Dr. Surbhi Malik's Interview

Dr. Surbhi Malik is an English professor at Creighton University. Her knowledgeable insight on the issue of class-based immigration is an essential resource to our advocacy campaign. These were her responses to our purposed questions.

How much money did it cost for you to immigrate to the United States?

·      I do not have an exact number but the estimate would be in thousands of dollars, especially for a family. All the different stages—ranging from visa applications to applications for green card and citizenship and multiple rounds of fingerprinting—require fees. The expenses surely add up.

Did your job title have an effect on your ability to immigrate to the United States? 

·      I did not have a job title, which meant that I came here on a dependent visa or H-4. The first thing you begin to understand is that there is an entire visa regime. The two units strung together—the letter of the alphabet and the numeral suffix—are your destiny. This dyad determines what rights you have, what you can and cannot do. H1, H2, H4, L1, L2, F1, M1, J1—this is a small part of the alphabet, the vocabulary, that you begin to learn. H4 or dependent visa means that your visa status depends on another person’s, in this case my husband’s. In many ways, it seemed to signify the erasure of my own self or identity. I moved to the United States in July 2001 and when the September 11 attacks happened, our state stopped giving driving licenses to people on my visa status. For the first time in my life, I experienced the law as an intimate force in my life, shaping the contours of my personal relations and my emotions. 

If you were in a lower socioeconomic class, do you think you would have been able to immigrate to the United States?

·     No, because the expenses can run into thousands of dollars. I cannot even imagine how anyone living from paycheck to paycheck could find the money to pay the various fees or have the time to understand the labyrinthine process.

Do you believe the United States immigration system is class-based?

·     Historically, the United States immigration system has always been about the nation’s labor needs. Legal immigration mostly facilitates the mobility of the elite and wealthy, the well qualified. The system is ostensibly a meritocracy but then allows entry to only those who have the resources to gain an English education and who can financially benefit the country.

Have you experienced financial problems that were caused by immigrating to the United States?

·     No. But I can imagine how onerous the process is.