Vicente Fox has already made it clear that 'immigration reform' will be
the centerpiece of Democratic Party propaganda this fall.      And he
mentioned Europe as a model for how immigration should be handled
between Mexico and the US.        Mexicans can be kept at home just like
the Portuguese now are, he said.

Interestingly, keeping immigrants out of the US is something that unites
Buchanan with Nader, and Bush with Gore.       Fox comes on board saying
that immigration barriers can benefit even Mexico, if only just done in
the right way!     That will mean better US/ Mexico air connections for
Mexican business and political figures, and papers harder for the
average Mexican worker to obtain, if he/ she should want to escape
extreme poverty for the US.

So what can we expect in Clinton's coming 'immigration reforms'?       A
more European Wall!      That one down here right now is as rusty and
nasty looking as the PRI.       Something's got to be done about it.

Actually, the Europeans are not satisfied with their wall either.
Still too porous all agree.       The WSWS has been doing some good
commentary recently about Germany, and how the Social Democratic and
Green Parties have attacked immigrants' right to move freely in the
world.      See......Victims of the German SPD-Green coalition asylum
policies.     And also the article below.

Can Clinton out 'reform immigration' more than The Republicans?
And will this 'reform' even take support away from the Nader campaign?

Tony Abdo
-------------------------------------------------
Bavaria's "Blue Card": a new attack on rights to immigration and asylum
in
By Ute Reissner
15 July 2000

The introduction earlier this month of a "Blue Card" in the
conservative-governed German state of Bavaria is a dual attack on
fundamental democratic rights. Firstly, it sanctions unprotected
dependent relationships on the jobs market, and secondly it further
annuls asylum rights in Germany.

The initiative only differs from the plans of the Social Democratic
Party (SPD)-Green party federal government for the introduction of a
"Green Card" (allowing the temporary employment of foreigners in areas
of skills shortage, such as computing and information technology), to
the extent that it more directly realises the reactionary core of the
federal scheme.
The democratic rights to freely choose one's occupation and place of
residency, as well as to immigration and asylum, are being ruthlessly
sacrificed to the interests of big business.

Although the Bavarian "Blue Card" applies only in the IT sector, it can
be expanded to other branches of industry if the necessity arises.

Concretely, the new regulation directly ties the granting of a residency
permit for Germany (or rather for Bavaria) to a particular employment
contract. The immigration authorities are under instruction from the
state government to grant a residency permit if the applicant can
present an employment contract. A prerequisite is a minimum annual
salary of 100,000 marks ($50,000), or the possession of a university or
college degree in the area of information technology. Both conditions
are also planned for the federal "Green Card" scheme.

In contrast to the plans of the federal government, which grants limited
five years residency for 20,000 specialists, the "Blue Card" ties stay
in Bavaria directly to a specific employment contract with a particular
company, and expires automatically if the job finishes. A seamless
transfer to another IT company is possible, but not, however, into
another industry. The Bavarian Interior Minister told the press that
this would prevent "foreign experts, who do not fulfil the expectations
set for them or who do not get along with their new employers, from
becoming a burden on the welfare system."

The "Blue Card" combines globalisation of the world of work with a
return of vassal-like dependency. It brings to mind conditions existing
under the despotic Arab regimes, where, for example, rich Saudi families
bring cheap household servants from India, who must leave immediately
when their employment ends, and so are completely at the mercy of their
masters and mistresses.

The current shortage of IT workers would not permit such relations at
present. It also remains to be seen how many "specialists" will accept
the Bavarian conditions. Some press comments note that not only is the
weather more pleasant in other countries, but those with dark skins also
need not fear life and limb elsewhere. However, the tendency to create a
new class of employees deprived of fundamental democratic rights is
unmistakable. Bavaria has now created a precedent.

The regulations attached to the "Blue Card," like the "Green Card",
which presuppose relatively high salaries or qualifications for granting
a work permit, can quickly be shaved away. Representatives of small and
medium-size Internet companies have already aggressively complained that
the few specialists who might soon arrive would be swallowed up by
larger enterprises.

The president of the Federal Union of German Employers' Associations,
Dieter Hundt, has demanded a lowering of the annual salary requirements
for foreign experts from 100,000 marks to 75,000 marks. Felix
Frohn-Bernau, CEO of the Berlin Internet start-up Dooyoo, a consumer
portal, said the conditions were completely unreasonable. He said a
large part of their own executive board only earns 60,000 marks, and
many of those launching new firms did not even possess university
qualifications.

Right of asylum under further attack
While big business's urgently needed specialists are to be accepted into
the country—on condition that they can be ejected again at any
time—the borders are to be made even more impenetrable for refugees
and asylum-seekers.

This is the purpose of new immigration legislation being prepared at
present by teams of experts and government commissions, as well as the
Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) opposition.
Both sides have been feeding each other the political line for months.
In May, the newspaper Die Welt reported under the headline "SPD and CDU
for immigration law" that the SPD hopes that following the elections in
North Rhine-Westphalia such a law could be discussed with the CDU/CSU.
In the meantime, SPD parliamentary faction leader Peter Struck has
established a team of experts on the topic, in order to engage the
Greens as well.

The Bavarian Interior Minister, Guenther Beckstein, announced the
introduction of the "Blue Card" on July 3 in Munich during a conference
of the Interior Ministers from all the CDU/CSU governed states. They had
collaborated on the development of the concept. It is to be submitted to
the Bundesrat (the upper chamber of the federal parliament) July 14 for
consideration as an alternative to the "Green Card". At the same time,
the CDU/CSU governed states have called for discussions with the SPD
over an "all embracing regulation of immigration requirements". This
means that asylum-seekers and ordinary immigrants would be counted
against each other, so that if a certain number of residency permits
were issued for work purposes, no more places would remain for the
politically persecuted.

The CSU state government in Bavaria formulated this in a paper on
"limitation and control of immigration" as follows: "The recruitment of
specialists from non-European Union countries may not increase the total
number of immigrants. A satisfying solution of the overall problem can
be reached only by a law controlling and limiting immigration. At the
same time, such a law should reduce and limit the present uncontrolled
level of immigration."

In view of the past practice of the SPD-Green coalition in relationship
to foreigners and asylum-seekers one must assume that the pious words
with which German President Johannes Rau has rejected the linking of
immigration and asylum, and similar expressions by Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder, only serve as a fig leaf.

Just one day after Beckstein's announcement, CSU parliamentary deputy
Hartmut Koschyk published a guest contribution in Die Welt, in which he
described the situation quite succinctly: "With public discussion of the
immigrant problem a normalisation is taking place across the party
spectrum, as is already the case with international combat missions by
the German armed forces and in matters of European policy."

The utterances of SPD Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily are not very
different from those of his conservative Bavarian colleague Beckstein.
According to Schily, one must enable immigration "which corresponds with
our interests" and prevent immigration "that runs contrary to our
interests". Or differentiate between "immigration, which substantially
burdens the social insurance and welfare system, and immigration that
corresponds with our economic interests". As Beckstein bluntly put it,
"We need fewer foreigners that take advantage of us, and more we can
make use of." The fundamentals of a "quantitatively and qualitatively
reasonable immigration policy" have "obviously long been marked out",
according to the CSU politician.

Under conditions where these parties can no longer simply ignore the
worldwide jobs market resulting from globalisation, they erect new
social and nation