Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
Right, the U.S. has weird immigration rules relative to other developed Western nations. It's highly bifurcated, with most legal immigration either "elite" or relatives of "elite". Sanjay from Chennai is a highly paid engineer in suburban MI and eventually brings his parents. On the other extreme there's the undocumented/refugee/temp visa crowd, indispensable to the economy but a political hot potato and living on the precipice.
Western European and Canadian immigration is much more broad-based, and better displays the gamut of socioeconomic diversity. The U.S. is simultaneously tougher and more desirable for professionals, so gets to pick and choose, but the massive costs, delays and political blowback are bad for long-term competitiveness and productivity.
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Isn't the temp visa/worker type a kind of migrant that has a long history outside the US in other western nations too... I mean, for Canada there's been the recent wave of temporary workers but also you have this history with the Gastarbeiter program in Germany.
Also how recent has the difference in selectivity been? I mean, many western countries became more open to immigration post WWII and post 1950s/60s, with the US having famously really open borders to Europeans during the Ellis Island days but I get the impression that the increased toughness for immigrants legally entering the US has ramped up even compared to say the 90s or something, like you hear about these backlogs of people waiting decades for green cards.
So, would the story be different if you compared a 1965 immigrant to Canada, the US or Europe to a 1995, or 2005 one, vs. today?