Editor's Comments of the Day

The J visa category allows a “bona fide student, scholar, trainee, teacher, professor, research assistant, specialist or leader in a field of specialized knowledge or skill” to come to the United States temporarily to teach, instruct, lecture, observe, conduct research, consult, demonstrate special skills or receive training under a designated program. INA 101(a)(15)(J). J-1 programs such as the Justice and Journalism program announced in the Federal Register by the ECA contribute to the growth of a global culture by allowing people to come here temporarily and gain knowledge which they will then take back and share with others in their home country. Specifically, the goal of the program is to train the media members who will influence the decision makers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Zimbabwe in American ideals of professionalism in the media--i.e. “gaining an appreciation of and skill for objective reporting; developing subject specialization (e.g. justice/legal issues); giving fair coverage to positive as well as negative news; separating comment from news coverage; avoiding inflammatory presentations; maintaining independence from special interests; etc.” While these goals sound laudable, and are ones we support, we must keep in mind that simply because people operate with a different set of values and expectations, they are not automatically wrong. The J-1 allows someone to come here to gain or impart knowledge. It should be used for an exchange of knowledge, not a means of cultural export.