nwasianweekly.com
May 26, 2007

Family reunification is an American value

It’s a scary thought for millions in the Asian Pacific Islander community: What if you were forced to live an ocean apart from your family?

That’s what would happen if the current immigration reform plan is approved. A recent compromise between Senate Democrats and Republicans would make it much tougher for immigrants to sponsor parents, adult children and adult siblings for entry to the United States. That traditional method would be replaced by a merit-based system that would prioritize job skills and the needs of the American economy over family reunification.

We are concerned about this provision because some 60 percent of this generation’s APIs arrived in America as immigrants or refugees. This community has for decades enjoyed and taken advantage of the ability to bring over family members. We count on being able to reunite with our loved ones, even if it takes several years to wade through all the bureaucracy.

Family is critically important to the API community. Our definition of family extends much further than the nuclear family — we include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, even great-aunts and great-uncles in many cases. In Asia, it’s not just the parents who are responsible for the caretaking; everyone gets in the act, and we can’t help but develop close bonds with our large but tight-knit extended families.

What kind of life do you have if you’re separated from your family by thousands of miles? Even in this electronic age, e-mails and photos just aren’t enough. A sense of peace is attained when you know that your parents, children and the rest of your family are in a safe, secure, nearby place, not on another continent.

A merit-based immigration plan may fulfill the needs of the economy in the short term, but what happens to those immigrants who arrive in America alone? They may spend their days making good money, but they will spend their nights worrying about loved ones in distant lands.

Life has little meaning if you’re not surrounded by the people you love.

Keeping families apart is contrary to a healthy economy. If people are happy, they will be productive workers. If they are unhappy, their misery will bleed into their job performance.

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