvador and that reports of U.S. and government-sponsored “death squads” were overblown. As a response to the U.S. government’s failure to address the situation of Salvadoran refugees in the U.S., American activists established a loose network to aid refugees. Operating in clear violation of U.S. immigration laws, these activists took refugees into their houses, aided their travel, hid them and helped them find work. This became known as the “sanctuary movement”.

The US will accept 70,000 refugees in FY 2007. President Bush stated that his eventual goal is a program that resettles 90,000 refugees in the United States each year. In 2006, the State Department officially re-opened the Vietnamese resettlement program. In recent years, the main refugee sending-region has been Africa (Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, Ethiopia).

Family reunion

Some immigrants seek to live with loved ones, such as a spouse or other family members. This is particularly true for the families of binational same sex couples.

Poverty

Another reason for immigration is to escape poverty. Natural disasters and overpopulation can amplify poverty-driven migration flows. According to CBS 60 Minutes, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez, one of the first U.S. servicemen to die in combat in Iraq, a former street child in Guatemala having been orphaned at age 8, first entered the US as an illegal immigrant in 1997 to escape poverty, and dreamed of being an architect. Sometimes the person moves over the border because the wage-labor ratio is much higher in the neighboring country, as is the case with the US illegal immigration.

Rights and Obligations of Permanent Residents

Depending on the country, permanent residents usually have the same rights as citizens except for the rights to:

• vote (some countries allow this)
• stand for public office
• apply for public sector employment (some countries allow this)
• apply for employment involving national security
• own certain classes of real estate
• hold the passport of that country
• access the country's consular protection (some countries allow this)

Permanent residents may be required to fulfill specific residence obligations to retain their status. In some cases, permanent residency may be conditional on a certain type of employment or maintenance of a business.

Some countries have compulsory military service for Permanent Residents and Citizens. For example, Singapore requires all males who are citizens and permanent residents to complete a compulsory 2 years of service in the army known as National Service (NS) upon attaining 18 years of age. However, most first generation permanent residents are exempted, and only their sons are held liable for NS. In a similar vein, the United States has Selective Service, a compulsory registration for military service, which is required of all male citizens and permanent residents ages 18 to 26; this requirement applies even to those residing in the country illegally. Applications for citizenship may be denied or otherwise impeded if the applicant cannot prove having complied with this requirement.

Permanent residents may be required to reside in the country offering them residence for a given minimum length of time (as in Australia).

Permanent residents may lose their status if they fail to comply with residency or other obligations imposed on them. For example:

• they leave the country beyond a maximum number of days
• they commit crimes so as they may be subject to deportation or removal from the country

Access to citizenship

Usually permanent residents may apply for citizenship by naturalisation after a period of residency in the country concerned. Dual citizenship may or may not be permitted.

In many nations an application for naturalisation can be denied on character grounds sometimes resulting in individuals that are not in danger of being deported but may not proceed to citizenship. In the United States, the residency requirements for citizenship may vary according to the basis for residency; for example, those who achieved legal permanent residence by marriage may apply for citizenship three years after residency was granted, while others must wait five years. Those who have served in the armed forces may qualify for an expedited process allowing citizenship after only one year.

Illegal immigration

Illegal immigration refers to immigration across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Under this definition, an illegal immigrant is a foreigner who either has illegally crossed an international political border, be it by land, sea or air, or a foreigner who has entered a country legally but then overstays his/her visa in order to live and/or work therein. In politics, the term may imply a larger set of social issues and time constraints with disputed consequences in areas such as economy, social welfare, education, health care, slavery, prostitution, crime, legal protections, voting rights, public services, and human rights. Illegal emigration would be leaving a country in a manner that violates the laws of the country being exited.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Barkan, Elliott R. "Return of the Nativists? California Public Opinion and Immigration in the 1980s and 1990s." Social Science History 2003 27(2): 229-283. in Project Muse
• Vanessa B. Beasley, ed. Who Belongs in America?: Presidents, Rhetoric, And Immigration (2006)
• Borjas, G.J. "The economics of immigration," Journal of Economic Literature, v 32 (1994), pp. 1667-717
• Cull, Nicholas J. and Carrasco, Davíd, ed. Alambrista and the US-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants U. of New Mexico Press, 2004. 225 pp.
• Thomas J. Espenshade; "Unauthorized Immigration to the United States" Annual Review of Sociology. Volume: 21. 1995. pp 195+.
• Flores, William V. "New Citizens, New Rights: Undocumented Immigrants and Latino Cultural Citizenship" Latin American Perspectives 2003 30(2): 87-100
• Griswold, Daniel T.; "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States," Trade Policy Analysis no. 19, October 15, 2002.
• Nicholas Laham; Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Immigration Reform Praeger Publishers. 2000.
• Lisa Magaña, Straddling the Border: Immigration Policy and the INS (2003)j63-a12036-m12i-3620+3e
• Mohl, Raymond A. "Latinization in the Heart of Dixie: Hispanics in Late-twentieth-century Alabama" Alabama Review 2002 55(4): 243-274. ISSN 0002-4341 9-4894945651
• Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (2004), 90952-15665
• Ngai, Mae M. "The Strange Career of the Illegal Alien: Immigration Restriction and Deportation Policy in the United States, 1921-1965" Law and History Review 2003 21(1): 69-107. ISSN 0738-2480 Fulltext in History Cooperative
• Mireille Rosello; "Representing Illegal Immigrants in France: From Clandestins to L'affaire Des Sans-Papiers De Saint-Bernard" Journal of European Studies, Vol. 28, 1998 959525126
• Dowell Myers (2007), Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America, Russell Sage Foundation, ISBN 978-0-87154-636-4.
• Tranaes, T. and Zimmermann, K.F. (eds), Migrants, Work, and the Welfare State, Odense, University Press of Southern Denmark, (2004)
• Venturini, A. Post-War Migration in Southern Europe. An Economic Approach Cambridge University Press (2004)
• Zimmermann, K.F. (ed.), European Migration: What Do We Know? Oxford University Press, (2005)

External links

• Resident Alien Information
• Aliens (Encyclopedic Entry)

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