Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S.

Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by patio11 on Monday July 27, 2009 @09:28AM (#725792)

I'd sell Green Cards, with a portion of the fee going into a background check (more to buy off the Republican Party than anything else). I think about $50k is fair, but you could calibrate the number as desired. Heck, if you want, impose a quota, issue securities entitling the bearer to one green card, and then auction them like T-bills. Transferable or non-transferable, your call.

This system is easy to understand, transparent, and offers certainty that the patchwork quilt of immigration statuses does not. You'd hear a lot less whinging from the nativist set if they were automatically $50k less expensive than the next guy. This would essentially eliminate any abuse of (legal) foreign labor, as employers would no longer hold any particular power over the fates of their employees, other than the usual ones accorded by contract law. (I can see Microsoft or whomever offering to foot the bill if they were guaranteed 3 years of service, and have absolutely no problem with that arrangement.)

It would also be easier for desirable foreign laborers to interface with. Believe me, I can tell you from personal experience, NOTHING scares me like a routine visit to get my visa renewed. It is the only time when I am ever totally at the mercy of a clerk who has a Destroy My Life button on his computer. Folks trying to fit an extended stay in the US into their near-term life plans must have similar emotions. This would quiet them. Pay the license fee. Get the green card. Simple, easy, fullproof.

Besides, you can essentially buy your way around immigration laws anyhow, so we might as well be honest about it.

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by rdl on Monday July 27, 2009 @09:37AM (#725800)

Just auctioning off green cards to people who meet basic requirements (background checks, English fluency) seems to be the fairest way to allocate a scarce resource.

I'm not sure if residency (or even citizenship) is naturally or artificially scarce; I don't think rich retirees, or smart entrepreneurs, lower the quality of life for existing citizens, but an argument could possibly be made that lower skill employees might increase supply and thus depress wages for certain categories of labor (especially positions with an inelastic demand).

I would certainly prefer 100k immigration slots going to 100k predominantly indian and chinese engineers than 10k indian engineers, 10k chinese engineers, and 80k family members of existing immigrants from around the world of varying education, skill, and wealth.

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by btdxtrt on Monday July 27, 2009 @11:00AM (#725948)

Except the American economy is aimed at, and thrives on people of a certain "education, skill, and wealth". Those 100k indian and chinese engineers are going to buy German/Japanese cars, watch european films and eat foreign food and possibly even french wine. The 80k poor relatives are going to shop at McDs and Walmart, watch FOX, support the local politician with the largest belt buckle - and generally integrate perfectly into American society.

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by yardie on Monday July 27, 2009 @10:52AM (#725928)

I believe they have special visas for investors, entrepreneurs, and the fabulously wealthy. In fact, most developed countries have this visa. A friend of mine, with a couple million $ in the bank, basically got the red carpet treatment when he applied for his visa. He had his lawyer do most of the dirty work but when it was time for the big meeting he told me how hassle-free it was. I reminded him he wasn't waiting in line with the chattel.

Even for immigration, money talks.

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by eugenejen on Monday July 27, 2009 @11:02AM (#725954)

There are visas for this.

E-2 non-immigrant visa, for treaty investor visa, renewed every year.

EB-5 permanent resident visa, for investors who invest 1 million and create 10 jobs or invest 500k and create 5 jobs in economical hardship area (I guess such as Detroit?)

No special visa for penniless entrepreneurs though.

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by kragen on Monday July 27, 2009 @10:27AM (#725874)

Besides, you can essentially buy your way around immigration laws anyhow, so we might as well be honest about it.

Can you really? How does that work?

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by patio11 on Monday July 27, 2009 @10:36AM (#725895)

Hire top flight (expensive) immigration lawyers to handle your case, fly back to your country of origin on your private jet four times a year to turn the Visa Waiver program into a non-working visa of arbitrary length, structure your corporate/employment affairs such that while you sure look like you're working at a desk in America legally speaking you are employed in Zurich and merely on a business trip, etc etc. Or, heck, just look at investors' visas, which is literally "You have a lot of money? WELCOME TO AMERICA!"

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by gaius on Monday July 27, 2009 @10:38AM (#725901)

Pay someone to marry you. A friend of mine did this. Tho' there's nothing sleazy about it, he's gay and married a lesbian. He, his boyfried, her and her girlfriend share a house in SF.

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by btdxtrt on Monday July 27, 2009 @10:55AM (#725939)

The american dream?

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Re:Skilled Immigrants on Why They're Leaving the U.S. by pmjordan on Monday July 27, 2009 @10:58AM (#725946)

Name a government that doesn't want a wealthy person among its taxpayers. Investor visas, etc.

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