So, I’ve been meeting up with a conversation partner and I told her about the controversial law in Arizona that says that if a police officer suspects you are an illegal immigrant, he can ask to see your papers. She thought this was not unusual at all. Around here, if a police officer asks for your papers or ID, you show papers or ID. In fact, it is a law in Austria that you must have a photo ID with you at all times in public. Additionally, when you move to a new city, you have to register by filling out a form, having your landlord sign it, and bringing it to the courthouse. When we first got here, I thought it was only for foreigners, but it is actually required for everyone who moves, even just for a change in address in the same city, and it is considered completely normal.
I can just imagine the uproar in the United States if they required people there to do these things. Some people in rural areas get upset about filling out the census every ten years. Imagine if we had to explicitly tell the government every time we moved. I think citizens of European countries trust their governments more than we trust ours. Whether or not that’s a good thing, I can’t say, but it seems to work alright for them.
ISN’T THAT INTERESTING! Yes, we Americans try to hide from everybody -the government, the IRS, the Law, debt collectors, telemarketers, (in some cases) our relatives, etc. And we have more land space to hide in.
So Austrian laws make the AZ law look like just a really small insignificant step.