Sunday, March 4, 2007

The Immigrants, pt. 1

Two Philippino women, one named Beatrice and one named Tillie, met in Tel Aviv Israel. Odd as it seems, it's a pretty common practice for Phillippinos to immigrate to Israel and surrounding areas, especially after the US military base in the Phillippines closed, thus cutting off a significant amount of employment opportunities for its citizens.

Beatrice was a dentist in the Phillippines, but because of the harsh state of the economy's effect on her ability to provide for she and her husband's three kids, she moved to Israel to become an embassy-provided maid. She managed to get home to see her kids usually once a year. Her dream was to get one of the embassy families she worked for to sponsor her so she could immigrate to the States. For people in Beatrice's position to immigrate, it was necessary for a family to cover their expenses and provide proof that the person in question would have a job working for them. The problem with this plan was that most families who had maids had them simply because they were provided by the embassy. Had it been at their own expense, they probably would not have been in the position to afford it. Therefore, the only maids who usually got sponsored were those who worked for people in highly paid positions, such as ambassadors, and then only when those ambassadors actually returned to the States. Eventually, when she became pregnant with her third child, Beatrice gave up for the moment on moving her family to the States, and contended herself just with moving back to be with them.

Tillie, on the other hand, finally found a family to sponsor her and her husband back to the States. They were awaiting the approval of their visa through the embassy, when an unexpected cable came from the State Department in early January, instituting a new immigration policy - immigration visas, from then on, would no longer be allowed to be issued through embassies. People whose visas had already been approved, they amended a few days later, would still be able to immigrate, but those who hadn't been approved yet, like Tillie, would just have to wait for another opportunity.

Both Tillie and Beatrice wanted to move to the United States because of the opportunity afforded them - because Beatrice didn't have to be a maid to make a living, and could get paid a full salary for her dentistry skills. Tillie could afford to start a family. Neither of them have achieved that particular dream yet, not because of lack of determination, not because of disillusionment, and not because of dumb luck, but because they have been prevented from doing so by the ever-stricter immigration laws imposed by the US government.

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