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American Dominance, American Regression & American Resurgence
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American Dominance, American Regression & American Resurgence
With intent to explain the truth of the long and multifaceted relationship between the United States of America and the United Nations I will explain clearly the stages involved in forming it in the first place. Initially, it is the US that gave rise to the UN and gave it life through the use of its resources at that time therefore giving it the dominance it possesses. The UN therefore owes its current level of power and position in the world to the US. And even with this basis for their relationship, in the UN there are still cases of multilateralism as well as ambivalence toward it by the US. In most cases, the agendas in the UN are always in line with any future plans that the US might have and this enhances their relationship.
American Domination is portrayed by their actions especially when they do not abide by the set rules to the word. The UN was formed in 1945 after the Second World War with the objective of maintaining a stable and peaceful international society. Leaders of the world congregated to initiate its formation with the US leading the process represented by Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was America’s president then. The UN was meant to replace the League of Nations which by then was flawed and not implementing on its responsibilities. The United States has ever since then held a great influence economically, politically and through military influence worldwide therefore making it a vital arm of the United Nations. The US did not relate itself too closely with the multilateral rules however it has been among the leading nations in multilateralism in the previous century. To enhance this relationship, the US pioneered in most multilateral treaties and allowed the UN to situate most of their headquarters in the USA.
American regression was pioneered during the signing of the UN formation by the five permanent affiliates of the Security Council; USA, UN, France, Republic of China and the Soviet Union. Their strength in the relationship was shown in their actions when they started retreating from commitments it had with the UN and still they were not eliminated. The US in many instances has turned its back against the United Nations. For instance, Jesse Helms the former chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee stated in his speech toward the United Nations Security Council that no institution had the power or jurisdiction to be a judge of the foreign policies and decisions of national security of the United States. This was a major turn proving that however much affiliated they were to the UN they still had power over it and however faded it is they had the UN in their pockets. This is because in the formation of the UN it was given the obligation to preside over matters that would result to international or foreign issues. Despite its initial support of the objective of international rule of law after the merge by the five powers of the world, the US still defaulted under the rule of President Bush when he sent a letter to the UN’s secretary general to suspend their obligation toward the Rome Statute signed by former President Clinton. Also, the US is among the two countries who have not yet endorsed the Rights of Child UN Convention as well as the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. For whatever reason the United States is holding back on such key issues we are yet to find out.
However, after the regression period, the US started showing their support to the UN with the aim to earn back their loyalty. The most recent event of American resurgence is president Obama’s effort to re-establish a viable working relationship with the UN. An attempt of ramification is underway and people are on edge waiting to see if such a great power will subject itself to the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction. Even with the US not having sanctioned the conventions it has used several processes to punish states that have not acted in line with the US Standards in fields like human rights and the enforcement of drugs in the country. For instance, the Helms-Burton sanction that penalizes all foreigners from engaging in business activities with any of the states considered rogue by the United States. This attempt shows the United States’ effort toward resurgence. The United States being the most powerful nation in the world it has it has preserved global order.
Even with the United States taking advantage of their position in the United Nation’s rules and regulations by acting outside the set rules in some instances, I believe it has served the better good and maintaining its position is one of the many reasons the UN is still intact. Having most resources also gives the UN a basis for implementation of human rights, economic development as well as international law and security toward the achievement of World Peace.
Works Cited
Meisler, Stanley. United Nations: A History. Groove Press, (2011). Print
United Nations. Basic Facts about the United Nations. United Nations, (2011). Print
Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
“The Dominican Republic, best known for its beautiful beaches, lavish resorts, and for being the first place that Christopher Columbus and his men settled in the New World, is an island nation in the Caribbean. There is much more to this country, beginning with its people whose optimistic, energetic, and cheerful character is immediately engaging and endearing. Dominicans are a proud people who have withstood innumerable setbacks due to an unstable political history and to physical devastation occasioned by hurricanes and earthquakes,” (Brown xvii).
The Dominican Republic might be seen as a poor country, but in reality it is a country rich in colors, culture and customs. The history of the Dominican Republic is one of many hardships and tragic stories. Unlike the history of many neighboring Latin American countries, the Dominican Republic gained independence from their next-door neighbor, Haiti, rather than Spain. Their history is also “tragically unique because of the brutality of the long dictatorship of Raphael Leonidas Trujillo,” (Brown xvii). This significant yet catastrophic portion of history has had a negative affect on the social mobility of Dominicans in New York City.
