Sadly many people babble about their country by just talking to grocessary man in the petrol satitions.( This is not addressed to MOD for sure.. She is very wise)
S1000+ http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2009-04/2009-04-13-voa18.cfm?CFID=331019414&CFTOKEN=30331639&jsessionid=de306088d71285e403a75546626c5862104e ALSO:US army recruiting ex-militants Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:23:12 GMT http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88248§ionid=3510203 US Army Recruits Immigrants, Rewards Them With Citizenship By Paige Kollock New York City 13 April 2009 New Army recruitsThe U.S. Army is stepping up efforts to recruit more skilled soldiers by offering immigrants a fast track to U.S. citizenship if they enlist. The move comes as the Pentagon prepares to send several thousand more troops to Afghanistan and with the war in Iraq in its sixth year. The U.S. Army chief of staff, himself, swore in a group of recruits at a ceremony in New York. Half of the 32 new Army recruits are immigrants from countries such as Pakistan, India, South Korea and Bangladesh. General George Casey welcomed the new soldiers, recruited under a new initiative called MAVNI - Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest. It's a pilot program that promotes enlistment as a short-cut to U.S. citizenship. Recruits are required to have at least two years of legal U.S. residency. Lieutenant Colonel Margaret Stock says the Army is looking for people with language skills or medical expertise. "We're also looking for people who have cultural ability. They understand certain cultures that we are dealing with. We found, in our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, that having people who were culturally knowledgeable is critical to success on the battlefield," Stock said. So far, the MAVNI program, which began in February, has enlisted 52 new soldiers, 60 percent of whom are college graduates. The Army wants people who speak one of 35 languages it deems "strategic." Stephen Chi speaks Cantonese and four other languages. He will be working as a petroleum supply specialist. He says he enlisted, not for the U.S. passport, but for the camaraderie. "I grew up in Norway, my parents are Chinese, so joining the Army will give me a chance to really belong to somewhere," he said. Twenty-four-year-old Toniya Mishra, who will start as a water treatment specialist, says the Army approached her after finding her resume on the Internet. While her starting salary is less than she hoped to get with a masters degree, she says there are other perks. "They provide insurance for your family, and you get to travel a lot in different countries, and it's better than doing anything else in a market like this today," she said. For the recruits, the next stop is basic training, a rigorous nine weeks of physical fitness, discipline and training.And some then will go to Iraq or Afghanistan, where they could face the dangers of combat. Krishna Melpati - a medical doctor from India - has a concern. "My only fear," Krishna says, "is like, getting through the basic training." So far, 380 people have applied. The Army says it will accept up to 1,000 before the program expires in December. ========================== Naturalization Information for Military Personnel Naturalization Information for Military Personnel If you are a member of the U.S. Armed Forces and are interested in becoming a U.S. citizen, you may be eligible to apply for citizenship under special provisions provided for in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Generally, service in the U.S. Armed Forces means service in one of the following branches: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, Certain Reserve components of the National Guard, and Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve Recent changes in the relevant sections of the INA (Sections 328 and 329) make it easier for qualified military personnel to become U.S. citizens if they choose to file a naturalization application. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has created a streamlined process specifically for military personnel serving in active-duty status or have recently been discharged. This brochure provides you with some basic information about the laws that govern citizenship for military personnel and the process you should follow to begin your journey to citizenship. Do You Qualify? http://www.shusterman.com/cgi/ex-link.pl?www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=92f596981298d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=b6f4194d3e88d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1____ And even back to 2007: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1184649242474&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout and in fact it goes back to 2004.. It needs little more search..People were sent straight from South America, and killed in Iraq, without being reported in USA.. That happened. IN 2006: Army Effort to Enlist Hispanics Draws Recruits, and Criticism by: | Army Effort to Enlist Hispanics Draws Recruits, and Criticism By Lizette Alvarez The New York Times Thursday 09 February 2006 Denver - As Sgt. First Class Gavino Barron, dressed in a crisp Army uniform, trawls the Wal-Mart here for recruits, past stacks of pillows and towers of detergent, he is zeroing-in