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I choke at the notion that many Ghanaians burn to go to America each day, either with little regards or unaware of the hardships they would encounter in their dream land. It is no secret that the American economy is in bad shape and while scrambling for ways to deal with it large segments of the population view foreigners as encroaching scapegoats for most of their problems. Glaring among their complaints are immigrant encroachment upon their jobs, high cost of health care caused by immigrants, overcrowded classrooms for kids due to increased immigrant population, rapid urban decay due to dwindling resources and revenues for local governments and shrinking personal income to support extra social ills. Recent initiatives across the states, with Arizona pioneering a surge of anti-immigrant sentiments, reflect a latent volcanic animosity towards immigrants, long lingered in their hearts, awaiting eruption at the least provocation. Click Here To Read OR Click Here To Read

Each week there is a call to exercise tougher measures to deprive undocumented immigrants rental previleges, jobs, health care and, quite recently, to deny their newly born babies birthright to citizenship even when such births occur on the American soil .
A long time Ghanaian resident of the US, married to an American sweetheart he met at a college thirty years ago while studying engineering recounted his experiences with the American Immigration Agency thus :
In the early seventies, while driving down a lone Ohio highway, a hitch-hiker flagged him down for a ride to a nearby town along his route. During those days it was not uncommon for a good samaritan like him to be seen offering his fellow individual a ride. With the barometer hovering around freezing levels it was more of a benevolent obligation than a whimsical gesture of goodwill. But that ride spelled his doom in America. A few yards away he was pulled over by a highway patrolman who frisked them and found marijuana cigarette on the hiker.

This highway patrolman handcuffed the good samaritan instead, towed his car ten miles away, charged him for possession of a controlled substance but , on the other hand , cautioned and freed the hiker who happened to be white with a citation. The interpretation of the law was different from his biblical teachings over reward for kindness. But it even went further.

His failure to get green card, in spite of vindicating evidences, has been referenced to this albatross incident by the immigration authorities as cause for denial. Last year he became seriously ill and was denied treatment. Without insurance coverage, proof of citizenship or legal status , evidence of employment, many facilities would rather prefer not to shoulder the burden of medical expense but refer patients to centers where attention is a luxurious exercise .

After years of untold humiliation and hardships this Ghanaian engineer turned homewards where he now resides in comfort, good health and working as a CEO of his own company.
It is not therefore surprising that exorbitant filing fees are imposed on immigrants to discourage them from going through these kinds of conditions generally reserved for underclass immigrants in America. To the bewilderment of officials at embassies of such nationals it is hard to understand the logic behind this burning desire to jump into these humiliating trenches.They dont understand it.
It is obvious from the way they treat people who cluster around these embassies seeking visas that they dont understand the logic behind it all. Therefore they subject them to long waitings, blantant denial with non-refundable fees even when necessary, and to some extent, flat disrespect for diplomats seeking visas . Their perception is either they are crazy or ignorant. But I strongly disagree with that .

My advise is : stay home, educate your leaders to be responsible or change them by the ballot : love your country better because together we can change it to our liking - in contrast to facing hard challenges in places where we may be snubbed and disrespected. There is absolutely nothing these guys can do that we are limited from doing. Our founding motto is "We prefer self government in danger to servitude in tranquility" When we live freely together we can remove dangerous situations to enable tranquility.

Dr Tommy deLaurence
Observer
Ghana Telescope
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