Immig Rant

London is considered a melting pot of cultures and religions, and that's one of the things that makes it special. The level of diversity may not be same but the US is pretty diverse too with a lot of immigrant workers. You would think these countries would be proud of the contributions of these immigrants, but the way they refer to this workforce doesn't sound very thankful at all!
In the US, if you are an immigrant, you probably have one of the alphabets that lets you stay legally (F, H, J, L visas, etc) but at the end of the day, you are an Alien (Resident or Non-resident). The next time you enter the US, try filling out the port of departure as "planet far far away" and Flight number as "UFO-111" in that I-94 card. I hope those programmers writing the code for those expensive NASA probes aren't ex-INS officials. If they are, they will never be successful finding life on Mars. They may find a Mallu selling cup tea but that doesn't count.
For an immigrant in the UK, you either have a "Limited Leave to Remain" or an "Indefinite Leave to Remain" visa. It almost sounds like a court sentence "You have limited leave to remain" and you can hear an imaginary gavel hit along with it. The words "Limited" and "Indefinite" are the saving graces there. Otherwise, you wouldn't know whether to leave the country or remain in the country. I guess all those illegal immigrants have selective hearing when they heard their sentences - they just chose to remain, most likely indefinitely!
There must be other diverse countries and cities, but if these English speaking nations cannot find a comfortable term to refer to their immigrants, I dare not try and understand the visa systems of other countries.