on one of the Army's "special missions": to increase the number of Hispanic enlisted soldiers. He approaches a couple of sheepish looking teenage boys in the automotive aisle and seamlessly slides into Spanish, letting loose his pitch: "Have you ever thought about joining the Army?" "Did you know you can get up to $40,000 in bonuses?" "I'm from Mexico, too. Michoac a1n." In Denver and other cities where the Hispanic population is growing, recruiting Latinos has become one of the Army's top priorities. From 2001 to 2005, the number of Latino enlistments in the Army rose 26 percent, and in the military as a whole, the increase was 18 percent. The increase comes at a time when the Army is struggling to recruit new soldiers and when the enlistment of African-Americans, a group particularly disillusioned with the war in Iraq, has dropped off sharply, to 14.5 percent from 22.3 percent over the past four years. Not all Latinos, though, are in step with the military's recruitment goals. In some cities with large Hispanic populations, the focus on recruitment has polarized Latinos, prompting some to organize against recruiters and to help immigrants learn their rights. Critics say recruiters, who are under pressure to meet quotas, often use their charm and an arsenal of tactics, including repeated calls to a recruit, lunch at a favorite restaurant and trips to the gym. The Army also parades rigged-out, juiced-up Hummers wherever youths gather as promotional tools. "We see a lot of confusion among immigrant parents, and recruiters are preying on that confusion," said Jorge Mariscal, a Vietnam veteran who is director of the Chicano/Latino Arts and Humanities Program at the University of California, San Diego, and is active in the counter recruitment movement. While the military emphasizes that it works to enlist all qualified people, not just Hispanics, military experts say that bringing in more Latinos is overdue. Hispanics have long been underrepresented in the Army and in the military as a whole. While Latinos make up 10.8 percent of the Army's active-duty force, a better rate than the Air Force or Navy, they account for 14 percent of the population as a whole. Hispanics also make up the fastest-growing pool of military age people in the United States, and they are more likely to complete boot camp and finish their military service, according to a 2004 study on Marine recruitment by CNA, a research group that operates the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research. Recruitment studies show that Hispanics' re-enlistment rates are also the highest among any group of soldiers. "They are extremely patriotic," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Brodeur, commanding officer of the Recruitment Battalion covering Colorado, Wyoming, parts of Montana and Nebraska. That many Latinos in the military are immigrants, or the children of immigrants, typically engenders a sense of gratitude for the United States and its opportunities, something recruiters stress in their pitch. Poorer and less educated than the average American, some Hispanics view the military as a way to feel accepted. Others enlist for the same reasons that may attract any recruit: the money, the job training, the education benefits and the escape from poverty or small-town life. Edgar Santana, a skinny 17-year-old senior who recently hovered around the Army recruiting table at Harrison High School in Colorado Springs, said he was attracted by all those reasons, despite the war in Iraq. "I get the freedoms, and I can enjoy them, so I believe I have to pay back that debt," Mr. Santana said. Tony Mendoza Jr., 18, a senior at North High School in Denver, has already enlisted in the Army and will enter boot camp this summer. For him, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were what drove him into boots. "My parents think I'm going to go in the Army and die, but I wanted to do it," Mr. Mendoza said. Patriotism alone, though, does not account for the rise in Hispanic enlistment. The increase has gone hand in hand with a vast Army marketing campaign that includes Spanish-language advertisements on Univision and Telemundo, the country's two largest Spanish-language networks, and on the radio and in Hispanic publications. The budget for this campaign has increased by at least $55 million in four years. The Army has also expanded a small pilot project that allows 200 Latinos each year to undergo rigorous English language classes and then retake the Army qualifications tests. Ten cities now offer that option, up from five. Recruiters have noticeably stepped up their presence in schools and neighborhoods with Hispanic populations. "You see them today where you would never see them three or four years ago," said Rick Jahnkow, program coordinator for the Project on Youth and non-Military Opportunities in San Diego. In addition, the Army has made better use of bilingual recruiters to reach out to Latino communities. In the Colorado area, the number of bilingual recruiters has increased in the past 18 months to 13 from 4. Recognizing the importance of family and its weight in the process is crucial in Hispanic families, recruiters say. Since a mother's approval can make or break a deal, recruiters spend considerable time with Latino families. They have dinner, chat often on the telephone and remain patient. They even