NY Times: "Obama Hints He May Be Open to Immigration Deal With G.O.P."

New year, new deals. President Obama indicated in an CNN interview broadcast this morning that he "might accept an immigration deal that does not include a special pathway to citizenship for those in the country illegally." As reported in The New York Times:

'The question is, is there more that we can do in this legislation that gets both Democratic and Republican support,' he said, 'but solves these broader problems, including strengthening borders and making sure that we have a legal immigration system that works better than it currently does.'

Obama's interview comes off the release of a one-page memo titled "Standards for Immigration Reform" (via Politico here) that outlines the Republican House leadership plans. The memo recommends a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, but not a special path to citizenship. A New York Times op-ed claims this "would effectively create a new stratum of society, a permanent second class of Americans." The Washington Post rounds up (mostly) favorable reactions by immigration reform groups to the memo.

The New York Times: "Chinatown Revisited"

Bonnie Tsui, author of American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, takes a short look at some of America's Chinatowns. The formula, she says, for a great Chinatown is four things: fish, dragons, smoke, and crowds:

Live fish mean that there are enough people buying to make the trouble of caring for the seafood worthwhile. The dragon eye — longan in Cantonese — is a strange fruit, a sweet, subtly fragrant exotic with coarse, sandpapery skin...As strange as it may seem, smoking is a strong cultural indicator that a Chinatown continues to serve a vibrant population of immigrants. A Chinese restaurant with a bunch of cooks smoking out back, or customers puffing while waiting for a table? Worth a try! It’s one that’s less likely to be Americanized...New immigrants mean a certain density and that prices aren’t too high. The more people, the better.

In this pieces she examines the Chinatowns in New York City (more traditional), Monterery Park, California (the "'Chinese Beverely Hills'"), Las Vegas (an "invented Chinatown mall experience that has come to be its own authentic creation."), and Austin, Texas (which is showing promising signs of development).

The Sydney Morning Herald: "Save the song and dance mate, we're Australians"

We already linked to English to English, The Guardian's excellent guide to translating between British and American English, and now in honor of Australia Day (January 26), here is columnist Richard Glover with a guide to Australian English:

1. Say the opposite of what you mean. If someone is tall, call them Shorty. If they have red hair, call them Bluey. If the food on offer at that Australia Day barbecue is the best you've ever eaten, describe it as "not bad"...

4. When helping someone out, downplay the effort involved. You may have just helped your friend carry a grand piano up 10 flights of stairs, but - when thanked - the correct response is to say: "Too easy". That's right - it wasn't just easy, it was too easy, as if, frankly, next time it would suit you better if there were two grand pianos involved and preferably 20 flights of stairs.

5. Learn the counterintuitive use of the word "bastard". In Australian English, someone you detest is a "bit of a bastard", while your best friend is "a total bastard".

NBC News: "Michigan to US: Give immigrants visas to help rebuild Detroit"

It is not uncommon for US businesses to request more visas for foreign workers (by increasing the H-1B cap allotment, for example), but not as common for a Republican governor to do so. But Michigan Governor Rick Snyder did just that, calling for the US Government to allocate 50,000 employment-based visas for skilled immigrants and entrepreneurs during the next five years for the city of Detroit. As the governor's fact sheet states: "The visas would seek to attract highly-skilled, entrepreneurial, legal immigrants who commit to living and working in Detroit, thereby contributing to its economic and population growth." NBC News reports:

There is no precedent for special visas to be issued for a specific geographic area, Snyder said. But he compared the program to a current one that grants visas to physicians who agree to work in under-served areas. 

The Governor's immigration plan announcement is below.

Protima Daryanani: The DLG-Proust-Actors Studio Questionnaire*

Protima Daryanani was born in Lagos, Nigeria, where she lived for eight years. Military coups and changing politics in Nigeria led to the family moving to London. Growing up as an Indian in England, she learned to pick the best of each culture: an emphasis on family and tradition and a love of British “puddings!" Her travels to see family in India and the US and proximity to mainland Europe instilled a life-long wanderlust. “We used to come to the US to visit my cousins,” she says. “I just had a sense that this was the place I was meant to be.” Protima attended Brown University in Providence and law school at Emory University in Georgia, where she “ grew to love a grit.”

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Immigration Impact: "Can We Really Deport Justin Bieber for That?"

Immigration Impact asks an important question regarding the Canadian pop singer (as does USA Today). He is alleged to have egged his neighbor's California home, causing damages of approximately $20,000, which would make the alleged vandalism a felony.

Your average immigrant could be deported for such offenses or even less dramatic ones, as 68 percent of legal immigrants (including permanent residents) are deported for minor, non-violent crimes. And there is no statute of limitation in the immigration laws. Immigrants can be put into deportation proceedings for crimes committed years—even decades—earlier.

The possibility of deportation may not phase Bieber, since he could return to his Canadian homeland, which, as he says, is "best country in the world" because: "We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here [United States], your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills."

UPDATE: CNN reports that Bieber was arrested and charged with drunken driving, resisting arrest, and driving without a valid license in Miami Beach early this morning, after police allegedly saw him street-racing in a residential neighborhood. My colleague Matthew Bray has explained the often serious immigration consequences of alcohol-related driving incidents, and The LA Times reports Bieber "could be at risk of becoming one of the highest-profile immigrants to ever get kicked out of the U.S. if he isn't careful..."