Their role as resident is the only way to exert any control over the local and state politics that affect them, being summarily excised from any role in nation-wide elections. Residents who are not also citizens are categorized as either permanent residents or as conditional residents, with very little difference but demographic and reputation between them. In Birmingham, where transient workers are shuttled through the state to work on agricultural plants with Georgia-Pacific or local farmers, many of these residents are conditional, EB-5 Employment Creation Immigrants. Here, they have full right to enjoy the services provided for them by the city and state - including health care, education, public transportation, police protection - and maintain that benefit by voting in local elections only.
Yet, while residents participate in these elections, they are surrounded by stigma that handicaps their influence and policy-making ability. Since their ability to participate in local politics is different throughout all fifty states and even inside of those, they lack a clear channel for asserting their voices. Many are presumed to only be residents because they are workers or not vested in long-term interest of the area, and some citizens are hesitant to allow more control over local activities to those who may not be there to oversee them in twenty years; this bias, even if unduly, focuses the residents' interest on immediacy.
Residents, who may not be able to vote as readily as citizens, are therefore necessarily involved in local politics. Their need to create a system to service their needs, as is the basis of the American government, is more dire than that of their citizen counterpart. If they are...
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