TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/101491/1014105.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 7.9 KB | 159 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 26

IMMIGRATION

Give Me Your Rich, Your Lucky . . .


In the most sweeping policy revision in 25 years, the U.S. will
welcome increasing numbers of Europeans and well-heeled
foreigners

By RICHARD LACAYO -- Reported by Dan Cray/Los Angeles and Moira
M. O'Donnell and Andrea Sachs/New York


    Wu Wen-shuo, a Taiwanese student, will be finishing
medical school next year at UCLA. After that, he would like to
remain in the U.S. So would many foreign residents. But Wu has
an edge: cash, and lots of it. Under one provision of the
sweeping new immigration law that took effect last week,
permanent residency can go to investors who put at least $1
million -- or half that in rural or depressed areas -- into an
American business that employs 10 or more workers. So, Wu, 22,
is injecting $1.1 million, which he got mostly from his family,
into a new gas station and car wash in Chula Vista, Calif. David
Liang, a San Diego real estate broker who led Wu to the
investment, claims there are plenty of other prospective
Americans ready to plunk down their money for a fast track to
permanent residency, the major step toward citizenship. "This
is only my first project," he says. "If it turns out well, I
have 11 other people who would like me to help them get a
business started here."

    It may be time to expand the plaque at the base of the
Statue of Liberty that bears the famous lines by Emma Lazarus:
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses . . ." These
days the call is also out for your skilled, your rich and your
lucky. That change is the result of a law that went into effect
this month, the Immigration Act of 1990, the most fundamental
revision of immigration policy since the 1965 law, which opened
the door to large numbers of non-Europeans. At a time when
America is losing ground in the global economic competition, the
new law represents a major shift in philosophy about who should
get permanent residency, the "green card" status that makes
immigrants eligible for full citizenship in five years. The old
system stressed family reunification: 90% of slots went to the
relatives of earlier arrivals. Now brainpower and purchasing
power will also count.

    Investor slots like the one that Wu hopes to fill --
10,000 each year under the new law -- are only part of the
story. The law also creates more openings for immigrants from
Europe through a so-called lottery that has thousands of
applicants scrambling for a chance at legal residency. Other
reforms will almost triple, from 54,000 to 140,000, the number
of skilled workers who can enter the U.S. legally each year
because American employers sponsor them. As a result, businesses
and universities will have a greatly expanded chance to import
professionals they cannot find at home. The growth of the U.S.
labor force is expected to slow over the coming decade, which
will make more room for skilled foreign workers -- especially
in fields that are expected to show the greatest shortages, like
engineering, mathematics, chemistry and physics.

    The new policy brings the U.S. in line with other nations,
like Canada and Australia, that have long been luring the best
and the brightest. "Virtually every other country reviews its
immigrant applications based on skills," says former Colorado
Governor Richard Lamm, co-author of The Immigration Time Bomb.
"We're the only country in the world that brings in whole
generations of poor people every year." The Federal Government
estimates that investor visas will generate $10 billion over the
next five years. That sum will only be raised if at least 3,000
investors enter the country each year. By mid-September,
immigration officials had received only 100 preliminary
applications. Some argue that the policy also threatens some
cherished notions about fairness. "The whole implication is that
if you're poor and uneducated, America doesn't want you,"
complains Peter Schey, director of the Center for Human Rights
and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles.

    That might be true if the poor were being excluded to make
room for the privileged. In fact, the new law is accommodating
both rich and poor by expanding the total pool of legal aliens,
from more than 500,000 annually to 700,000 for each of the next
three years. The impact on the ethnic makeup and economic level
of new arrivals will be limited at first. In keeping with
policies set in 1965, the great majority of newcomers will still
be the relatives of people who are legal residents, regardless
of their economic circumstances.

    For European immigrants, whose numbers have fallen off
sharply in recent years, the law represents a long-awaited shot
at a visa. From 1955 to 1964, 50% of all new Americans came
from Europe. By 1989, that figure was down to 8%, while 29%
arrived from Asia and 56% from Canada, Mexico, Central America
and the Caribbean. To avoid charges that whites are again being
favored over Hispanics, blacks and Asians, the new law increases
the number of slots for family members of aliens, which will
largely benefit non-Europeans (from 446,000 to 520,000), while
providing 40,000 visas in each of the first three years to
natives of 34 countries, most of them in Europe, whose nationals
had lost ground. They, in turn, will be able to petition for the
entry of family members they left back home.

    These visas will be distributed by an unusual method: the
winners will be the first 40,000 qualifying people whose
applications are received after midnight on Oct. 14 at a
post-office box in Arlington, Va. Immigrants and their lawyers
are converging on Arlington to dump thousands of applications
directly at the post office. About 40% of the slots are reserved
for people from Ireland, which reflects not only the clout of
Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy but also recognition of the
problem posed by the presence of as many as 100,000 illegal
Irish immigrants.

    The visa lottery -- it's been dubbed the Irish sweepstakes
-- has enterprising immigrants filling out hundreds of
applications in the hope of improving their chances. Fears that
revealing their names and addresses will make them vulnerable
to arrest and deportation have been muted because the names are
being collected by the State Department, not the immigration
service, and because an earlier lottery of this kind did not
result in sweeps.

    In Boston and New York City bars, Irish hopefuls hand out
hundreds of applications to friends and ask their help in
completing them. "I plan to fill out at least a thousand
applications," said Joanne O'Connell, who was at Stephen's Green
Pub in Queens, N.Y., last week, helping other Irish immigrants
with their forms. "It's worth it."

    Not content to wait another 25 years before it comes to
terms with the question again, Congress has decided to review
immigration quotas every three years. If the new law really
widens the American talent pool, a further shift in favor of the
skilled and wealthy is likely. In addition to the people with
a dream of succeeding here, America wants the people who have
already succeeded at home.


________________________________________________________________
HOW TO GET A GREEN CARD

    -- The new law raises the number of immigrants from 500,000
to 700,000 annually during the first three years. Afterward the
number will be 675,000.

    -- Under one provision of the law, 10,000 visas will be
issued to those willing to invest at least $1 million ($500,000
in rural or depressed areas) in an American business that
creates at least 10 jobs.

    -- The legislation will provide 40,000 visas to natives of
34 countries that were shortchanged in recent years.
Applications must be received by mail no earlier than Oct. 14,
and visas will be distributed on a first-come, first-served
basis.