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“Undocumented can’t get public benefits:guide” is a Daily News article I happen to stumble upon online. Author Albor Ruiz discusses the new Guide to Public Benefits for Immigrants released 2 wks ago by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, the New York Immigration Coalition and the Community Service Society of New York. It is a guide to public benefits based on immigration status. For each benefit, the guide provides information on who qualifies based on immigration status, income limits and other requirements. the author states that its readers will discover that in general, only U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or immigrants with a qualified alien status can qualify for benefits. He’d hoped that the guide would dispel some myths about how the undocumented take advantage of taxpayers by “clogging the rolls of public assistance programs”. Unfortunately, judging by the comments posted, I doubt this changed any readers minds.
I found many deeply unsettling and racist comments posted as responses. They go on and on about how illegals are scum and leaches- it gets worse than that….
I dont understand how people continue to hold on to erroneously beliefs even when they are not supported by facts. This reminded me of the readings in “Why Americans Hate Welfare” where we learn how the media influences what we perceive to be the truth. I can only imagine how many base their beliefs on images they may have seen of America’s poor which most likely were the faces of blacks or hispanics and if the later was seen, many Americans assume they are undocumented.
Below is a link to the full article WITH all the comments
Critical Condition is being streamed in its entirety until Tuesday November 11, 2008.
If you have the time, please watch the film. Not only does it engage you with the participants struggles but you also learn how healthcare in this country is unfairly dispersed on the basis of income level.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/criticalcondition/fullfilm.html
Critical Condition is a short film that tells the story of 4 ordinary, hard-working Americans and their experience with Healthcare in the United States. By the end of the film I found myself crying and was disgusted to see how being uninsured cost some of them their jobs, health, homes, savings, and even their lives.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=amdo1fp44b
I learned that more than 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. The health care crisis has an impact on individual health, family stability and the nation’s economy. The lost productivity of uninsured Americans costs the economy up to $130 billion dollars a year — more than the estimated cost to cover the uninsured.
Please let me know what you think about the film and if you were as outraged as I was. What can I as an individual do to change this situation?
