New York: One Oath Leads to Another

[Harold Schiffman]

One Oath Leads to Another
By KIRK SEMPLE

Stephen Chi was born in Norway to Chinese immigrant parents, grew up
in Sweden, received undergraduate and graduate degrees at Saginaw
Valley State University in Michigan, mastered five languages and now
works as an information technology consultant in New York City. But
for all the experiences his peripatetic life has given him, it has
also left him with a profound sense of rootlessness. So he recently
applied to enlist in the United States Army. “I don’t feel like I
belong anywhere,” Mr. Chi, 30, said on Wednesday. “I wanted to become
part of something bigger.”

Until last month, Mr. Chi’s application would have been rejected
outright because only American citizens and permanent residents —
immigrants who carry green cards — were permitted to enlist in the
American military. But under a new program that began Feb. 23 and is
intended to increase the number of highly skilled soldiers, the
American military is now allowing some temporary immigrants to enlist.
 In a public ceremony in Times Square on Wednesday, Gen. George W.
Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, swore in 16 of those new recruits,
including Mr. Chi. The others hailed from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India,
Korea and Sweden.

They gathered outside the recruiting station on the traffic island
where Broadway and Seventh Avenue converge, pulled drab olive Army
T-shirts over their civilian tops and, shivering against the cold,
followed General Casey in a vow of allegiance to the military and to
the United States.
“Our diversity only strengthens us,” General Casey said in an
interview with reporters after the ceremony. The new program, known as
Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, is intended to
address shortages among soldiers with medical expertise and foreign
language skills. It will be limited to 1,000 enlistees in the first
year, most of whom will enter the Army, though the American military
command plans to expand it to include other branches and thousands
more recruits every year.

It is open to foreigners who have lived legally in the United States
for at least two years on temporary visas, including high-skilled
employment visas and student visas. Illegal immigrants will continue
to be barred from enlisting.  As an enticement, the government is
offering an expedited path to citizenship and will waive
naturalization fees. Of 4,833 applicants so far, 52 people have
enlisted, including Wednesday’s group, while 445 have been
disqualified, military officials said. Of the 52 new enlistees, 11
have master’s degrees, 31 have bachelor’s degrees and 4 have
associate’s degrees or the equivalent, officials said. The remaining
six are high school graduates.

At least 24 of the soldiers speak Korean, 11 speak Hindi, 9 speak a
Chinese dialect, 3 speak Russian, 3 speak Arabic and one speaks Urdu.
The naturalization process for most foreigners on temporary visas can
often take more than a decade. But people in the new program will be
able to become citizens within six months, officials said. To maintain
their citizenship, the enlistees must honorably complete their
service, which ranges from two to four years of active duty, plus
reserve duty, depending on their specialty. Many of the new recruits,
however, said after the ceremony that while the streamlined
citizenship process was very attractive, it had not been the leading
factor in their decision.

Indeed, several said they had applied to enlist without even knowing
about the new program.  Toniya Mishra, an Indian citizen who holds a
master’s degree in industrial engineering from the Rochester Institute
of Technology, said she applied a day before the introduction of the
program. She had been laid off from her job at a New Jersey company
that makes pharmaceutical software; the firm was cutting staff because
of the economic downturn. Ms. Mishra, 24, said she applied after
seeing a job posting on the Internet seeking engineers for the Army,
but said she did not expect to receive a call because of her
nationality.

Umesh Sharma, 37, who holds a master’s degree in international
education policy from Harvard, first tried to enlist in 2006 but was
rejected because of his Indian citizenship. He reapplied last month
when he read about the new program.  Mr. Sharma, who has been working
for a private tutoring firm in Virginia, said he was motivated to
enlist as a way of helping developing countries in areas like
education reform. He enlisted as an infantryman because he wanted “to
be on the front lines and associate with the society, face to face.
“If I’m in the Army, I want to be really involved,” he added.

Mr. Chi has an additional hurdle to clear: He still has not told his
parents that he has joined the Army. “I guess I have to tell them
sometime,” he said, chuckling uncomfortably at the thought. But he
said he did not plan to break the news to them until after he returned
from basic training, by which time, he said, he would be on his way in
his new career — “and it’s too late.”

>>From the NYTimes 4/2/09
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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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