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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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100989
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10098900.008
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1990-09-18
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WORLD, Page 51SOVIET UNIONLetting Their People GoA wave of emigration swamps the U.S. and buoys Israel
Every morning for months a ragtag line of Soviet citizens has
formed outside the American embassy in Moscow, jamming the guarded
main entrance and snaking 100 yards down Tchaikovsky Street. The
crowds push and break into noisy arguments. On particularly rowdy
days some desperate applicants offer Soviet policemen as much as
700 rubles ($1,120) to sneak them to the front of the queue. Soviet
emigration, for so long a trickle, has turned into an avalanche.
Each year for three years the number of emigres has doubled, and
so far in 1989 some 80,000 Soviets have applied to leave. More than
90% want to go to the U.S.
This week the crowd in front of the embassy should begin to
thin under the impact of new rules issued in Washington. Would-be
emigrants will no longer be allowed to apply for visas in the
embassy's consular office; instead, they must fill out an
application and send it to Washington. Applicants who merit refugee
status will be notified by international postcard to report to the
embassy in Moscow for a personal interview.
U.S. officials estimate that about 300,000 Soviet citizens,
mostly Jews and Armenians, will send in forms during the next
twelve months. The annual quota set by Washington, however, will
provide no more than 50,000 with refugee visas -- a 25% increase
over last year -- and an additional 30,000 with "parole" status,
permission to come to the U.S. but with no financial assistance.
Result: the U.S., after demanding for years that the U.S.S.R.
loosen its emigration laws, will turn away more than 200,000 Soviet
emigres.
The situation is embarrassing for the U.S. But officials say
the administrative and financial burdens involved are growing
overwhelming. "Nowhere is it written," protested one, "that the
U.S. should be the only destination of Soviets who want to
emigrate." If embassy officials are defensive about the new
procedures, they are also firm. To qualify as refugees, Soviets,
like all other applicants, must prove that they have a
"well-grounded fear" of persecution; those who succeed get an
average of $7,500 in U.S. Government aid.
In recent years, most Soviet Jews who left their country --
almost 19,000 during 1988 -- did so on exit visas for Israel. But
during stopovers in Rome or Vienna almost all of them switched
their destination to the U.S. They will no longer be allowed to do
that, and some American Jewish organizations are protesting.
The Israeli government, however, considers the new U.S. policy
a godsend. It is hoping that thousands of such emigres will now
actually come to the Jewish state and help balance the rapidly
growing Arab population. Finance Minister Shimon Peres announced
during a visit to Washington last week that Israel expected some
100,000 immigrants from the Soviet Union by 1992 and planned to
spend $3 billion to assist them. "I don't think there is anything
more important than to have Russian Jews coming to Israel," he
said.