As governments tighten their immigration procedure, undocumented immigration becomes harder, especially for people from origin countries not sharing a border with the destination countries. It’s true that there aren’t a lot of undocumented Indonesians in USA and Europe, but the number is not negligible. I think they’re in the tens of thousands. It’s enough to confirm the behavioral change.
I really don’t think most Indonesian undocumented immigrants in USA are former students. People who can afford to enroll into outrageously expensive American universities, even for a semester, very rarely stay to be a manual laborer in America. Instead of waiting tables in America, they can go home and be a manager in Indonesia. Of all the people I know, only one was a former student. Most of the people overstaying their visa are tourists or ship crews.
In America that’s true, not because they don’t ask for it, but because they generally don’t qualify for it. Any benefit they get is usually linked to their American-born children, who are American citizens by law. America is a lot more stingy in benefits than Europe, to the point where legal immigrants (green card holders) aren’t eligible for most federal benefits they paid taxes into, until 5 years after they gained the status.
What’s so tough about immigration policy is that both extremes are wrong. A xenophobic closed border doesn’t work, and an open border doesn’t work either. It’s a nuanced topic, and popular politics aren’t great with nuances.
The sin of this bogus asylum seekers is being born in the wrong country. Everybody in the world wants to give his kids a better future. If you eke a living in a third world country day by day, not knowing whether you’re gonna eat next week or tomorrow, you’d jump at the opportunity to move into America or Europe too. I would.
On the flip side America and Europe can’t just accept everybody who applies for asylum. They can’t afford it.
All I’m saying is that I don’t buy into this “lazy immigrants” narrative, because it’s the oldest stereotype in the book. The reality is never that simple.
By the way, a lot (if not the majority) of undocumented Indonesian immigrants get legalized through asylum. I’m fairly certain that the majority of cases are bogus. They invent stories of persecution in Indonesia to shore up their case, and I’m not fully comfortable with that. Still, they gotta do what they gotta do.
