Immigration Limits

[Perianne]

How many immigrants should we allow each year? Where should they come from? Should they be required to have skills?

I was born Pierrette Anni Paasivirta in 1957. My mother and I immigrated from Finland to America in 1960, two of 265,398 immigrants allowed that year. We both were blue-eyed blondes, a very different look than current immigrants, which are mostly dark-skinned people. If immigrants had been required to have skills which would benefit this country, we would not have been allowed.

We lived in extreme poverty for much of my childhood, yet my mother refused to take one penny or one bite of food from the government. She said we did not come here to be a burden on anyone else.

I left home at 18 and set out on my own. For two nights I slept behind a dumpster and then got into a homeless shelter funded by a church. From there I got various jobs to support myself until I finally married a man who was just as poor as I was. We both were determined to succeed in life. I entered college to become a nurse while continuing to work full time. My husband, through determination and hard work, succeeded in construction. Through all of this we never took a penny from the government or state.

My daughter is now working on her BSN, again, all paid for without any government assistance.

I say all of this to point out the difficult conditions immigrants used to overcome to become true American citizens. Surviving makes a person strong. Nowadays we seem to hand them (immigrants) all they need to succeed. Regardless, they will not suffer by coming here, legally or not.

Your views on immigration?

[Trigg]

I don't care where they come from, but they must be able to support themselves and their families without government assistance. They should already be able to speak English as well, it's hard to work in this country without speaking the language.

As far as limits. I think that needs to change yearly based on what THIS country needs. If we have high unemployment we don't need people from other countries taking what jobs there are from American citizens. If there is a recession, once again we should limit immigration until things improve. We have to look out for our citizens first.

As an aside, my sister lives in Finland (actually the Aland islands). She moved there to attend school and decided to stay. It's a beautiful country.

[Drummond]

Since we don't get the full spectrum of American news on our domestic news agencies, I don't know if what's begun this thread is an ongoing initiative to encourage immigration (.. or a loosening of rules, or whatever ..).

If your Lefties are trying to push for anything of the sort .. if I were you, I'd resist it to the maximum extent.

Here, our Left wing succeeded in creating a climate where to even DISCUSS the rate of immigration was deemed racist !! Tony Blair had to go on record saying that in his view, it wasn't, and was a legitimate concern.

Regardless - UK immigration is a mess. Our Conservatives pledged to keep it within well-defined limits, but as everyone knew, they had no way of delivering on that. Nonexistent country borders within EU Member States is considered a 'foundling standard' by which the EU operates. If we had a sudden rush of people wanting to enter the UK from another EU country and swamp our jobs market, it'd defy EU law to in any way try and impede them.

So I say this: if your Lefties haven't yet worked to relax immigration laws, they undoubtedly WILL in the not too distant future. It's Left-wing 'thinking' to regard immigration curbs as an antisocial act.

And then .. the plundering of your Social Services handouts will begin in earnest .. if it hasn't already ....