As a result of the stock market crash in the late 1920’s in the United States, the economy of the island completely crumbled. “The exterior debt of the country was estimated at $20 million. There was also a floating interior loan of $3 million that had come to due. To make matters worse, the capital was besieged by hurricane Xenon, which leveled the capital city and severely hurt agriculture in the eastern and southern parts of the country (Brown 31). At the time that the Dominican Republic needed a leader desperately, Raphael Trujillo came into office. The Trujillo era is known as a brutal and a savage dictatorship.
The Trujillo era had negative and positive affects on the lives of the people in the Dominican Republic. He came to rule at a time of crisis. However, exports of cacao, sugar and tobacco boomed under the rule of Trujillo. The Dominican government encouraged tourism, built hotels, airports, railways, new roads, and public buildings. By 1938, the economic condition was almost diminished. Dictator Raphael Leonidas Trujillo was able to build a fortune of almost $500 million and “owned companies controlling sixty percent of the nation’s assets and workers.” Although the economy was improving, “Trujillo ran the country as a ruthless dictatorship, freely using torture and murder to suppress possible enemies,” (Rogozinski 236).
Universal poverty very much existed. Only the middle class and Trujillo’s family benefited from Trujillo’s wealth and economic stability. However by the 1940’s, political parties such as the Partido Democratico Revolucionario Dominicano, were formed in order to attempt to overthrow the dictator. Many Dominicans were dissatisfied with Trujillo’s leadership and by the 1960’s, “Trujillo’s downfall was a certainty”. “The government, in order to finance its repression, instituted new and steep taxes including the requirements that each citizen carry an identification card on his person.” Much like the Jewish star the Jews had to wear during the Holocaust. “The economy was doing badly and the foreign debt began to rise…” (Brown 36). On May 30, 1961, Trujillo was assassinated by officers for their own personal reasons (Rogozinski 237).
Before the 1960’s, Dominicans nearly did not exist in the United States (Novas, 224). Their swarm of immigration into the United States did not begin until after the assassination of Raphael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. In her book entitled Everything You Need to Know about Latino History, Himilce Novas states, “the influx of Dominicans was made possible by a complex of factors which included the aftereffects of political turmoil and civil war, the never-ending search for cheaper labor in New York, and the relaxation of Trujillo-era restrictions on emigration.” Immigration was steady through the 1970’s but due to an economic depression; Dominican immigration soared in 1980’s (224).
Isabel Brown states that as the price and market for sugar has plummeted, and as the Dominican Republic learns to cope with globalization, which tends to benefit established economies, living conditions have become almost unbearable for the poorest Dominicans and wages have not kept up with cost-living increases (62). It is only fair for one to assume that the easiest way to get out of this repulsive lifestyle is to flee.
Many Dominicans were so desperate that they have risked their lives “by sailing the treacherous shark- infested Mona passage to Puerto Rico” for a mere $150 (Brown 62). There are many stories told of the harsh conditions and circumstances Dominicans suffer when they get to New York City. The Dominicans that do make it here are from the poorest of the poor, therefore it is much harder for them to adapt to the American standard of living.
According to Davis, Dominicans are on the verge of displacing Puerto Ricans as the poorest major ethnic group in the city with thirty-six percent in poverty and only nine percent self-employed (128). As a community, the Dominicans have struggled greatly in New York City. They usually immigrate with the little money that they have in their pockets. How can anyone expect the Dominicans to be as successful as other Latinos, such as the Cubans in Florida, if they have nothing to begin their new lives with? For instance the Cubans were given government dollars in order for them to escape the communist lifestyle in Cuba and begin a whole new life in Florida. When the Cubans came in swarms of thousands in the early 1960’s, the U.S. government welcomed them as political refugees. This is why most Cubans have achieved such great success in America (Novas 217). The United States did not do the same after the Trujillo era for the Dominicans.
In Dominican New Yorkers: A Socioeconomic Profile, 1990, Ramona Hernandez states that “the income of the Dominican population is one of the lowest in New York City”. She then goes on to say that in 1989, the per capita income was $6,336 for the average Dominican family. “Over thirty-six percent of the Dominican population in New York City lives in households which are under the poverty line; this is one of the highest poverty rates in the city, much higher than the overall poverty rate of 17.2 percent.” And in that thirty-six percent, forty-seven percent of Dominican children live in these households that are under the poverty line (1).
The transfer from the Dominican Republic can be very devastating to the entire family, especially the children. They must become accustomed to their new lives. There is a new environment and new settings. Most of them come not speaking a word of English. For any child of any race this can be very intricate. Hernandez reported that “as much as 65.5 percent of Dominicans in New York who were twenty-five years or older did not have a high school diploma or equivalent…” (2).
