Permanent Resident Rights: Freedom of Religion

The Green Card Lottery is ending on November 3 of 2012, so don’t miss your chance to enter in the lottery for your permanent resident card. Green cards are documents that allow immigrants to live, work and study within the United States. However, these are not the only benefits available to permanent residents.

The freedom of religion, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution, is just one among the many rights available to immigrants who live in the United States. This right is one of the oldest, founding freedoms considered in America and is part of the reason for why so many people choose to immigrate to the United States.

Because of this trend there is a great deal of diversity in America when it comes to religions. In 2007 the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a report on religious affiliation in the United States. This report can give you a good idea of how many different religions live peacably within America. Below is a chart that shows the general proportion of religious affiliation for larger categories of religions.

From this chart you can get a general idea of the spread of religions in the United States. The orange slice represents a few different belief systems that are closely related: the “nones.” These people claim that they do not have a particular religion and are a growing group in the United States. The right to not believe in religion or to not belong to a particular church is equally protected by the first amendment as any other belief.

Another thing you may notice about this chart is that the majority of Americans are Christians. However, this is somewhat misleading if you do not consider the huge numbers of different Christian sects. This is true for the other categories as well. The above slice labeled “Jewish” comprises Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews. The slice labeled Muslim represents both Shia and Sunni Muslims. Below is a chart representing the subdivision of the “Christian” section of the graph.

As you can see, there is a great diversity of beliefs and religions even within the other sections. This is a great strength of the United States and it is a point of pride for the nation.

Enter in the Green Card Lottery today and immigrate to the United States where all religions are respected, no matter how many.