Who?
An immigrant is a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. Immigrants (legal and illegal) make up a growing portion of the US population increasing to 12.4% in 2005. Georiga had the highest growth rate among the states, but California still has the highest number of illegal immigrants. Immigration from Hispanic countries has remained constant since 1980s, but immigration from Europe, Canada, and Asia has increased.
What?
There have been many immigration policies passed in the US starting with the Immigration Act of 1990. This act increased the level of employment based immigration and allotted a higher proportion of vias to highly skilled immigrants, In 1996, the welfare reform was put into place, which disentitled most legal immigrants from food stamps, welfare and SSI. The same year as the welfare reform act that took away many rights from legal immigrants, the Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed. This doubled the size of border patrol and stifferned penalities for document fraud/immigrant smuggling. Imposed sanctions on employers if hiring illegal immigrants, granted legal status to undocumented immigrants who had been in US since 1982 or had worked in agriculture. This gave nearly 3 millions immigrants citizenship. After that act nothing was really done about immigrantation until Post-September 11, 2001. Immigration regulations and enforcement have become more stringent, thousands of people have been deported and students much prove they have been accepted to a school before they can enter, due to the fact some of the 9-11 terrorists were admitted as forgein students. Also, the number of border agents weas increased and the National Guard was dispatched to the borders. Congress has also passes laws increasing border control (700 miles of fencing along the southern border of the US), but no progress has been made in passing an mmigration reform bill. Basically, the government feels increasing border control will fix the problem, but I do not agree. It has been proven that immigration from Hispanic countries has not increased so why do we keep spending money to control borders instead of taking care of the immigrants we already have??
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Session 13: Housing and Community Development
Who?
Of course people who cannot afford housing turn to the government for help, but I was also surprised to know that not only poor families look to the government for help, working families do as well. The number of working families facing critical housing needs increased 73% from 1997 to 2005. Thats crazy to me. How can a family be working a full time job and not be able to afford housing? Something is seriously wrong with that. The region with the highest rates of citical housing needs are in the West and Northeast. This is a little shocking to me because a few sessions ago we learned people in the South are the poorest so I thought they would need housing more than the people in the West/Northeast.
What?
Government housing is extremely important to people who cannot afford to purchase a house of their own or cannot rent an apartment. There is two types of government assistance: public housing or vouchers. Public housing requires residents to pay 30% of monthly income and live in a designated area built by governments. Vouchers are either given to landlords provided the unit meets quality standards or given to a tenant so they can rent a home in private housing market or help pay mortgages so that low income families can purchase homes. In my opinion vouchers are the best option. Not only does it improve outcomes for children because it allows people to live in low-poverty neighborhoods and racially-mixed neighborhoods, which leads to less likelyhood of becoming involved with volence and children usually get a better ecducation, but it also helps families leave and stay off welfare. Although vouchers should great there are always down sides for government assistance. Only 1 in every 3 families gets vouchers and it doesn't provide equal acces to low-poverty neighborhoods. If the governemnt made it easier to recieve vouchers and live in nicer neighborhoods, it would make life better for thousands, even millions of American who are stuck in public housing.
Of course people who cannot afford housing turn to the government for help, but I was also surprised to know that not only poor families look to the government for help, working families do as well. The number of working families facing critical housing needs increased 73% from 1997 to 2005. Thats crazy to me. How can a family be working a full time job and not be able to afford housing? Something is seriously wrong with that. The region with the highest rates of citical housing needs are in the West and Northeast. This is a little shocking to me because a few sessions ago we learned people in the South are the poorest so I thought they would need housing more than the people in the West/Northeast.
What?
Government housing is extremely important to people who cannot afford to purchase a house of their own or cannot rent an apartment. There is two types of government assistance: public housing or vouchers. Public housing requires residents to pay 30% of monthly income and live in a designated area built by governments. Vouchers are either given to landlords provided the unit meets quality standards or given to a tenant so they can rent a home in private housing market or help pay mortgages so that low income families can purchase homes. In my opinion vouchers are the best option. Not only does it improve outcomes for children because it allows people to live in low-poverty neighborhoods and racially-mixed neighborhoods, which leads to less likelyhood of becoming involved with volence and children usually get a better ecducation, but it also helps families leave and stay off welfare. Although vouchers should great there are always down sides for government assistance. Only 1 in every 3 families gets vouchers and it doesn't provide equal acces to low-poverty neighborhoods. If the governemnt made it easier to recieve vouchers and live in nicer neighborhoods, it would make life better for thousands, even millions of American who are stuck in public housing.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Session 12: Social Security
Who?
Social security really affects everyone. People are compelled to insure themselves through payroll or other taxes so they will have money in retirement, loos of a job, death of a family breadwinner, or physical disability. Social security is the most successful anti-poverty program, but started to show signs of fiscal trouble by mid 1970s. This is very worrisome to me because I have always heard by the time I retire there will not be enough money to take care of me.
What?
I originally never considered social security as a program helping poor people. I do think social security is a good program, but considering that it is depleting as we speak it wont last long. Since the Obama administration is so against privatizing social security, what else could be done? If you are strongly against one idea, it would be more helpful to come up with other ideas rather than just saying no like Obama has. According to AJC, if taxes went up about 2%, the government would be able to cover the 75 year shortfall. I dont think this is a good idea since other taxes are already so high. Of course there is always the option to save your own money for your own retirement. Who in America would be able to save enough money to be self-stainable by retirement? Thats a hard call.
Social security really affects everyone. People are compelled to insure themselves through payroll or other taxes so they will have money in retirement, loos of a job, death of a family breadwinner, or physical disability. Social security is the most successful anti-poverty program, but started to show signs of fiscal trouble by mid 1970s. This is very worrisome to me because I have always heard by the time I retire there will not be enough money to take care of me.
What?
I originally never considered social security as a program helping poor people. I do think social security is a good program, but considering that it is depleting as we speak it wont last long. Since the Obama administration is so against privatizing social security, what else could be done? If you are strongly against one idea, it would be more helpful to come up with other ideas rather than just saying no like Obama has. According to AJC, if taxes went up about 2%, the government would be able to cover the 75 year shortfall. I dont think this is a good idea since other taxes are already so high. Of course there is always the option to save your own money for your own retirement. Who in America would be able to save enough money to be self-stainable by retirement? Thats a hard call.
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