Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas • Hacker News Board

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#171

Post by gnaritas » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 11:24 PM UTC

yeahsure wrote: post #134

yeahsure wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been a movie buff, and so as a kid I had some miss-conceptions and naive beliefs about the US. Some random ones I can think of now (a bit busy ATM): - Cops are nice and they are out there to help people. - There are no criminals in US neighborhoods. It is ok to even leave your car unlocked. - There's no unemployment in the US (or it's minimal). If you go to college you automatically get a nice paying job.…

Got a few minutes and wanted to make some more comments... I've had several ugly situations while entering the US. Last time I visited (March this year) I went through LAX. I was greeted very nicely by the officer, had all my paperwork done and off I went. Then I went to Baja California (MX) where I would stay at a friends/client house. Then I had to cross the border (through Tijuana) to go to a marketing expo at AZ.…

> The border patrol officer started telling me I was hiding something because of my body language (apparently he saw too much "Lie to me") and started questioning why I had friends in the US, how had I met them and so on

Cops are dicks, plain and simple, they are not your friends; Hollywood definitely glosses over this. The reality is more like Training Day, those are real cops, mostly straight but dirty when it benefits them. How they treat you tends to depend heavily on your race.

> In (most) mainstream US movies, you see that no matter what your job is you can lead a pretty nice life. Even if you work as a bartender, you can have your small apartment and be in charge of your life.

Ah, interesting observation; yea, that's not true that all.

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#172

Post by gnaritas » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 11:27 PM UTC

sin7 wrote: post #170

gnaritas wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting perspective, though, you seem to have had some bad experiences with Americans, sounds like you've been to the bad side of some big city. Small town America are closer to the Hollywood prototype you see in the movies; friendly people, helping strangers and all that. What is your home country?

I grew up in Mexico. My uncle had lived in California and he always spoke of the US like a mythical land. He talked about orange trees everywhere, which was not something to see in Mexico because all the oranges would be stolen long before they were ripe. And he also spoke of sandwiches the size of your palm. My father had also been in the US and he was more grim in his stories. He spoke of how my uncle lived on anim…

> He talked about orange trees everywhere, which was not something to see in Mexico because all the oranges would be stolen long before they were ripe.

American's pick anything from a tree without being forced to... never happen, lol.

> And he also spoke of sandwiches the size of your palm.

I thought sandwiches were pretty much the same size everywhere?

> I have seen some Americans do amazing things

Such as?

> and I have seen Americans act like punks.

This I expect.

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#173

Post by gnaritas » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 11:29 PM UTC

emp_ wrote: post #155

bh42222 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just imagine you know nothing about the US except what you see in movies. Do you see a lot of poor people? There obviously are movies and TV which show a much more "real" version of the world. But the most popular TV and movies tend to show an idealized version of reality.

I'm a big fan of The Wire, Treme and Shameless (US) for those kinds of shows, suggestions are welcome!

Ditto on the Wire; that show rocked, that's real America on the bad side of town. Couldn't get into Treme, haven't tried Shameless yet.

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#174

Post by sin7 » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 12:10 AM UTC

gnaritas wrote: post #172

sin7 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in Mexico. My uncle had lived in California and he always spoke of the US like a mythical land. He talked about orange trees everywhere, which was not something to see in Mexico because all the oranges would be stolen long before they were ripe. And he also spoke of sandwiches the size of your palm. My father had also been in the US and he was more grim in his stories. He spoke of how my uncle lived on anim…

> He talked about orange trees everywhere, which was not something to see in Mexico because all the oranges would be stolen long before they were ripe. American's pick anything from a tree without being forced to... never happen, lol. > And he also spoke of sandwiches the size of your palm. I thought sandwiches were pretty much the same size everywhere? > I have seen some Americans do amazing things Such as? > and I…

I should have been clearer on the sandwich thing. When he said that it was the size of his palm, he held his hand as he would have held a hamburger. Looking back, I'm quite sure he was describing hamburgers and not sandwiches.

Speaking of sandwiches, I was at a subway. A homeless man was ordering a sub. When his turn to pay came up, he took out a handful of Subway stamps and handed them to cashier. The cashier went on to tell the homeless man about how a roll of stamps had been stolen from that restaurant and that were not accepting them. The homeless man picked up his bag and left. The cashier and the sandwich maker had a small discussion culminating with a who cares is not like he ever bought a sandwich from us. A couple of customers later an older man asked how much for sandwich since it was just going to get thrown away. The guy behind the counter gave a price. He paid for it, walked outside and handed it to the homeless man.

