Want to Live and Work in America?

Click here to read a great little article on "How to Be an Illegal Alien in the United States" by Mimi a New York Village Voice writer. Funny, and too real at the same time I think. Can you imagine working for "tips only" so as to remain unknown to the authorities? In comparison to her stories related here, Meg and I's woes are quite trivial, being well-educated Canadians who both qualify for temporary work visas in The United States under NAFTA. Aside from the rather cold, neurotic, machoistic and unwelcome reception that you seem to always receive from the border guards who process your visa, coming into The United States qualified to work is relatively painless for us. You just have to be patient and put up with the crap at the border. After that, it is pretty smooth. However, there are times that most definitely confirm in your own mind your status as "a foreigner" here.

Over the past few days Meg and I have struggled to secure accommodations in Los Angeles. This has largely been due to two things: a) higher cost than we anticipated and b) complications with the "status" of our American credit. Although I have worked in The United States legally before, and I have a United States Social Security Number, a bank account, and legal employer now, I don't yet have an American credit card. So the long and short of it is that because I don't have a track record of established debt shouldering ability people are very hesitant to rent you an apartment. They think that you either won't be able to pay regularly or are a risk in that you might take off home at any time. I got Rhythm and Hues to write a letter confirming my work status and wrote up a work history and that eventually got us approved for a place, but we had to pay what I would call a "prejudiced deposit." It not that we have bad credit, we just don't have any, and they flatly refused to look at our Canadian credit history. It was touch and go for a while there, but it looks like we're in the clear now.

Spending any amount of time living and working as a foreigner, not just passing through on holiday where you don't have to deal with the realities of life, really expands your tolerance for immigrants I think. If you're never forced to see things as the foreigner, you never will. Still, our experience in the prosperous north pales in comparison to the experience of our supposed "partners in NAFTA" the Mexicans who have to deal with whackos like this: click here!