Re:How Are H-1B Holders Affected by the U.S. Green Card Appl...
by Daishiman on Wednesday October 07, 2015 @03:33AM
(#10344677)
Well, the reality is that there are several clusters of different migrants and they're choosing the US for several reasons:
* The very poor choose the US simple because they can; they may have the conctacts from family, they may have an idealized vision, or it's just the closest they can afford. But being able to marry or just keep their head down and avoid deportation is better than what they have, so since legal alternatives are not really a choice to begin with, they'll take what they can and not complain too much.
* The educated middle class will only go to places with exceptionally high standards of living that are comparable to any well-developed place in the world. These people are going to New York or the Bay Area, maybe Chicago or LA at best. They can ignore the US's massive inequalities because they're reaching for the best of their professions and available quality of life, and they know that if things go sour they can go to their homelands with a pile of cash and live like kings back home, which is a seriously good Plan B.
* Truly wealthy people can move around freely throughout the world and can enjoy the best that the US' global cities offer with none of their drawbacks, so long-term issues are mostly irrelevant unless we're talking business, and the laws in the country favor corporations massively.
So yeah, a lot of people in academia go to Europe, a lot of the educated middle classes in developing countries nowadays choose to stay put because they enjoy good benefits from a globalized economy and fewer of the drawbacks of their countries. And the poor who have no choice will try for whatever they can and accept it as an improvement.
* The very poor choose the US simple because they can; they may have the conctacts from family, they may have an idealized vision, or it's just the closest they can afford. But being able to marry or just keep their head down and avoid deportation is better than what they have, so since legal alternatives are not really a choice to begin with, they'll take what they can and not complain too much.
* The educated middle class will only go to places with exceptionally high standards of living that are comparable to any well-developed place in the world. These people are going to New York or the Bay Area, maybe Chicago or LA at best. They can ignore the US's massive inequalities because they're reaching for the best of their professions and available quality of life, and they know that if things go sour they can go to their homelands with a pile of cash and live like kings back home, which is a seriously good Plan B.
* Truly wealthy people can move around freely throughout the world and can enjoy the best that the US' global cities offer with none of their drawbacks, so long-term issues are mostly irrelevant unless we're talking business, and the laws in the country favor corporations massively.
So yeah, a lot of people in academia go to Europe, a lot of the educated middle classes in developing countries nowadays choose to stay put because they enjoy good benefits from a globalized economy and fewer of the drawbacks of their countries. And the poor who have no choice will try for whatever they can and accept it as an improvement.