Reunification Policies Research Articles

Slowing the Wave

If the US persists on its present course of immigration policy it risks facing a nasty nativist reaction. Immigration remains a hot topic of public debate as well as an increasingly important foreign policy issue as diplomatic efforts are made to stem the tide of illegal migrants. While charges that immigrants consume more from health and education services than they contribute to society and that low-skilled immigrants weaken American global competitiveness may overstate their results valid concern is raised about the reluctance of todays immigrants to make a psychological break with their native land. Despite these concerns promigrant policies continue in response to the pressure of various special interest groups. The 1965 family reunification policy inevitably bolstered the enclave mentality that hinders assimilation. This policy in combination with other forces has resulted in an all-time high in the number of migrants in the US with 75% attracted to just six states. Public unease about immigration intensified because of job scarcity and high profile crimes involving illegal immigrants. This unease is surprisingly widespread and deeply felt in the politically important states which have a disproportionate share of migrants. The Clinton administration responded to this unease with a policy pronouncement on illegal migration. Suggested legal reforms also abound and would have an important effect on US foreign policy. As population increases in developing countries the pressure on the US to accept migrants will also increase as will the nativist pressure inside the country. Clinton officials have issued warnings to governments accused of cooperating in illegal migration. The most difficult negotiations will take place with Mexico. An important strategy would be to deliver more financial assistance to population programs throughout the world and to participate in economic development efforts. Border monitoring should also receive more funding and air and sea carriers should be fined for delivering undocumented aliens. The migratory option must no longer be used as an inducement for certain groups to leave their homelands or as a condition for diplomatic relations. Work skills must be reemphasized as the primary entrance criteria. If immigration is considered in terms of historical cycles it is evident that it is time to slow the pace to allow those recently admitted to assimilate. The Statue of Liberty must be viewed as it was intended not as a standing invitation but as a standing inspiration.

A Comparison of Two Works on Black Family Life

After twenty-one years in the making, the film version of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 labor report, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, has been televised as Bill Moyers's special report "The Vanishing Family: Crisis in Black Amerca."' The television documentary bears little stylistic resemblance to its predecessor, but the message in these two works is strikingly similar. The Moynihan report and the Moyers documentary both contend that growing numbers of African-Americans no longer ascribe to certain fundamental American values and therefore exhibit behaviors that

External Dynamics of the Korean Conflict: The Present Soviet Policy Reorientation

Skak, M. External Dynamics of the Korean Conflict: The Present Soviet Policy Reorientation. Cooperation and Conflict, XXIV, 1989, 19-33. Great power policy dynamics are decisive determinants for developments within the Korean conflict, and this contribution focuses upon Soviet Korean policy in the framework of the present overall policy reorientation of the Soviet Union. The 1984 rapprochement between the USSR and North Korea serves as the point of departure, because observers saw this as an ominous sign, i.e. as a stimulus for North Korean and/or Soviet militancy. The point is, however, that North Korea is dependent upon the USSR, and the analysis of the new Soviet leadership's interest perception and actual policy in relation to Korea suggests serious strains in the Soviet-North Korean relationship. Soviet conduct in connection with the Seoul Olympics and Soviet-South Korean economic contacts are obvious signs of this, as is the non-militant Soviet approach to regional conflicts. None of the great powers have a significant interest in a new war between the two Koreas, not even in a peaceful reunification of Korea (with the possible exception of China). All of them can be assumed to have a vital interest in an inter-Korean détente (Germanization), which is an argument that the wise reunification policy of the Korean nation is the tactical and incremental one.

Dilemmas in China's Reunification Policy toward Taiwan

For the past seven years, China has carried out a series of intensive campaigns to woo the Nationalists in Taiwan to accept peace talks, to foster another united front cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT), and to reunify the Chinese mainland and Taiwan under Deng Xiaoping's one country, two systems formula. Although Beijing's reunification policy has been carefully and masterfully planned, directed, and pushed, and its peace-talk drive has been extensive and overwhelming, so far these efforts have met with little success. This article aims to examine critically Deng's reunification policy and peace-talk offensive, to look into the main features of his one country, two systems formula, to pinpoint the basic policy contradictions in the formula, and to explain why Chiang Ching-kuo and his KMT could not have accepted and will not accept this proposal for peace talks and reunification.

Dilemmas in China's Reunification Policy toward Taiwan

Dilemmas in China's Reunification Policy toward Taiwan