US President Donald Trump’s initiative to make the granting of the “Green Card”, that is the right to live legally in his country, stricter, I think is logical, and I hope it will be approved by the Congress. In this matter Trump is right: the “Green Card” cannot be given randomly, with a lottery, and it is good that particularly our citizens will be deprived of the temptation of this type of “gambling”.
I know that dozens of our citizens live and work in the Silicon Valley. They are young, educated, of course, fluent in English, in addition, do not refuse our citizenship, keep the connection with the homeland, they are ready to help Armenia, and they do help (not with money, but with their knowledge, intellect, which is more priceless), they are concerned about our situation, but express their concerns discreetly and correctly. These people, as well as thousands of such Armenians living in the United States, will never have a problem with the “Green Card”.
And now let’s imagine another Armenian, approximately my age, who has won a “Green Card”, or was able to deceive US immigration authorities, convincing them that he, for example, is a homosexual, and is persecuted in Armenia. He lives in the expense of the US government, that is, the unemployment pension paid by taxpayers, he doesn’t know English, and he doesn’t even need that: having his undershirt on he is sitting in his yard of “barracks” made of veneer shits in Los Angeles all day long, listening to loud “rabis” music. After drinking two or three glasses of vodka or whiskey, he feels to be a “national figure”, and starts cursing his former homeland, and adding: “if that country improves, I will come back”. What a “national figure”, if he doesn’t express such an empty promise?
Has the US government the right to refrain from welcoming such people in its country? I think it completely does. Certainly, who has the idea to leave Armenia, he will anyway. But in Russia, for example, it is much less probable that this kind of “personality” will receive any such pension, or will be accepted as “persecuted”. He will have to find a job. Besides, in Russia, he will not be able to pretend to be a “national figure”, and teach us wit from the “heights” of a civilized country.
In short, this time Trump’s decision, I think, was quite fair.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
