Visa
spreads student diversity
By Yi-Fang Vicky Lin
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Diversity Visa 2004 program begins to accept
applications starting today through Oct.
31, which may be beneficial for the international
students on the Cal State Long Beach campus.
Each year the program, commonly known as
the “Green Card Lottery,” provides millions
of applicants a chance to test their luck
and win a green card. Through the program
the U.S. government will issue a permanent
resident visa to 50,000 winners from six
regions around the world.
Nearly 8.7 million applications were received
last year from Africa, Asia, Europe, North
America, Oceania and the Caribbean, according
to the U.S. Department of State. Of these,
approximately 87,000 applicants were selected
at random and are now in the processes of
obtaining their green cards.
“Basically, this program was created to
allow more Europeans to come, especially
Irish,” said John Tsuchida, chairman of
Asian and Asian American Studies at CSULB
and a lawyer specialized in immigration
laws. “Senator candidates wanted to help
out many undocumented Irish immigrants living
in the East Coast, then they could applied
for legalizations.
“If we don’t have this program, the great
majority of immigrants will be people from
Asia and Latin America,” he said.
The program is meant to diversify the ethnicity
of immigrants into the United States and
focuses on promoting European immigrants.
Unlike other U.S. immigration laws, this
act is the easiest and most cost-effective
program that is open to almost everyone.
“Immigration laws have been quite rigid
in terms of eligibility, which most people
are not qualified,” Tsuchida said.
Under the program, the applicant must possess
a high school degree and two years of working
experiences within the last five years.
However, few countries with high immigration
rates are ineligible to participate in the
program, according to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service Web site. These countries
include: Canada, China, Colombia, the Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, India and Mexico,
among others.
Many international students on campus have
heard and applied to this program.
“It’s a convenience for getting a job in
the U.S.,” said Chih-Lun Danny Liao, a Taiwanese
graduate student in the electrical engineering
department. “Even your ability and skill
qualified for the job, you hardly find jobs
without a green card. I would definitely
give it a try to test my luck.”
Hakan Erarslan, a senior business major
from Turkey, has applied to the program
twice and will apply again this year.
“For my future, I would like to stay here,”
Erarslan said. “If you don’t have a green
card, which means you don’t have permission
to work.”
Other international students do not see
the program as playing an important role
in their lives. Murali Kasivisvanathan,
a student from Maylasia, said he wants to
reunite with his family back home after
graduation.
“I still feel that I have something attached
back home, I am still returning back home
eventually,” Kasivisvanathan. “If I get
the citizenship along the way in the process
of what I do, that is fine. But I’m not
going out of my way just to get it.”
Another international student from Qatar,
Matar Alkuwari said he would not apply for
the program since he plans to go back home
after graduation.
|
