brainwave
Jedi Master
FWIW
I don't know what your friend from Trinidad immigration status was, but when we moved here as legal immigrants from Jamaica, my parents had to pay taxes. I learned to do my own taxes because as a teen I sat at the table each year with my parents as they worked through the forms. They made minimum wage at the time. I remember when I was graduating from high school and had to fill out the financial aid forms for college, my guidance counselor was shocked at how low our income was and asked how we survived. Well, we didn't have cable or the latest gadgets or designer clothing but we lived. Heck, I had to make my own clothes. We did not live in public housing or received any public benefits but we were often accused of coming and "taking American jobs" by folks too ignorant to realize that we paid taxes. Back when I first went to college on a partial scholarship, I was accused of "taking scholarship money from good white students." Never mind I was fourth in my high school class of 800 and had good SAT scores or that my parents worked more than one low paying job to keep us fed and clothed. I also chose a major that not too many people were studying. To those kids though, I was an immigrant and they were told that immigrants were the reason they did not have certain things.
As far as I know, by law undocumented immigrants are not allowed to receive public benefits and legal immigrants are required to pay taxes. You can be denied citizenship if you are unable to show past tax filings. Sure there may be some cheaters, as in all groups, but to blame the economic problems mostly on immigrants or the "illegals" sounds like more of what I experienced. If so many illegals are taking jobs from citizens, then blame the folks hiring them too. They are probably the same folks screaming about illegals to sow discord and keep everyone controlled.
On another side of the same coin, I have taught college level science classes and American born students in my courses were few and far between. Lots of accents to say the least. Many American students choose majors like business and finance. Nothing wrong with that, but I've heard folks complain about all the foreigners getting scholarships. It's because the foreigners tend to major in the sciences and that is often where the scholarship money is, at least in my institution. I suspect that native born students are either intimidated or poorly prepared due to the dismal state of American public education. Yet, there are resources available if an individual is truly interested. The scientists in labs I have worked in were ALL immigrants. Citizens yes, but born elsewhere. I remember we had a visiting scholar who once asked specifically for "an American" to decipher some term she had heard. I responded and she said, " no I want a real American, someone from here to tell me what it means." She never did find that "real American" in the neurobiology center because everyone was born elsewhere including the director of the center. When people complain about the lack of Americans in research is it because immigrants (here I mean legal ones) are "taking" all the positions or is it that Americans are just not interested? It's anecdotal but I suspect the latter based on my experience. There are lots of science scholarships available the require citizenship to obtain. Every semester I go to classes to speak to students about considering what is called STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors. I prepare lists of available funding opportunities, how to get tutoring if they are behind and all the benefits etc. Very few American students apply, so who's to blame?
I can understand the frustrations but the reality is there are psychopathic elites that need to have everyone at each others throats while they sit back and reap the benefits. Even if there are some illegals who take advantage of the system, IMO psychopaths allow it because they like it that way. The complaint of illegal immigrants destroying the economy is amplified in order to keep the psychopaths in power.
Brainwave
I don't know what your friend from Trinidad immigration status was, but when we moved here as legal immigrants from Jamaica, my parents had to pay taxes. I learned to do my own taxes because as a teen I sat at the table each year with my parents as they worked through the forms. They made minimum wage at the time. I remember when I was graduating from high school and had to fill out the financial aid forms for college, my guidance counselor was shocked at how low our income was and asked how we survived. Well, we didn't have cable or the latest gadgets or designer clothing but we lived. Heck, I had to make my own clothes. We did not live in public housing or received any public benefits but we were often accused of coming and "taking American jobs" by folks too ignorant to realize that we paid taxes. Back when I first went to college on a partial scholarship, I was accused of "taking scholarship money from good white students." Never mind I was fourth in my high school class of 800 and had good SAT scores or that my parents worked more than one low paying job to keep us fed and clothed. I also chose a major that not too many people were studying. To those kids though, I was an immigrant and they were told that immigrants were the reason they did not have certain things.
As far as I know, by law undocumented immigrants are not allowed to receive public benefits and legal immigrants are required to pay taxes. You can be denied citizenship if you are unable to show past tax filings. Sure there may be some cheaters, as in all groups, but to blame the economic problems mostly on immigrants or the "illegals" sounds like more of what I experienced. If so many illegals are taking jobs from citizens, then blame the folks hiring them too. They are probably the same folks screaming about illegals to sow discord and keep everyone controlled.
On another side of the same coin, I have taught college level science classes and American born students in my courses were few and far between. Lots of accents to say the least. Many American students choose majors like business and finance. Nothing wrong with that, but I've heard folks complain about all the foreigners getting scholarships. It's because the foreigners tend to major in the sciences and that is often where the scholarship money is, at least in my institution. I suspect that native born students are either intimidated or poorly prepared due to the dismal state of American public education. Yet, there are resources available if an individual is truly interested. The scientists in labs I have worked in were ALL immigrants. Citizens yes, but born elsewhere. I remember we had a visiting scholar who once asked specifically for "an American" to decipher some term she had heard. I responded and she said, " no I want a real American, someone from here to tell me what it means." She never did find that "real American" in the neurobiology center because everyone was born elsewhere including the director of the center. When people complain about the lack of Americans in research is it because immigrants (here I mean legal ones) are "taking" all the positions or is it that Americans are just not interested? It's anecdotal but I suspect the latter based on my experience. There are lots of science scholarships available the require citizenship to obtain. Every semester I go to classes to speak to students about considering what is called STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors. I prepare lists of available funding opportunities, how to get tutoring if they are behind and all the benefits etc. Very few American students apply, so who's to blame?
I can understand the frustrations but the reality is there are psychopathic elites that need to have everyone at each others throats while they sit back and reap the benefits. Even if there are some illegals who take advantage of the system, IMO psychopaths allow it because they like it that way. The complaint of illegal immigrants destroying the economy is amplified in order to keep the psychopaths in power.
Brainwave
What's harder?? to become useful because hard experiences, or being useless and try to become useful??