attend local Latino churches. Sgt. First Class Luis M. Galicia, a bilingual recruiter based in Colorado Springs, is always quick to say he was born in Mexico and raised, on little money, in California. He and his family picked grapes for extra cash. He says that his experience helps him connect.; "there is a trust issue." One incentive meant to appeal to this community, President Bush's 2002 executive order that permits legal residents in the military to apply for citizenship within one year, as opposed to three years, has actually done little to entice Latinos. In fact, the number of Army soldiers who are not citizens has declined since 2002 to 2,447 last year from 3,312. The same is true for enlistments. Simply speeding up the application process for people already in this country legally does not seem to provide enough incentive to counter the risks of joining up in a time of war. The recruitment campaign has in fact divided the Latino community. Some of the country's high-profile Latino organizations, like the League of United Latin American Citizens, support the military's efforts, viewing it as an important path to socioeconomic advancement. "The fact that Latinos are underrepresented in the service causes us concern because the service is often a way to the middle class for many immigrants," said Brent Wilkes, national director of the league. "If you don't have a lot of options, would you rather go into the service and get a middle-class career, or stay in the fields all these years?" But community activists in places like California and Puerto Rico call that logic wrongheaded. "This is not the time to sign up," said Sonia Santiago, a psychologist and a counter recruiter in Puerto Rico who founded Mothers Against the War after her son, a marine, was sent to Iraq in 2003. Dr. Santiago has routinely confronted recruiters outside schools. "Those benefits don't mean anything, if they are buried or sick for the rest of their lives," she said. Critics also say that Latinos often wind up as cannon fodder on the casualty-prone front lines. African-Americans saw the same thing happen during the 1970's and 1980's, an accusation that still reverberates. Hispanics make up only 4.7 percent of the military's officer corps. "The fear is that the military is going to try to replace, consciously or unconsciously, African-Americans with Hispanics," said David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland. For bilingual recruiters, tapping into the Latino population has its own set of frustrations. Often, Latinos are willing to join the Army, but cannot. During his rounds at the Wal-Mart, Sergeant Barron encountered a number of illegal immigrants; they are immediately disqualified. Other Latinos lack adequate English skills or high school degrees, he said. In the past year, a Latino counter recruitment movement has arisen in several major cities with the goal of blunting what organizers call overly aggressive and suggestive recruitment in Latino neighborhoods. Some critics say recruiters sometimes gloss over the risks and mislead potential recruits and their parents. Latino parents, especially those who speak little English and know little about the military, are especially susceptible to a recruiter's persistence and charm, critics say. Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son was a marine and died in Iraq in 2003, founded Aztec Warrior Project for Peace to help counsel Latinos on the military. He said he often encountered parents who did not understand the intricacies of the process. One set of parents in Southern California, he said, mistakenly signed papers allowing their 17-year-old to join the military on his 18th birthday, believing that the government required military service, something the recruiter did not clarify. Michael I. Marsh, a lawyer who represents migrant workers in Oxnard, Calif., said he wrote a letter to a local recruitment battalion last year after a 17-year-old's parents signed off on his Army Reserve enlistment at 18. The parents told him they were under the impression that they were signing to authorize a physical exam and blood work. When the youth later tried to nullify the contract, he was told it was too late and that if he tried to pull out, he would be ineligible for school money and federal employment. After Mr. Marsh sent the letter, the teenager was allowed to withdraw his enlistment, Mr. Marsh said. Military contracts are not binding until a person takes a second oath of enlistment. "The recruiter does not lie, but he does not tell the whole truth," Mr. Suarez said. "If you don't know the question to ask, you don't get the information. With language and cultural differences, it's complicated." S. Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army's recruiting command, said that the Army investigated allegations of misconduct and that, while recruiters were expected to encourage people to enlist, they must be honest about risks and benefits. "Given the fact that we are a nation at war, recruiters have to be up front about the risks," hhttp://www.truthout.org/article/army-effort-enlist-hispanics-draws-recruits-and-criticisme said. ======= S1000+ ======= --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World-thread" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/world-thread?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
