What percentage of the poor Africa LDS converts could get a visa and travel to the United States?

Is there effectively a travel ban on poor African LDS converts?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2017 11:32PM by thingsithink.

I wouldn't hold your breath!

I would imagine that many of them want to.

Nope

Really?

Why not? What prevents it?

thingsithink Wrote:
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> Really?
>
> Why not? What prevents it?

Money. Color. The Color Of Money. The Type Of Money. The Amount Of Money. The cult won't help them...

Travel ban? Traveling band maybe!

Percentage? 10%? 1%? One tenth of one percent? Why do you ask?

Why do I ask?

I'm fascinated about the uproar over the "muslim ban." All the way from ashton kucher's speech at the awards show, to Schumer crying, the chants of racism, etc.

I think we have millions of Mexicans across the border that can't visit family here. I think there are tens of millions of Africans, Phillipino's Europeans that can't even visit the United States. And I think it's been that way for years.

Nobody gave a squat about those millions who could not enter.

It makes me think of how everyone suddenly wanted to dress up like the founding fathers eight years ago because of the proposed stimulus and resulting debt. What inspired people to crawl out of the woodwork to dress up like the founding fathers? What inspired the deep concern about potential immigrants - when the vast majority of the world - the poor - has been banned for decades (unless I'm wrong in my understanding.)?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 11:42PM by thingsithink.

Muslim refugees are being welcomed to Utah meanwhile, under the Refugee Resettlement Program.

It's been up in the air since the ban on immigrants from certain countries, but as of today an Iraqi family has been reunited in SLC (it was on news earlier.)

The problem with extending visas to poor Africans from just about anywhere in the Central and West Africa nations, is that they bolt when they hit the shores. My French professor, an employee of the US Embassy did that. He begged and begged for several years for a visa. They finally allowed him a visa to go to a specific function over a specific week in a specific place on the East Coast. But he hit the shores and disappeared. He wrote me months later from a detention center in Quebec, where he was awaiting deportation. He wanted money, because, of course, he had been his family's breadwinner in Congo. I didn't wire him any because of what he had done and because such a transfer would have required me to report it to my own superiors, and it would look very bad.

These people have skewed ideas about life. This French teacher and others I knew looked at how much a low-paid worker here made, and would think "Wow! Seven dollars an hour?? That's a fortune!" Then they dream of all the things they could do with this small fortune.

The church knows this all too well. For instance, even stake presidents from places like the Philippines and poor African nations almost never get visas to attend conference. No matter how good their situation at home, the overwhelming tendency is to bolt when they land in San Francisco or in New York. That implicates the church, as well. An American friend who was a stake president's counsellor in Manila once told me how his SP, who was a business professional in Manila, bolted when he landed in San Francisco after getting a visa to attend conference, going underground and leaving his whole family back home without an income. A few years later, my friend met this guy at General Conference, where he was now undocumented and using a different name, was in a bigamous marriage with an undocumented Filappina, and serving again as a leader of a local Tagalog-speaking ward, seemingly okay with the church.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 09:02AM by cludgie.

I am no longer in Germany now, but in Ethiopia. Gladly in a remote region where the LDS church will never make it (and I read, that they have been closing units near Addis Abeba)!

As for visas for the US, its very diffcult even for non-mormons. A dean from our university got a visa for an official trip to the States last fall. But the guy who heads his academic dept. did not get a visa, because he is not married.

It also not easy for Ethiopians getting visas for Germany. Ethiopians are not entitled for refugee status there. But people from Tigray might go for it, because they speak the same language as many Eritreans und thus pretend to be from Eritrea instead.

Also, one of my friends who was an employee of the US Embassy in Kinshasa fell in love with a Congolese woman who worked at the embassy. You'd think that it was pretty straightforward to get her the visa they needed to marry, but the process was taking so long that he was into another assignment, also in Africa; she also moved there to cohabitate with him during the wait. From there they had to go through the US consular office in a nearby West African country, because for some reason, the US embassy where he was located lacked the necessary consular staff. That consular officer turned them down for a visa simply because she was Congolese. So my friend had to appeal to his congressman in North Carolina, who contacted the US Consul General in whichever country, and said give them the damned visa.

It's hard for many Africans to be considered, ever, for a visa, no matter their status.

My school district recruits heavily overseas, especially for STEM teaching positions. We get large groups of teachers from the Philippines, and some from Africa. AFAIK, the teachers follow the immigration rules. The Africans want to stay, and the Philippine teachers want to make their money for the five (?) years that their visa is active, and then go home.

I also think it's a mistake to think that all illegal immigrants coming up from Mexico on south want to stay here. I've talked to a number of parents of students who again, want to make some money and then go home.

There are a number of people who come to the U.S. to work for a few years who don't see living here long term as being all that desirable. The cost of living is far less back home, and their families are there. They don't like the violence and crime of American cities.

Yup. I used to know a Turkish cab driver in a major US city. He drove his hack 12 hours a day, night shifts mostly, for fares and tips. But back home in Turkey he owned a couple of apartment buildings, and was building a big house. All paid for with one night of taxi driving after another. A brother was looking after his investments. It was quite a few years ago. He may well be back in Turkey now, living the life of a wealthy property owner.

I remember the stories back before the Berlin wall came down. There was no East German temple and many Mormons in East Germany wanted to get married in the temple. So the East German government would issue visas to their citizens to go get married in a temple in the West. The deal that the East German Government had with the church was that they would keep issuing these visas as long as those who left to get married in the temple, kept returning home to East Germany. The faith building part of the story was that they always returned home, and that that's why East German citizens could always get temple marriages. What the real story is.... who knows? Then the wall came down and it was a moot point. I think that at some point also, an East German temple may have been built so that no one had to leave the country to get a temple marriage. But I am not sure about that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 09:19AM by azsteve.

Most countries don't allow people in unless they are self supporting, or sometimes have someone in the new country who is willing to commit to fully supporting them.

The Mormon church position has been for a number of years that members should NOT immigrate to the USA, but should help strengthen the local congregations. (There are exceptions, Iranian members after the fall of the Shah, when Christians were being persecuted and Americans kidnapped, got asylum here.)

As long as the church is willing to issue temple recommends to illegal immigrents, their official position is that violating a country's immigration laws is an okay thing to do. Whatever the church says and puts in to print is not relevant to anything.

Can anyone these days?
Canada might be easier.