Education is very important in any country but it is especially important in the United States. In our culture, if you have no education it is very likely that it will be difficult to find a job. With the difficulty to adapt to the new life style, many Dominicans drop out of high school. They are left with nothing to look forward to. In 1996, the unemployment rate of Dominicans was more than twice as much as the unemployment rate of New York overall; it was at a high percentage of eight- teen. Unfortunately, these statistics have not improved. “Unemployment increased, poverty rates failed to drop, the proportion of children in poor households did not decline, and the relatively unskilled population fared worse in 1990 than in 1989,” ( Hernandez 3,4).
Thus the Dominicans have been overlooked because of Trujillo’s dictatorship and the outcome, which has extended to the twenty first century. It is tragic to know that after suffering so much in the Dominican Republic, the Dominicans still struggle in the land of the free and of opportunities. Although there is that small percentage of Dominicans that have been very successful in the United States, it is not enough. We must all work together in order to provide the future that the Dominicans have been anticipating. If we do nothing to dig the Dominicans out of this hole Raphael Leonidas Trujillo has dug for them, the Dominican community will become something feared by many minorities in New York City; insignificant.
Bibliography:
Brown, Isabel Zakrzewski. Culture and Customs of the Dominican Republic. Conneticut:
Green Wood Press, 1999
Hernandez, Ramona. Dominican New Yorkers: A Socioeconomic Profile, 1990.
Dominican Research Monographs. New York: CUNY Dominican Studies
Institute, 1995.
Novas, Himilce. Everything You Need to Know About Latino History. United States of
America: First Printing, Oct.1994: (233-241).
Rogozinski, Jan. A Brief History of the Caribbean from the Arawak and the Carib to the
Present. New York: Meridian Printing, Sept. 1994: (227-247).
American Domestic Policy APA II
American Domestic Policy
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American Domestic Policy
Illegal Immigration
Illegal immigration in the United States has become one the topics of greatest concern to the American public in recent years. This has resulted into examination of the costs and benefits of illegal immigration on unskilled works as well as the ultimate impact on the U.S economy in a number of studies. The costs include the effects of the effects of illegal immigration on unskilled workers, the property damage caused by the immigrants sneaking into the United States, the expenditure on the health care for immigrants at emergency clinics and hospitals, which are legally bound not to deny care to anyone or inquire whether someone is a legal resident, expenditures on public education for the children of the immigrants who attend public schools and burglaries and other crimes committed by illegal immigrants (Levy, 2010). Americans affected by the benefits want immigrants to have a way to take a job, whereas those most affected by the costs propose that immigrants should be kept out of the country at whatever cost.
The views on dealing with illegal immigration in United States range from using the military to guard the borders and the construction of a fence along the borders to amnesty for illegal aliens already in the United States. The US governments has taken several steps to curb the problem of illegal immigration including Operation Wetback as the one of the first response to what was perceived as an alarming level of illegal Mexican immigrants as well as enactment of several legislation as such as the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) (Boyes & Melvin, 2010). The purpose of IRCA was to decrease the number of illegal immigrants by limiting their flow and the legalization the status of the illegal aliens. However, application of the domestic policy has been affected by the experience with international terrorist attacks being associated with immigration and illegal immigration flows into the country.
This paper will explore illegal immigration as one of the most contested issues in the American politics and recommendation of ways to deal with the issue.
Factors Leading To Illegal Immigration Being Viewed As a Major Problem in America
The skyrocketing number of illegal immigrants in United States has triggered great concern among the American citizens over the last few years. As of 2010, about 11.2 million illegal immigrants were living in the United States and despite this being a reduction the populations in previous, the high number has raised great concerns to the Americans owing to the impact such numbers have on the state well-being (Passel & Cohn, 2011). The increased number of illegal immigrants has been associated with significant negative impacts including job pressure especially in unskilled labor, increased expenditures on health care for immigrants at hospitals and emergency clinics, pressure on public amenities, increased expenditure in the public schools, property damage cause by the immigrants and increased insecurity in the country. The problem of illegal immigrants has been exacerbated by the increased terrorist threats which have been strongly linked with the issue of illegal immigration into United States.
