At one of my previous companies in Beijing, we sent one of the young colleagues to the US for training on a business visa. It took us quite some effort to get the visa for her. After she came back from that training, she worked for us for a few more months and then quit and used the same visa--not expired yet by then-- to go back to America.
She taught Chinese at some community center on the West Coast. Sometimes she sought my advice on MSN on how to find her ways in the US. School or no school? Which major? Before she left for the US, she had cried in front of me, feeling sorry for having to leave the company and uncertain what she could do in a foreign country. She swore that she had never planned to take advantage of our good intention (and visa sponsorship) in the first place, and it was accidental that she found a program in Beijing certifying Chinese tutors for foreigners. Despite my nagging suspicion of having been used, I remembered how difficult it was for me when I first moved to the US, so I replied to her queries. Plus, who am I to judge if she deserves to be able to go to the US so easily (while others, like my friends and I, had to study so hard to score high on the damn TOEFL and GREs to get our student visas)?
Tonight she pinged me again on MSN. She wondered if she should apply for a green card at her lawyer's urging.
Which category?
Political asylum for being a Chinese Christine.
I didn't ask if she is a Christine. That's moot. Every immigrant has a green card story, just as every New Yorker has an apartment story (at least for the not-so-wealthy ones). Immediately after 1989, all Chinese students living in the US automatically qualified for green card because they were considered to be at risk for government persecution if sent back in China. Many later Chinese immigrants applied for green cards under political asylum for allegedly having suffered from the Chinese government's one-child policy. Two of the illegal Fujianese immigrants at the restaurant where I waited table got their green cards that way. They were no more than 22 years old then.
What does the lawyer say is the success rate? I asked her.
96%. She quickly added that she had only asked the lawyer to help change her status into a student visa. It was the lawyer who had given her the idea of the green card, and she wondered if I think she should go after it.
How much?
$4000.
I remembered my own struggle to get my green card. In my days of desperation I could have claimed any political asylum if not for the fact that I lacked the guts to make up police brutality stories. Now it's so easy for her--persecution of Chinese Christians is well reported in the Western media; likely she only needed to claim the Christian faith and the immigration would accept a reasonable likelihood of persecution if she has to return to China.
So incredibly easy, for she only needs to claim a faith she might not believe in. She had told me before that going to America this way was her only chance of escaping a commoner's boring life in China, making little money and seeing no bright future. Even God might forgive her for that.
"It seems to be worth it," I typed my comment. $4000 and 96% success rate.
Then I thought of those real Christians suffering for real in China. I thought of those really needing freedom instead of just a life better economically. Before I succumbed to my urge to pass some judgment, however, I thought of what America represented for me, once, and all those who fled there to escape a past and seek a future, however trivial to the nonchalant observers.
So I added--"But it's up to you." And your god.
"I know," she typed back.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It seems rather dishonest if she's not really in any danger in China, but on the other hand, who can blame her, and I'm pretty sure that when in the US she'll just work hard to make a good life for herself, and not harm anyone.
But if I were her I'd at least shop around a bit. See what other lawyers' take is on the situation, and what prices they offer.
Two days later, the girl msn'ed back that she considered political asylum based on religion patronage seem would betray her homecountry. She didn't want to lie to become a refugee. Good for her.
on my recent trips to china, i've noticed that the ones who seemed wanting to come to america are the "commoners" who want to escape the "typical life" there. they are more likely to be the lower echelons of work force who have limited opportunities. in fact, i think there is a reverse brain drain now with many of the brightest of china wanting to head back because of opportunities and/or disillusionment with america.
this is a good thing because it means china will get stronger and better, considering it will be these people who will run the country in the future.
it's good to see the girl being conscientious due to "chineseness", a good trend that makes me real proud.
Post a Comment