U.S. Fear of Chinese Immigration Is Totally Unnecessary

Recently the U.S. National Public Radio network published an article about Chinese immigration called “Born in the U.S.A.? Some Chinese Plan It That Way.” According to this article, the U.S. Constitution’s laws regarding place of birth is attracting more Chinese immigrants who hope to find a way to let their children be born in the U.S. — Chinese who have the “American dream” and hope that by doing so, their immigration process to America will become easier. This article attracted a lot of attention on the Internet.

U.S. Internet users have mixed feelings about Chinese immigrants who appear more often in their lives. Some believe that, as a nation of immigrants, the United States should welcome all Chinese immigrants, whether they are students, scholars, relatives or investors, because immigrants have always played an important role in U.S. economic development. Moreover, compared to other ethnic groups, Chinese immigrants in general are more willing to comply with the law. They are also hardworking and ambitious. It is fair to say that they are the most outstanding among all the immigrants. Opponents, however, think that China’s large population and rapidly growing economy pose a threat to the United States. If a large amount of Chinese immigrants were accepted to the U.S. in the future, not only would they endanger the U.S. job market, but the immigrant group as a whole would also be more likely to change the U.S. political situation than the Hispanic immigrant group, if they held the power of voting. From some of the opinions regarding immigration voiced by politicians, it is a fair assumption that this worry exists not only on the Internet, but among U.S. politicians as well.

It is an undeniable truth that there are more Chinese immigrants every day. Statistics show that the U.S. has nearly 4 million Chinese. In addition, according to a Department of Homeland Security report, there are about 530,000 lawful permanent residents in the U.S that are from China, of which 190,000 are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Of all the countries that “export” immigrants to the United States, China ranked third, second only to Mexico and the Philippines and slightly above India. The two sets of numbers, however, constitute only 4.3 percent of U.S. lawful permanent residents and 2.5 percent of the population that is eligible to apply for citizenship. In other words, even though the number of Chinese immigrants has increased gradually, the overall percentage of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. is still far from being dominant compared to other immigrant ethnic groups.

Chinese students studying overseas are also a concern to many. In 2010 there were 130,000 Chinese students studying in America. Chinese students have surpassed Indian students to become the largest foreign student group in America. In addition, more Chinese undergraduates and even high school students want to study in America instead of pursuing a degree in their own country. It is reported that in 2011, about 20 million Chinese high school graduates are likely to choose not to take the Chinese national college entrance exam and instead study at an American college.

Many students wish to stay in America once they have completed their study in the U.S. However, there are only 8.5 million H1B visas issued every year, 2 million of which are given to people who have a masters degree or higher. The 8.5 million visas are issued to talents around the globe; there is no way for Chinese students to get them all. After the economic crisis, the number of applicants for H1B visas decreased drastically. Two years ago the H1B visas were usually taken in the first week. Now, even at the end of the issuing period, there are still some seats waiting to be taken. The low hiring rate in the job market overcame the large corporations’ enthusiasm for hiring international talents. Even though one congressman proposed giving students who have high-level degrees in technology a chance to apply for permanent residency, it is just a suggestion. Right now Americans are strongly against immigration, and they are highly unlikely to push for total immigration reform.

In addition, the number of immigrants through investment increased compared to prior years, but the number of investment immigrants is only a small percentage of total immigrants. Investment immigration requires a lot of cash to invest, so the media is more likely to devote more attention to it and create the illusion that immigration by investment actually makes up a large percentage of the immigrant population.

Family immigration is steadily increasing as well; however, this type of immigration is limited by quota and is unlikely to constitute a large portion of total immigrants. In addition, mainland China cannot participate in the “green card lottery,” which is part of the diversity immigration plan. Chinese immigrants who have children in America are small in number compared to other methods of immigration, taking a long time to succeed and with too many undetermined factors that could change the outcome.

The number of Chinese immigrants is far less than Western immigrants. In terms of participating in politics, even though there has been dramatic improvement in the Chinese immigrant community, there is still a large gap in the level of participation between Chinese and Western immigrants because of the heavy influence of traditional culture. Therefore, in the future, Chinese immigrants are not going to have heavy influence on American politics, let alone change the political situation. In the meantime, Western immigrants have already influenced elections in some states, like the majority leader of the federal Senate, Harry Reid, who was reelected in the state of Nevada. American Internet users are afraid of the Chinese immigrants instead of the Western immigrants because they are threatened by China’s rising. In other words, it is just another way of saying “threatened by China.”