Thanks for bringing in these personal stories for the readers. They shed light on personal ordeals that are often hidden behind kafkaesque bureaucracy. I second the recommendations that companies should acknowledge the challenges that immigrants are facing. I think it is important to follow the letters of the law but sometime we need to look at the spirit of the law as well.
Your post and conversation Adam McKeown's book "Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders" (http://cup.columbia.edu/book/melancholy-order/9780231140775). Even though it was not about U.S immigration, the book talks a lot about how border control and identity documentation have both personal and global dimensions.
Here's the opening paragraph of the book -- one of the best explanation I have read that connects the personal with the institutional:
"The modern passport is a palpable manifestation of an idealized global theme main sources moder identity: the individual and the state. It specifies a unique individual within a matrix of standardized physical categories, and it guarantees that identification with the marks and seals of a recognized nation state. It embodies both the most private and the most bureaucratically alienating of identities, being an object of intense personal attachment even as it is a tool of global regulation and standardization. The photograph, accumulated visas, seals, and amendments further enrich it as a token of personal history even as they entrench the bearer more deeply within the files and machinery of state surveillance.
The modern passport is addressed to a global audience; other documents can establish the link between nation and individual for domestic purposes. The passport announces to other states that the issuing state will take responsibility for the identified individual. To cross international borders without such a document (in the absence of special agreements to the contrary) makes one "illegal," "irregular," or a stateless person who must depend on the mercy of others. The efficacy of the document depends on recognition of the issuing entity as part of an interlocked order of nation states. The ability to generate standardized forms of identity is, in turn, an important part of obtaining this recognition. Although the passport claims merely to be official recognition of a preexisting individuality, the act of documentation itself makes nations and individuals into realities."
Thanks Sharif for adding to the conversation! The idea about being "a stateless person who must depend on the mercy of others" really highlights what relying on education and work visas is like for those trying to live, study, and work in the U.S. The agency to move abroad for a better life is immense and admirable, yet is impeded once someone tries to follow immigration bureaucratic red tape.
Thanks for bringing in these personal stories for the readers. They shed light on personal ordeals that are often hidden behind kafkaesque bureaucracy. I second the recommendations that companies should acknowledge the challenges that immigrants are facing. I think it is important to follow the letters of the law but sometime we need to look at the spirit of the law as well.
Your post and conversation Adam McKeown's book "Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders" (http://cup.columbia.edu/book/melancholy-order/9780231140775). Even though it was not about U.S immigration, the book talks a lot about how border control and identity documentation have both personal and global dimensions.
Here's the opening paragraph of the book -- one of the best explanation I have read that connects the personal with the institutional:
"The modern passport is a palpable manifestation of an idealized global theme main sources moder identity: the individual and the state. It specifies a unique individual within a matrix of standardized physical categories, and it guarantees that identification with the marks and seals of a recognized nation state. It embodies both the most private and the most bureaucratically alienating of identities, being an object of intense personal attachment even as it is a tool of global regulation and standardization. The photograph, accumulated visas, seals, and amendments further enrich it as a token of personal history even as they entrench the bearer more deeply within the files and machinery of state surveillance.
The modern passport is addressed to a global audience; other documents can establish the link between nation and individual for domestic purposes. The passport announces to other states that the issuing state will take responsibility for the identified individual. To cross international borders without such a document (in the absence of special agreements to the contrary) makes one "illegal," "irregular," or a stateless person who must depend on the mercy of others. The efficacy of the document depends on recognition of the issuing entity as part of an interlocked order of nation states. The ability to generate standardized forms of identity is, in turn, an important part of obtaining this recognition. Although the passport claims merely to be official recognition of a preexisting individuality, the act of documentation itself makes nations and individuals into realities."
Thanks again!
Thanks Sharif for adding to the conversation! The idea about being "a stateless person who must depend on the mercy of others" really highlights what relying on education and work visas is like for those trying to live, study, and work in the U.S. The agency to move abroad for a better life is immense and admirable, yet is impeded once someone tries to follow immigration bureaucratic red tape.