"Interesting perspective and post" I was told

[NO TO FASCISM]

Last edited Fri Dec 14, 2018, 06:23 AM - Edit history (1)

So I decided to turn it into my first OP. It was a reply to the OP "7-year-old migrant girl taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, exhaustion"

I cry for her, her father, and all in their situation.

I am an expat who has lived in the Dominican Republic illegally for the last 10 years. I live here because I am a retired person who has to live on an income of $4,000 per month. I can live like a king here compared to New York City. I have been married to a Dominican woman for the last eight years and all she wants is to move to the United States with her three children. She has no idea how difficult life would be on my income. But she is not alone, everyone in her family and all her friends want to know why she does not move to the US. They all think the streets are paved with gold in the US. This is the only reason my wife and I ever argue. We have a good life here, better than most people, and far better then we could live in the USA.

I would guess that all of the immigrants share the same view as my wife and her friends. It is a dream that does not reflect reality. And on occasion, it will lead to a tragedy such as this.

[lunasun]

1. Kick

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. "And they wandered in from the city of Saint John without a dime"

And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime
Wearing coats that shined
Both red and green
Colors from their sunny island
From their boats of iron
They looked upon the promised land
Where surely life was sweet
On the rising tide
To New York City
Did they ride into the street
See the glory
Of the royal scam
They are hounded down
To the bottom of a bad town
Amid the ruins
Where they learn to fear
An angry race of fallen kings
Their dark companions
While the memory of
Their southern sky was clouded by
A savage winter
Every patron saint
Hung on the wall, shared the room
With twenty sinners
See the glory
Of the royal scam
By the blackened wall
He does it all
He thinks he's died and gone to heaven
Now the tale is told
By the old man back home
He reads the letter
How they are paid in gold
Just to babble in the back room
All night and waste their time
And they wandered in
From the city of St. John without a dime
See the glory
Of the royal scam


Royal Scam

Steely Dan

[NO TO FASCISM]

6. At one time we welcomed immigrants

with open arms. We were a developing nation, and they were the fertilizer that fed that development. We had a frontier that offered free land under a homesteading program. (I don't know if it still exists in Alaska.) Then as today they traveled great distances and endured great hardships to reach their dream. But tragically, we have changed and there is no more room for that dream,

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[pecosbob]

3. Hello and welcome

It will be helpful to have your perspective as an ex-pat from time to time.

'...for everything the North brings, it extracts a price in return.'

[NO TO FASCISM]

4. Thank you

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. NYC is not the entire US

Lots of places in the US where $4k a month is beyond "comfortable".

[orleans]

10. agree! n/t

[NO TO FASCISM]

11. But we would not be able to have the same life-style

Last edited Fri Dec 14, 2018, 07:06 AM - Edit history (1)

I have lived here long enough to no longer be a part of the tourist economy, I know how to live on the local economy. Being married to a Dominican also helps. Yes, we could live anywhere in the United States other than in New York, the cost of living in NY is insane. But where in the US could I have a full-time housekeeper, without which my wife would nag me not to be so messy. No, thanks. Besides, I love the sun, sand, and surf. I am 100 yards from the beach. I pay $650 for an apartment which includes gas for the stove, cable TV, internet, secure parking, and a freshwater pool where I can sip a rum-punch without having to walk the 100 yards to the beach. As I said, I live like a king on $4000 per month. I would be crazy to move back to the states.

[JI7]

7. how about other parts of the country ? you can live very well on 4k in many parts of the country

streets may not be paved with gold but the fact is that life is A LOT better for many people here than it is in the countries they want to leave.

[Poiuyt]

8. Look for areas in the US with lower costs of living

I'm retired now, but I never made as much as you do. I was always happy and never missed a meal.

[Stonepounder]

9. Welcome to DU! I am retired as well.

I make a little over 1/2 what you make. (Well, I don't actually 'make' it is the income the Mrs and I derive from Social Security.) We don't live in NYC, but we certainly live comfortably in a suburb of a fair sized city in the South/Midwest.

Probably the best argument you could use on your wife and friends is that now is NOT a good time for non-US Citizens to come to the US. You could try and get a visa for your wife and kids, but at best it would take a couple of years for her and the kids to get a resident visa. If you bring her into the country illegally INS/ICE could swoop in at any time, grab your wife and kids and lock them up pending deportation.

If you ever do decide to try and bring your family to the US, wait until the bigot in the White House is out of office and start trying to put the country back together again.

[NO TO FASCISM]

12. I would like to thank everyone for their kind concern

Last edited Fri Dec 14, 2018, 06:16 AM - Edit history (1)

But I have no family in the states. I have also told my wife not to even think about going to the states while Trump, the madman is president. Maybe once he is gone, we might relocate, because I can not use my medicare here.

[NO TO FASCISM]

13. For some, America represents a dream

For many of them, it is an impossible dream, an unreachable star because of the cost of a visa and governmental red-tape. They have little, perhaps a shack with a tin roof and if they are lucky a goat or two. Yet a few, perhaps the most desperate or the strongest who will not settle for this, will embark on a quest to reach that star. They will gather up their children, the youngest they will carry on their backs, give up what little they have and start a perilous journey. Like our forbearers, they only know their destination by its reputation. It is a welcoming place that said "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore." For them, it is a place of hope and a chance for a decent life because it is a land of greatness.

But sadly that place no longer exists. It is ruled by a deplorable who thinks his manhood is built on walls of hate, ignorance, racism, and fear. We, the people, can only make America great again by ridding our nation of this parasite that is sucking the lifeblood out of the American Soul.

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[malaise]

14. Thousands of Caribbean people have success stories following migration to the US

It is very different for a US retiree with a wife and three children.