A place for ESL students and teachers to communicate with one another about any issues related to English language learning, CESL, the University of Arizona, and living and working in Tucson.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Victims of Immigration Policy
Since 9-11, traveling internationally has become problematic. Many people face harassment when trying to enter Western countries. Share with us your good or bad experiences dealing with immigration officers in the US or abroad.
Last year I was travelling from Bermingham, England to Belfast in Northern Ireland. I had worn my traditional attires which looks similiar to the dress people wear in Arabic countries.In the airport, the armed man stopped me and asked me where I was from? I replied, "Afghanistan." I was surprised when they asked me, "Where in the Middle East?" I had to answer lots of questions, including explaining them that Afghanistan is located in Central Asia.
Finally, after 20 minutes of interrogation I was allowed to continue my trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland.
When I first landed in the US, I received very special treatment, because I was coming from a newly friend country. I was offered a chair at the airport and the officer kept talking to me for almost four hours. Who would have this privilege to get a US officer talking to him or her for four hours? I was kept waiting and had to discuss issues such where I was? Why I would like to visit the US? Who invited me? What I carried and things like this. If it was not the special treatment I was almost to become annoyed. My two bags were also carried in a very special way and I was put in a flight other than my origin one. They did all this to me because I was a special guest or a suspicious guest.
I have had the experience of entering the United States and Canada so many times in my life. I haven’t really faced many difficulties when trying to enter the mentioned countries, but I would say that Canadian immigration officials have acted in a more friendly and accessible way. I say this because they usually apologize when they are taking to long to finish the process and they often provide you with valuable information and advice in order to have a safe and pleasant stay in Canada.
Definitely it would not be fair to say that unlike Canadian immigration officials, Americans are unfriendly with foreign individuals. The United States has millions of people living illegally, so it is necessary for immigration officials to take all the preventive measures that are necessary in order to avoid any contingency or bad situation in the future, like crimes.
I want to share my experience of coming to US. I came to US through Switzerland; we were stopped by immigration officers in the US Airway corner. I was asked variety of questions. My bag was searched. It took almost three hours to finish all so called immigration formalities. I can not call it neither a bad nor a good experience, because the immigration officers were doing their job based on the immigration policy. However, what I was expecting at the end of this session a small acknowledgement of the inconvenience they caused me, such as a small apology.
Chair of English
Higher Colleges of Technology
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Ph.D. candidate in
Second Language Acquisition and Teaching
University of Arizona, Tucson
5 comments:
Last year I was travelling from Bermingham, England to Belfast in Northern Ireland. I had worn my traditional attires which looks similiar to the dress people wear in Arabic countries.In the airport, the armed man stopped me and asked me where I was from? I replied, "Afghanistan." I was surprised when they asked me, "Where in the Middle East?" I had to answer lots of questions, including explaining them that Afghanistan is located in Central Asia.
Finally, after 20 minutes of interrogation I was allowed to continue my trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland.
When I first landed in the US, I received very special treatment, because I was coming from a newly friend country. I was offered a chair at the airport and the officer kept talking to me for almost four hours. Who would have this privilege to get a US officer talking to him or her for four hours? I was kept waiting and had to discuss issues such where I was? Why I would like to visit the US? Who invited me? What I carried and things like this. If it was not the special treatment I was almost to become annoyed. My two bags were also carried in a very special way and I was put in a flight other than my origin one. They did all this to me because I was a special guest or a suspicious guest.
I have had the experience of entering the United States and Canada so many times in my life. I haven’t really faced many difficulties when trying to enter the mentioned countries, but I would say that Canadian immigration officials have acted in a more friendly and accessible way. I say this because they usually apologize when they are taking to long to finish the process and they often provide you with valuable information and advice in order to have a safe and pleasant stay in Canada.
Definitely it would not be fair to say that unlike Canadian immigration officials, Americans are unfriendly with foreign individuals. The United States has millions of people living illegally, so it is necessary for immigration officials to take all the preventive measures that are necessary in order to avoid any contingency or bad situation in the future, like crimes.
I want to share my experience of coming to US. I came to US through Switzerland; we were stopped by immigration officers in the US Airway corner. I was asked variety of questions. My bag was searched. It took almost three hours to finish all so called immigration formalities. I can not call it neither a bad nor a good experience, because the immigration officers were doing their job based on the immigration policy. However, what I was expecting at the end of this session a small acknowledgement of the inconvenience they caused me, such as a small apology.
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