You ungrateful little . . .

Immigration.

It's what makes the U.S. what it is. After all, if it weren't for immigrants, who would be in the U.S.?

Don't answer that.

Unfortunately some Americans didn't make that trip across the pond willingly.

It's hard for me to know who is and isn't native Dutch. There's nothing obvious about anyone that I can see. Plus, people have moved around the world for generations now, so just because your parents may have come from China, if you were born in Belgium and have lived your entire life in Belgium, you're native Belgian.

Of course, that can be said of the U.S. as well.

Despite the inevitable continuation of immigration now and forever, there is never a simple way to resolve all the issues surrounding it. People just want a better life. To be with their family.

The U.S. isn't alone in their struggle either.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, the number of people seeking asylum in the West remained stable last year (the "West" isn't just the U.S.). Some 377,200 people applied for asylum in 2009. Only 100 more than the previous year.

"The notion that there is a flood of asylum seekers into richer countries is a myth" says U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. (or Refugites as we like to say at Trinity. But that's a whole 'nuther story)

This annual report (the U.N. one noted above) covers 44 industrialized countries including 27 EU member states, Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Turkey, and the U.S. I guess this defines "West".

Furthermore, the EU registered the bulk with around 250,000 last year.

It may not surprise you that Afghans topped the list of applicants for asylum to industrialized countries. Actually up 45 percent from the previous year.

Almost a third of asylum seekers to the U.S. are from Chinese applicants.

In addition to Afghans, the majority of applicants to the EU were Russians, Somalis, Iraqis, and Kosovoans. In that order.

I think we know why living in these countries may be less than desirable. So, where to go?

For the EU, the highest number of asylum seekers were registered in France (47,600), followed by Germany (31,800), the UK (30,300), Sweden (24,200), Belgium (21,600), Italy (17,500), the Netherlands (16,100), Greece (15,900) and Austria (15,800).

Now, think about it. Let's put some perspective on this. Belgium is a very small country. Very small, yet 21,600 people sought asylum here. France is 22 times bigger than Belgium. Twenty-two Belgiums would fit inside France! Yet France only had a little over 2x the number of people seeking asylum there. By comparison per square mile, France should have had 475,000 asylum seekers to Belgium's 21,600! There weren't that many all together.

I'm just saying, that's a lot of people coming to Belgium.

I'll admit if I were seeking asylum, Belgium is nice. Apparently too nice.

In the EU in 2009, 229,500 first instance decisions were made on asylum applications. There were 166,900 rejections (73 percent of decisions), and the rest were granted refugee status, subsidiary protection or were granted authorization to stay for humanitarian reasons.

I assume this means no one was sent back if they applied legally for asylum. However, estimates are that there are about 4.5 to 8 million illegal immigrants in the EU.

They must all be in France.

According to an article in the NYTimes, in the last three years, immigration judges in the U.S. heard 9,317 requests for asylum and granted only 183. That's 98% rejection. Estimates are that there are 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

If over 377,000 sought asylum somewhere in the West, I can only imagine why so many are illegal. If the U.S. immigration judges heard only 9,000+ requests over three years?

Yes, the U.S. has its share of issues. Belgium has its share of issues too. But I'll take that any day.

I am lucky I don't have to figure all this out.

I am lucky I'm not an asylum seeker.

And you might want to . . .

Count your blessings.