Sunday, September 21, 2003
Back - And Why Our Society Should Stop Screwing Immigrants
Hey. I know its been awhile, but I haven't forgotten about this site, just busy getting settled into school and stuff.
The one thing that's really been bugging me a lot is how we treat immigrants in North America. I don't mean racism, or poking jokes at them or anything else. But I've realized that I have a number of friends, either immigrants or children of immigrants, and they/their parents are doing menial labour here - when in their home countries, they were PhDs or professors or some other job that requires no small amount of training.
Then, they immigrate, frequently the reason cited is now better opportunities for their children, and they find out that even if they were a professor of math 'back home', its not good enough to teach highschoolers how to divide fractions.
Sure, there are lots of stereotypes about this, so much that its just become a whining point, or, worse yet, a way to look at immigrants in a better light: "Oh, look at him, he went from being a doctor/professor/rocket scientist to a taxi driver/store clerk, WOW, its so great that he did that."
No, its not great, but here's the kicker: we're loosing out, not him. Many of these immigrants have skills that are in a shortage in North America - from doctors to teachers to nurses, there's a general agreement that we need more.
I'm not advocating just saying "Ok, your MS from University X in Y is as good as a degree from Harvard." That could have disasterous effects. But certainly if a say one-year refresher course was made available and was completed with a rigourous, complete test or examination, we'd all benefit. State universities or colleges could provide these services. In time, it will be possible to seperate the 'real' unknown universities from degree mills if the grades and reports are tracked, simplifying the job even more. Think of it as a GED for post-secondary education.
There are lots of potential oponents to this sort of thing - universities won't be happy, especially not private ones, it increases the talent pool and that could be used to drive down wages. Workes in some areas won't be happy, either - remember the 1990's, when an artificial shortage of programmers and other IT positions was created just so tech companies could bring over cheaper workers from other nations?
However, we can learn from these past experiences and get through them. The fundamental issue is recognizing people for their accomplishments and giving people a fair chance in our society, regardless of where they came from. These are moral issues that go to the very core of our democratic principles, and this makes any practical issues secondary - and solvable. Its worth finding a solution.
The one thing that's really been bugging me a lot is how we treat immigrants in North America. I don't mean racism, or poking jokes at them or anything else. But I've realized that I have a number of friends, either immigrants or children of immigrants, and they/their parents are doing menial labour here - when in their home countries, they were PhDs or professors or some other job that requires no small amount of training.
Then, they immigrate, frequently the reason cited is now better opportunities for their children, and they find out that even if they were a professor of math 'back home', its not good enough to teach highschoolers how to divide fractions.
Sure, there are lots of stereotypes about this, so much that its just become a whining point, or, worse yet, a way to look at immigrants in a better light: "Oh, look at him, he went from being a doctor/professor/rocket scientist to a taxi driver/store clerk, WOW, its so great that he did that."
No, its not great, but here's the kicker: we're loosing out, not him. Many of these immigrants have skills that are in a shortage in North America - from doctors to teachers to nurses, there's a general agreement that we need more.
I'm not advocating just saying "Ok, your MS from University X in Y is as good as a degree from Harvard." That could have disasterous effects. But certainly if a say one-year refresher course was made available and was completed with a rigourous, complete test or examination, we'd all benefit. State universities or colleges could provide these services. In time, it will be possible to seperate the 'real' unknown universities from degree mills if the grades and reports are tracked, simplifying the job even more. Think of it as a GED for post-secondary education.
There are lots of potential oponents to this sort of thing - universities won't be happy, especially not private ones, it increases the talent pool and that could be used to drive down wages. Workes in some areas won't be happy, either - remember the 1990's, when an artificial shortage of programmers and other IT positions was created just so tech companies could bring over cheaper workers from other nations?
However, we can learn from these past experiences and get through them. The fundamental issue is recognizing people for their accomplishments and giving people a fair chance in our society, regardless of where they came from. These are moral issues that go to the very core of our democratic principles, and this makes any practical issues secondary - and solvable. Its worth finding a solution.
