Editorial: Let's have the immigration reform that Panama needs

Immigration reform that's in the national interest

Let's not have any illusions about the subject of immigration laws, and let's not allow the politicians to impose any illusions upon us.

The three great pillars upon which our current immigration policies stand are political corruption, racism and an outmoded monopolistic economic order.

Toro Pérez Balladares can't get a US visa because his administration sold Panamanian visas and passports to Chinese citizens seeking to sneak into the United States. His defense was not that this wasn't done, but that Panama has a sovereign right to such corrupt practices. Successive administrations have let just about any pyramid scheme scammer, pension fund skimmer, sticky-fingered foreign politician or child molester who can flaunt large sums of money into this country. Immigration directors tend to leave office with clouds over their reputations, but having amassed unexplained wealth for which they are never called to account. When the most recent Migracion chief to be forced out in disgrace was called on a flagrant conflict of interest, his party truthfully but disgracefully defended him by asserting that his behavior was in keeping with the institution's norms.

Panama recently played host to a Caribbean summit, at long last recognizing that one aspect of our national existence is that we are a Caribbean country. But our immigration laws specifically ban immigration from most of the countries we hosted. Immigration from Asia is similarly restricted, but we get lots of Chinese and other Asian immigrants. The principal effect of Panama's racist policies restricting immigration from the non-Hispanic Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia is that Migracion officials get to collect large bribes to allow these strictures to be circumvented. The racist immigration bans are the legacy of Arnulfismo, from the 1920s when the Arias Madrid brothers and their buddies in Accion Comunal used to go around in Ku Klux Klan robes and from the 30s when Arnulfo was oh so impressed by Adolf Hitler. They are a moral disgrace, an impediment to Panama's development as a world commercial center and an insurance policy against the possibility that Martín Torrijos's "zero corruption" pledge might actually be implemented.

The new buzzword for Panama's economic development is "residential tourism." The marketing theory is upscale gated communities advertised only in English, aimed at attracting American millionaires who see this country as the next step of their suburban white flight. It is generally a good idea to attract affluent foreign retirees, but not at the expense of displacing long established local communities, creating new ethnic ghettos or importing US racism or Colombian thuggery. Yes, communities like El Espino need benefactors, but no, they don't need pedophile ex-priest pension fund skimmers like Father Ron Kelly.

The reality is that most of the Americans who come here for extended visits or to live are people with historic ties to Panama. They were stationed here with the military, they are the descendents of West Indian laborers who built the Panama Canal, they are old Zonians or they are married to Panama. They are affluent enough to be a boon to the economy, but as a whole they don't fit the stereotype of lily-white millionaires to whom Panama's tourism promotions are mostly addressed.

And then there's another group of Americans who could contribute much to Panama's economy, but who are forbidden to do so: those with skills and education, and often with family ties here, who would like to come here and work. Yes, we have plenty of illegal immigrants who do come here and work, and the Torrijos administration has resumed the disgraceful practice of issuing visas to foreign women who seek to work here as prostitutes. But thanks to the monopolistic thinking of our professional associations and the politicians who pander to them, highly skilled people who could raise the level of competence of many of our professions and make Panama a center of world excellence rather than Third World mediocrity are excluded.

Such exclusions don't protect Panamanian jobs, they prevent them. In part because foreign professors are by and large excluded from our universities, graduates of those institutions find that their diplomas aren't respected in the world labor market. High tech firms won't locate here because they can't find enough of the highly skilled people they need. Panama can't realize its full potential as a world finance center because our accountants are not trained to live up to international standards and foreigners who have those skills are not allowed to come here and work. The pathetic Sindicato de Periodistas and University of Panama School of Social Communication rail against foreign journalists, but what they have really done is assured that hardly anybody abroad buys the work of Panamanian journalists and that foreign news organizations rarely hire Panamanians.

So, as the National Assembly is set to take up immigration law reform in its next session, what would be the outlines of legislation that's in the national interest? These would be some of the important points:

· A policy that encourages people of working age with graduate degrees or otherwise possessed of expertise in their occupational fields to immigrate and work here, regardless of any claims that their professions may be "saturated;"

· An end to the special restrictions on immigration from Asia, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East;

· Structural and procedural reforms to root out and prevent corruption at Migracion;

· A policy that encourages the unification of families, by allowing those with relatives who are citizens or long-time Panama residents to come here to live and work;

· An end to prostitution visas; and

· A policy that's in keeping with letter and spirit of international treaties concerning the status of refugees, the apprehension of international criminals, the protection of human rights and the prevention of political corruption.

Bear in mind...

You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when. You can only decide how you're going to live now.

Joan Baez

None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much.

Lydia M. Child

The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it.

Sitting Bull

editorial