THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508270044
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Just as the worldwide tide of refugees swells to new heights, a variety of efforts is under way in the United States to raise new obstacles against outsiders.
Propelled by the collapse of communism and the subsequent outbreak of ethnic and nationalistic rivalries, the number of refugees around the globe rose to 22 million in 1995, up from 7 million in 1980, according to data gathered by the National Immigration Forum.
Anti-immigrant fervor broke out in California last fall with the passage of Proposition 187, a voter referendum that would make illegal immigrants ineligible for nearly all government services except emergency medical aid. The measure is now undergoing review in the courts.
There have been subsequent efforts to limit services to immigrants in Virginia, as well as Florida, Arizona and Colorado.
In Congress, a House-passed welfare bill - part of the new Republican majority's ``Contract with America'' - would cut off welfare benefits to all immigrants, legal and illegal. A similar bill now working its way through the Senate would allow states to deny benefits to immigrants if they wished.
In 1993, the United States admitted 904,292 immigrants into the country. More than half of those - 481,835 - were admitted because they were relatives of people already here.
The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, chaired by former Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan, has proposed sweeping new restrictions on immigration. Among them:
Impose an overall annual immigrant ceiling of 500,000.
Eliminate three of four admission categories aimed at reunifying families.
Reduce the number of refugees allowed into the country by more than half, from 110,000 to 50,000.
Deny public benefits not only to legal immigrants but also to naturalized citizens, creating two different levels of citizenship.
Set up an automated national employment verification registry.
A bill introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee, encompasses most of the commission's recommendations.
Although the United States is a nation of immigrants, hostility towards outsiders has surfaced periodically for more than a century - at least as far back as 1882, when racism and economic anxiety spurred by an influx of Chinese immigrants resulted in passage of the Chinese Exclusion Acts.
Still, measured against the rest of the world, the United States remains a haven for refugees. The U.S. Committee for Refugees' 1995 World Refugee Survey listed the United States as the world's fifth most hospitable nation after Sweden, Canada, Australia and Denmark. The ranking was determined by measuring the number of refugees that are resettled and granted asylum against total population.
The refugee acceptance rate has dropped in virtually every European country, as stricter admission procedures designed to limit the number of entrants have been put in place.
While the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was widely cheered in the West, there were also prophetic warnings of today's refugee crisis and the likely reaction.
In his introduction to the U.S. Committee for Refugees' 1992 World Refugee Survey, Roger P. Winter wrote:
``The Soviet Union is gone, yet we have no confidence that what follows will bring less conflict in the world. The prospects, in fact, seem to be for higher numbers of refugees and displaced people. . . .
``It is not possible to draw away from the rest of the world and somehow wall `them' out. It is certainly not possible while maintaining civilized democratic institutions, nor does it make sense economically.''
A 1994 Urban Institute study found that while legal and illegal immigrants together received $42.9 billion in government services such as education and public assistance, they paid far more than that - $70.3 billion - in taxes. by CNB