Although migration between Mexico and the United States goes back to the nineteenth century and has ebbed and flowed for more than a century, U.S. citizens and politicians have been entirely comfortable with immigrants in general or Mexicans in particular. There are and always have been people who view illegal immigrants as a thread to the United States, who blame them directly for economic ills as well as presenting a danger to American modern society. Large companies might benefit from cheap, immigrant labor, because of the low wages paid to the immigrants. However, the low wages contribute to driving the general wages offered to the Americans. The issues of job loss associated with immigrants particularly for unskilled labor has contributed immensely to the heated debate against immigrants among the Americans. The competition with illegal immigrants who are ready to work for less money makes Americans unable to compete effectively for the available job opportunities in the American job market. The public has become more united against the issue of illegal immigrants with majority favoring increasing penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants as well as increasing number of border patrol agents.
According to Polyanichko (2010), about two-thirds of Americans support the idea of denying social services to the unauthorized and propose that illegal immigrants should not be eligible for social services provided by the state and local governments. One of the main arguments leveled against illegal immigrants is that they receive government benefits and don’t pay taxes with education and unpaid healthcare being among the highest costs attributed to problem of illegal immigrants.
As result of the increased illegal immigration, the amount of uncompensated care has continued to grow as more and more unauthorized immigrants seek for health services. In addition, increased crime has been associated with increase in the number of illegal immigrants, a factor that undermines the security of Americans as well as costing the government huge budgetary costs at both federal and local government levels in attempts to curb insecurity in the country. The burden of illegal immigrants has become worse with the laws that require children born in America be recognized as American citizens thus increasing the burden as the government is obliged to cater for such children.
Some of the Attempts Made To Arrest the Increase in Illegal Immigrants and Their Failures
In a move to control illegal immigrants in United States, the government introduced employer sanctions prohibiting employers from hiring illegal immigrants. Through this strategy, employers have been expected to verify employees before hiring them to ensure that illegal immigrants do not gain access to employment. However, employer sanction strategy has turnout to be ineffective due to lack of reliable mechanisms for verifying employment eligibility, lack of political will due to some of the benefits accrued from illegal immigrants such as labor, and lack of enough funding towards interior immigration enforcement (Boyes & Melvin, 2010). The governments has also enacted various reforms in its domestic policy on illegal immigration including the Immigration and Control Act (IRCA) whose main purpose was ostensibly to attack the problem of illegal immigration and reign control over the borders.
Among the solutions offered through this reform included a generous amnesty to illegal aliens and creation of a Special Agricultural Workers program (Polyanichko, 2010). However, these strategies emerged to be a flop by further contributing to the influx of immigrant workers into the U.S. labor market. In this case, IRCA was seen as an attempt to reconcile the rising political clamor for border control with continuing demand for cheap immigrant labor rather controlling the increasing of illegal immigrants in the country. Some of these immigration measures have resulted into increased gap between the goals and outcomes of U.S. immigration policy. According to Cornelius, Martin and Hollifield (1994), the greatest challenge in the U.S. immigration policy has been the failure to recognize the key problem facing its implementation as the lack of recognition of illegal immigrants as the main problem.
Another failure in attempts to control illegal immigration emerges from the lack of consensus on policy options, which consequently results into general lack of concern or benign neglect. United States still perceives itself as a nation of immigrants, a tradition that obstructs efforts to restrict or control any type of immigration. Another key factor undermining efforts by the U.S. government to control illegal immigration revolves around the lack of understanding of the root cause of illegal immigration. Some the root causes of the increased illegal immigration include, poor verification mechanisms applied by employers, inadequate channels to ensure legal economic immigration, changes in the global economy particularly globalization and finally inefficiency in the border patrols. The government has in the past introduced border patrols to ensure that all people entering and leaving the American territory are well vetted through presentation of proper document as provided by the U.S. laws. However, limited political will in supporting implementation of such policies thereby rendering such strategies ineffective.
The government has failed to provide adequate resources to ensure effective and efficient verification at the borders of the country as well as in job places and other areas such as health care institutions (Fix, 2004). Some of the factors exasperating the illegal migration that must be put into consideration in any attempt to curb the problem include demand-pull factors, migration networks, and supply-push pressures. The strength of these forces lying behind illegal immigration, coupled with the political, legal, and institutional constraints facing the domestic policy on immigration, have all contributed to what most observers view to sanctions’ modest and declining impact on immigrant flow to date. Controlling illegal immigration to the United States emerges to be more difficult logistically than controlling illegal entry to Europe, owing to the access afforded by the country’s lengthy land borders. Efforts to control illegal immigration in U.S. are further undermined by the nation’s long dependence on illegal foreign labor, its comparatively short history of immigration controls, and the social commitment to civil liberties and anti-discrimination norms.
