Workers without families: The unintended consequences

Introduction After twelve years in the United States, Sharon Seneriches, a domestic worker for a wealthy family in New York City, finally returned to the Philippines and reunited with the family she left behind. Lacking proper documents, she had not been able to see her husband or children for more than a decade. Likewise, her children – without proper visa qualifications – could not visit their mother in New York City. The Seneriches family endured this long separation with the hope that eventually they would unify as a family in the United States. This sacrifice was made for the financial prospects available in the United States. In 2001, after obtaining her green card, Sharon triumphantly returned to the Philippines. Sharon's new legal status allowed some of her dependents to obtain visas required to live permanently with her in the United States. Thus, after a two-month visit to the Philippines, Sharon returned to the United States, accompanied by her twenty-year-old daughter JoAnn, nineteen-year-old son Mike, eighteen-year-old son Peter, and husband Frederico. However, the migration of Sharon's family did not come with complete joy because one member of the family did not qualify to enter the United States. Her oldest daughter, Ellen, turned twenty-two years old by the time she was considered. No longer considered a “child” under the rubric of the immigration laws, Ellen belonged in a different visa preference category. Ellen qualified for a preference category that was lower than her younger siblings, one granted to unmarried adult children of permanent residents of the United States. In this category, she has to wait at least six more years to receive a visa. Although left behind in the Philippines, Ellen still has the hope of eventually joining her family in the United States. However, in order to immigrate under the family-sponsored preference category, Ellen must put her life on hold. She cannot marry the man she has been dating for the last two years. If Ellen married her partner, her mother, who is a permanent resident, would no longer be able to petition for her entry. Alternatively, however, she could enter the United States legally as a skilled migrant.