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#175

Post by aiham » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 1:35 AM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #160

aiham wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to look into the immigration procedure here in Japan first. The people are great; almost all that I've met are fine with foreigners. But not so much the government and companies. You need a fair amount of patience to make it here (especially in the work place), unless you already have a contact. Good luck.

I thought becoming a Japanese citizen was impossible for foreigners.

I was referring to residence, being able to live and work legally. Although I don't have any sources, I've heard of a few people who have become citizens. I don't believe it's impossible, just very difficult. Permanent residence on the other hand isn't rare at all.

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#176

Post by galadriel » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 1:49 AM UTC

rrhm wrote: post #142

blahedo wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no legal way for anyone to just come to US and make it their home country. Are there countries where this is possible? This is a real question, I'm not snarking---is there some country X where I could just up and say, "I want to move to X" and just go there and make it my permanent residence? (I know that there are some countries that in practice don't enforce their requirements, but I thought all countrie…

Every country has their requirements, and to a greater extent they enforce them. However, some countries make it downright impossible for a foreigner to become a resident or a citizen, while others make it exceedingly easy. For instance, if you wanted to become a permanent resident or a citizen to the Dominican Republic, all you would have to do is get there (via sea or air), go through the motions, submit the paperw…

Note that the landing with $10 requires that one has to be from developed world.

And there is also a pretty similar procedure to get green card in USA, the EB5 route.

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#177

Post by BerislavLopac » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 6:19 AM UTC

yeahsure wrote: post #134

yeahsure wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been a movie buff, and so as a kid I had some miss-conceptions and naive beliefs about the US. Some random ones I can think of now (a bit busy ATM): - Cops are nice and they are out there to help people. - There are no criminals in US neighborhoods. It is ok to even leave your car unlocked. - There's no unemployment in the US (or it's minimal). If you go to college you automatically get a nice paying job.…

Got a few minutes and wanted to make some more comments... I've had several ugly situations while entering the US. Last time I visited (March this year) I went through LAX. I was greeted very nicely by the officer, had all my paperwork done and off I went. Then I went to Baja California (MX) where I would stay at a friends/client house. Then I had to cross the border (through Tijuana) to go to a marketing expo at AZ.…

I'm just curious, where are you from?

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#178

Post by yeahsure » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 7:11 AM UTC

BerislavLopac wrote: post #177

yeahsure wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got a few minutes and wanted to make some more comments... I've had several ugly situations while entering the US. Last time I visited (March this year) I went through LAX. I was greeted very nicely by the officer, had all my paperwork done and off I went. Then I went to Baja California (MX) where I would stay at a friends/client house. Then I had to cross the border (through Tijuana) to go to a marketing expo at AZ.…

I'm just curious, where are you from?

South America.

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#179

Post by yeahsure » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 7:15 AM UTC

gnaritas wrote: post #171

yeahsure wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got a few minutes and wanted to make some more comments... I've had several ugly situations while entering the US. Last time I visited (March this year) I went through LAX. I was greeted very nicely by the officer, had all my paperwork done and off I went. Then I went to Baja California (MX) where I would stay at a friends/client house. Then I had to cross the border (through Tijuana) to go to a marketing expo at AZ.…

> The border patrol officer started telling me I was hiding something because of my body language (apparently he saw too much "Lie to me") and started questioning why I had friends in the US, how had I met them and so on Cops are dicks, plain and simple, they are not your friends; Hollywood definitely glosses over this. The reality is more like Training Day, those are real cops, mostly straight but dirty when it bene…

I don't think that all cops are dicks, but they have the power to behave like it if they want to. One of my dream jobs has always been to be a murder investigator though (I'm a big fan of "The Wire"):-)

And yeah, even though I'm from South America, I don't look too latino. I once crossed the border with two mexican friends. They definitely treated them worse than me.

Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas

#180

Post by gnaritas » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 7:19 AM UTC

sin7 wrote: post #174

gnaritas wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He talked about orange trees everywhere, which was not something to see in Mexico because all the oranges would be stolen long before they were ripe. American's pick anything from a tree without being forced to... never happen, lol. > And he also spoke of sandwiches the size of your palm. I thought sandwiches were pretty much the same size everywhere? > I have seen some Americans do amazing things Such as? > and I…

I should have been clearer on the sandwich thing. When he said that it was the size of his palm, he held his hand as he would have held a hamburger. Looking back, I'm quite sure he was describing hamburgers and not sandwiches. Speaking of sandwiches, I was at a subway. A homeless man was ordering a sub. When his turn to pay came up, he took out a handful of Subway stamps and handed them to cashier. The cashier went o…

> A couple of customers later an older man asked how much for sandwich since it was just going to get thrown away. The guy behind the counter gave a price. He paid for it, walked outside and handed it to the homeless man.

Nice, I'd do that too.