Recommendations to Avert the Problem
One of the strategies that can deal with the problem of illegal immigration amicably entails strengthening the border control through prevention by deterrence. In this case, the government should raise the risk of being apprehended for illegal immigration to a situation where they would consider it futile to attempt to sneak into United States at whatever cost. The government should concentrate additional resources on the patrol along the borders. In order to strengthen the border control, the Border Patrol should concentrate personnel and technology resources at hot points with the highest level of illegal immigration activity as well as tightening security at areas with the least activity to avoid shift of the entry points to other sections along the border (Grans, 2007). In addition, the Border Patrol should also capitalize on physical barriers to deter entry along the border, increase vigilance along the border, and identification of the right technology and personnel to increase efficiency along the border.
The patrol should also on ensuring flexibility to respond to changing patterns in the alien traffic. In order to facilitate the implementation of the employer sanctions strategy, the government should invest in providing employers with reliable mechanisms for workplace verification including tools and legal responsibility to determine someone’s eligibility to secure a job or to be employed (Grans, 2007). The government must therefore invest immensely in the implementation of this strategy through availing the necessary mechanisms to ensure effective verification by employers. Availability of the correct mechanism for verification will play a critical role in the realization of the employer sanction provision in the control of illegal immigrants. This strategy addresses the main reason behind illegal immigration which is the search for employment in which unavailability of jobs will deter the immigrants from sneaking to the country. In line with the verification mechanism, a tamper-proof social security card for every American can be used as a sure prove to work eligibility (Fix, 2004). Nevertheless, the government must also enact stringent measures alongside this strategy to crackdown on people involved in forgery of documents, which has undermined implementation of the employer sanction requirement.
The U.S. government should also constitutional citizenship requirements to restrict the automatic citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal residents. This will reduce the number of aliens seeking citizenship because their children are American citizens by birth despite being born by illegal immigrants. The policy to confer all U.S. citizens the citizenship of the country regardless of the mode used by the parents to enter United States encourages illegal entry into the country and does not motivate those who seek the right means to enter the country (Grans, 2007). The U.S government should also consider introducing new legal avenues for entry into the country as well as encouraging permanent economic migration. Nevertheless, the government should be weary of notorious illegal immigrants willing to pay for any price to enter into the American territory. In this case, the government should strengthen its internal mechanisms for deterring foreigners from entering the country illegally rather focusing on stopping them from crossing the borders.
Conclusion
Illegal immigration remains one of the sensitive issues in the American politics as well as among the general public. The negative perception among the Americans on the issue of illegal immigrants has been triggered by several effects on the society including their pressure on public facilities including hospitals, clinics and hospitals, increased insecurity, and significant impact on the economy of the country. Illegal immigrants have been associated with increased unemployment among the Americans through their preference by employers due to their low wages demand. The U.S. government has taken to several measures to control the threat posed by increased illegal immigrants including introduction of reforms in the immigration Act. Such reforms have included the employer sanction, a generous amnesty to illegal aliens and creation of a Special Agricultural Workers program, and the IRAC reform in general among others. However, such strategies have failed to yield the desired results due to poor political will in its implementation, limited resources, significant negligence, and lack of understanding the root cause of the illegal immigration. Nevertheless, the situation can be averted through increase in Border Patrol vigilance, provision of necessary verification mechanisms to the employers, encouragement of permanent economic immigration, and imposition of restrictions on citizenship of children born by illegal immigrants.
References
Boyes, W & Melvin, M. (2010). Microeconomics. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Cornelius, W., Martin, P. & Hollifield, J. (1994). Controlling immigration: A global perspective. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Fix, M. (2004). The Paper curtain: employer sanctions’ implementation, impact, and reform. New York:The Urban Institute.
Grans, J. (2007). Illegal immigration to the United States: Causes and policy solution. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://udallcenter.arizona.edu/immigration/publications/fact_sheet_no_3_illegal_immigration.pdf” http://udallcenter.arizona.edu/immigration/publications/fact_sheet_no_3_illegal_immigration.pdf
Levy, J. (2010). Illegal immigration and amnesty: Open borders and national security. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group.
Passel, J & Cohn, D. (2011). Unauthorized immigrant population: National and state trends, 2010. Pew ResearchCenter. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/02/01/unauthorized-immigrant-population-brnational-and-state-trends-2010/” http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/02/01/unauthorized-immigrant-population-brnational-and-state-trends-2010/
Polyanichko, E. (2010). Weighing the costs and benefits of Mexican immigration. London: GRIN Verlag.