Something that has always perplexed me: When the Soviet Union/ communism collapsed in Eastern Europe after ...

Question

Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms in the 1980s and Eastern Europeans were free to leave why didn't the U.S. allow them immigrate here instead of allowing this constant stream of Latin Americans to come to the U.S. Or at least allow the same number of Eastern Europeans to immigrate equal to the amount of Latin Americans coming. Racism anyone?

Answer 1

Good question but I think you already know the answer to this... big business owns the Republican party (80s when this occurred and now) therefore their desire to exploit cheap labor outweighed doing the 'civil' thing.

Answer 2

He does not deserve all the credit but he does deserve credit for taking the steps that finally led to the disintegration of the Soviet system and the Warsaw Pact. He rejected detente as an operating premise and was confrontational. He invested heavily in defense including Star Wars, which the Soviet system could not match. Whether this was brilliant or dangerous is up to the observer. Whatever the choice above, it worked. If we had not taken the confrontational approach we may still be in a Cold War situation with an operant Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. Whether this would be worse than where we are today is again up to the observer. Reagan did not singlehandedly win the Cold War. Anyone saying that is overstating his impact. He did, however, make the decisions that led to its conclusion. It could clearly have ended very differently.

Answer 3

Since the Soviet Union collapsed, the citizens of these countries cannot come for political asylum and they have to wait to win the Green Card Lottery. This lottery is the most stupid thing in the immigration system, as it leaves the educated fluent English Eastern Europeans aside and lets in ignorant people with no idea how to integrate or speak English.
So Eastern Europeans are forced to marry a US citizen for papers-it' s the only way to become legal these days...
I have nothing against the Latinos, but Eastern Europeans have superb education and good moral values and they should be allowed to contribute to US economy if they want to.

Answer 4

The US does allow former Eastern Euros to immigrate, and many do (I work with a bunch of Romanians at this job, past jobs have been in groups with significant Russian populations), but it's a bit harder to illegally immigrate since there isn't a common border to cross. The cost of crossing the Atlantic is likely a barrier for unskilled workers as well. The immigration quota for Euros is higher than that for Latin American countries.

Answer 5

The legislation of 65' was created in a way that favored family immigration ie chain immigration. Formerly we had quotas on countries, and even earlier (roughly in the twenties) we only migrated from western europe (with suggested reason that they were the least backwards).

It's my assessement that our current legislation is geared towards keeping the democratic base to the left (and cheap labor of coarse), which latin america primarily gives to america. Essentially 80% of new latin immigrants favor the democrats; while Russia's communism idealogy has been gravely marginalized by the fact they lived with it.

It's all politically geared, imho.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States

"The Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 (the Hart-Cellar Act), passed by a Democratic controlled Congress, abolished the system of national-origin quotas. Over 28,000,000 have legally immigrated since 1965 under its provisions.

Because of the wide use of family preferences put into immigration law, immigration from now on is mostly "chain immigration" where recent immigrants who are already here sponsor their relatives. Instead of national origins system what we now have is an immigrant origins system where ever increasing numbers of the recent immigrants sponsor ever increasing numbers of their relatives. Total immigration for the decade totals 3,321,000 immigrants including about 200,000 each from Germany, Italy and the UK as well as 400,000 from Canada and 453,000 from Mexico."

Answer 6

When the Soviet bloc countries started to fall, the people left. They left out of fear of reprisal or just to get away and find family members or friends that were in democratic countries. Many eastern bloc countries fell before the Soviet Union did. As soon as all of communism fell, some people went back to their native countries.

The US never stopped anyone from coming to the US as long as they were within the law. If you're referring to Mexicans. Many don't come here legally. Where does the racism come in at?

Answer 7

All of this is about the access to use and the subliminal justifications for third world slavery and cheap labor. Latinos are easier to view as subhuman and thus psychologically easier to exploit.

Answer 8

Because the latinos are crossing the border ILLEGALLY. Not to mention, the Mexican border is a lot closer than the Russian border.

Answer 9

I think the issue is water. One needs to cross a mile of water to get from Mexico to the U.S. One needs to cross several thousand miles of water to get from Eastern Europe to the U.S.
I'm sure there's a water conspiracy here. . . ;)

Answer 10

Maybe because they are americans also (American Continent)
and also because is cheaper to deport them to mexico, than deport them to Europe (Plane ticket),
And also because we want to be friendly with our south neighboors, thay let us exchange old americans retirees for cheap young laboreers.