Posted on 01/20/2008 8:20:55 AM PST by 3AngelaD
Swadesh Jain used to travel New Delhi's streets perched on the back of a rickshaw, visiting relatives, perusing shops and taking in the latest Bollywood movies. When her only son and his family moved to Naperville, Jain came too, trading her balmy homeland for the snowy suburbs and a life where everyone's schedule is jam-packed -- except hers.
Jain's son, Himanshu, a technology consultant, shuttles to San Francisco for work several days a week....Jain, 75, spends much of her time home alone, watching Indian soap operas on satellite television....
At a time when more immigrants are living in the United States, the elderly are increasingly on the move, following their adult children to America...
In fiscal year 2006, more than 65,000 immigrants 65 and older became legal permanent U.S. residents, up 31 percent from the previous year, according to the Office of Immigration Statistics....the elderly make up a growing proportion of the total population of legal permanent residents, from 1.3 percent in 1956 to 5.1 percent in 2006...nearly twice as large a proportion as in Britain, Canada or Australia, whose immigration policies favor job skills and education over family ties...
Isolation is intensified in rootless suburbs that are nearly impossible to navigate without a car or driver's license....
Swadesh Jain is grateful for the opportunities her grandchildren have here, but laments they have not carried on rituals such as bowing down to touch the feet of elders..., Jain spends three days a week at the Xilin Asian Community Center's senior program, in a Naperville strip mall. The center offers calligraphy lessons, a visiting chiropractor and lunches served in rooms named after the Chinese zodiac animals. Mahjongg tiles rattle across tables....
More than 8,000 immigrant seniors in the Chicago area participate in adult day programs or receive home care services...
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Yeah. I remember Russian immigrants in Sacramento in the 90’s bringing granny straight form the airport to the ER to have all her health concerns addressed since it was “free”.
Our immigration system allows these elderly people to join their kids. They then get medicare, SS, and all the other benefits.
Please keep in mind that most of their kids are making lots of money and see no problem collecting these benefits.
This type of chain immigration is very costly.
We need to develop some spine..but the lobby for this type of immigration is very effective..since they have money.
The rest of us pay for it.
You are! "Now shut up and take it!", the last was a message from Jorge!
Then again,she is always free to return to whatever hellhole she came from.
Don't forget we also import people with diseases who cannot work. But try to get some help for yourself - a taxpaying citizen - if you need a temporary hand up. It won't be there.
I long ago concluded the thing to do when trying to get, say, free medical treatment is to claim to be an illegal. Thank God I haven’t needed to use that ploy, but there it is, waiting to be exploited.
It should be tied to ability to pay/care for any relative they bring over.
and pardon me if I don't shed tears for the lonely ole granny.
I'm a great gramma, disabled...far from well off, but I get/expect no free services....I still keep the wood stove going because I must ration the gold in the oil tank...etc.
Buy granny a rickshaw. I'll bet there are no laws on the books that restrict them
She's far better off then many citizen grannies who worked and paid into the system all their lives.
Yep. GWB is personally responsible for every jot and tittle of every immigration bill/law ever written and every other related ill of the last 50 years.
We get it...
Better back up
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