- At a time of widespread public grumbling that immigration
is out of control, the United States is spreading the word in more than
100 countries that it wants thousands of new immigrants.
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- The recruitment is part of a little-known pro- gram in
which the United States tries to drum up immigrants from places underrepresented
in current migration to America.
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- So, in an odd human lottery, the government this summer
will randomly pick 55,000 people from around the world and award them visas
to move permanently to the United States.
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- The process begins Jan. 31, when millions of people can
take a blank piece of paper, write their name, date of birth and address,
and send it to a government post-office box in Portsmouth, N.H.
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- They pay no fee. All they need is a high school diploma
and proof they were born in any but a handful of countries such as Mexico,
China and the Philippines, which already generate the bulk of current immigrants.
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- The visa program was created not so much to increase
immigration as to refashion it on a prin- ciple American workplaces and
universities are abuzz with: diversity.
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- "This was supposed to be for countries that have
low immigration rates," said Suzanne Lawrence, a spokeswoman for the
State Department, which conducts the program. "It's to diversify the
existing pool of immigrants."
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- Historically, U.S. immigration rules gave preference
to Europeans. But that changed in 1965 when new rules threw America's doors
open to people from any country.
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- Today, 85 percent of immigrants come from Latin America
and Asia. Because U.S. immigration policies give priority to reuniting
families, nearly all of the 800,000 immigrants allowed in legally every
year are sponsored by relatives.
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- They hail from a small pool of countries: Mexico, China,
the Philippines, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, India, El Salvador, Britain,
South Korea, Canada, Jamaica, Taiwan and Columbia --all of which are barred
from the visa lottery.
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- The diversity lottery was introduced in 1990 by Senator
Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, who saw to it that a substantial
number of slots were set aside for Irish applicants. Since last year, however,
the lottery has been open equally to all except the 13 dominant countries.
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- Last year's lottery drew 6.5 million applica- tions,
and the visas still are being processed. State Department officials held
the drawing and sent notices to 110,000 people, expecting that about half
will ultimately qualify.
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- Once picked in the lottery, applicants must go through
the same screening process as other legal immigrants. There will be medical
tests to establish they are free of AIDS and tubercu- losis, and they must
sign oaths declaring they are not communists or terrorists, don't have
criminal records and don't practice polygamy. The first 55,000 people to
qualify will become U.S. residents.
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