This week in class we are looking about why people decide to move across borders and the economic effects of migration therefore I thought it would be interesting to look into immigration. For the first time in five years, America’s immigration service just recently chose to hold a lottery to allocate the visas it makes available to foreigners recruited by private business to work in the country. This is giving the opportunity for more foreigners to come to America and have the opportunity to work. The economy still is not booming here and unemployment is still an issue for many Americans…. So why are they allowing foreigners the opportunity to come work here? Possibly because many Americans are either unskilled or do not want to work in the fast food industry or either low income jobs.
According to a recent economist article, The visa system Not working, “The cap on visas is entirely arbitrary and unnecessary, and almost certainly imposes high economic costs on the country”. Immigrants may be stealing American jobs, but they are more likely than U.S. citizens to “create patentable inventions or start new businesses. As we discussed in class, U.S. citizens are more likely to move to another country because of personal interest or they possibly have family there. For many immigrants moving to the U.S. it is because of the American Dream and want for a better opportunity at life. I think it is fair to allow immigrants to move to the United States whom are wanting to work, become educated, and later be entrepreneurs.
In another article from the economist, Tourist visas: You’re not Welcomed, it is discussed how some countries make visas very hard to obtain. “Only 18% of Chinese visitors to Europe make it to Britain, but two-thirds visit France, a member of the Schengen travel zone where visas are both easier to get and are 40% cheaper.” Why is this the case, when tourists traveling to the United States are big spenders? The poorer countries are the ones charging some of the highest fees simply because they can.
What do you think? Shoulder some borders have less restrictions and be made easier accessible? What should determine whether or not someone is applicable for a visa?
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21575782-how-hurt-economy-needlessly-not-working
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2013/02/tourist-visas
Well there kind of is a car on visas. In the United States we don't just let anyone in. Also, we like to attract more of the high skilled workers which is interesting because those high skilled jobs are the more desired by Americans. I might disagrees with that first article. I think a cap is very important.
ReplyDeleteWell as someone personally going through the application process for Spain, (a Schengen country), I can first off say that obtaining a visa for a year is quite difficult, though it obviously varied depending on what country you are from. On another note, by friend is from Spain, did a year of school in New Orleans and applied for the visa lottery, and he won! Which is incredibly rare, he works here as a translator for commercials etc because he speaks four languages and is able to send money back to his family in Spain. He is a great example of what we have been talking about in class, and yet, I dont believe in a lottery system. Believe me I want nothing more than an EU visa, however, at this time we cannot simply allow free movement of people. I am all for giving a large number of visas, but with stricter controls, such as people wanting to do a higher level of education (like graduate or doctorate degree) or someone who has already been offered a job that is above say a mean salary. We want people who contribute to the economy and we want as many as we can get.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of cap on visas I know that for a country like the US, in order for a high skilled worker to come to the US and work as an immigrant with a worker's visa, the company that is hireing must post in the US for about a month stating that is looking for a worker that has the same kind of specialization, and only then the skilled worker can come to America.
ReplyDeleteSomeone's visa status should be based on what their intent is in the US. I agree with a cap on visas but the government should loosen restrictions. I would not argue low skilled immigrants (legal or illegal) are stealing out jobs. They are taking the jobs that most americans so not want. As for high skilled immigrant workers, this is a much smaller population, like Mateus said above the worker need visa approval from the company they would be working for. This is a tedious task and most companies do not want to deal with this process.
ReplyDeleteI have a story to share regarding this diversity lottery program. As the article states that every year 50,000 immigrants are allowed to come to the United States right now. In fact the debate is going on to see if we should stop this diversity lottery program and allow all the high skilled students here in the US obtain a legal residents. What do you all think about that? My sister in law came here 8 years ago through a diversity lottery program. My take on this lottery is that in one way most of these people are coming to the United States because there are no jobs in their country, or due to harsh political regimes. Then on the flip side I hear these older couple or older person winning this diversity lottery in hope of this American dream and they don't find it here. These elders give up everything back home including their properties, families everything just to go get a glimpse of America and gets all disappointed because there is this stereotype in most of the underdeveloped countries that Americans are all rich. They don't see the hard work behind it. America is great for any immigrants who works towards their dream and achieve their goal. I really think that there has to be some immigrant diversity lottery reform. There are so many high skilled students here in the United States that can benefit from this lottery reform or to expedite their visa process. Right now United States is losing many of highly skilled such as doctors, engineers, computer scientist and so forth to Canada right now. Other countries are definitely taking advantage of this so these students are getting educated here in the U.S and going to other countries to generate their revenues.
ReplyDeleteDuring my travels I spet around 800 dollars on visas and they were extremely hard to obtain. I'm not sure that I agree that the poorest countries are charging the highest prices for visas. However, they were among the easiest to get. I noticed that the visas I had trouble getting were from countries that have somewhat strenuous relationships with the US-- China is one example. However, I didn't even need a visa for the African countries I traveled to.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to consider national security when allowing a person to have a visa. It is extremely difficult to obtain a US visa, partly for this reason.
I absolutely think it is a good idea to increase the number of available visas for workers who want to come to the United States. We are surely incurring many high economic costs by not allowing certain types of immigrants to enter the country. Workers who are recruited to work in the united states are typically very high skilled and educated. Therefore these visas are not really being given to many low income families with this program. While it is not really a good idea to allow more immigrants with low incomes or low educational levels to enter i think we should increase the number of visas available. Our immigration policy allows us to throughly check peoples background so I dont think this will cause any real danger to national security. Immigrants should mainly be evaluated on their skill level, those with higher skills are more likely to contribute to the economy and not rely on the government. Due to the United States living standards and economic prowess it is extremely attractive to immigrants and therefore it attracts the most productive people around the globe as we often are a major contributor to the brain drain of less developed economies. Not allowing some of the most productive people in the world to come contribute to out economy surely hurts us economically and should be fixed by allowing more visas to these immagrants
ReplyDeleteI agree with Trevor in that an increase in the amount of Visa's would be a good thing, but I'm not necessarily sure about the lottery system. I understand that we attract the most skilled labors and this is a threat to many Americans including myself who will be soon looking for work, but this competition is what makes our country so productive. I agree with Trevor that we should accept immigrants based on their inherent value or what their contribution would be to the community therefore we wouldn't be handing out unnecessary visas and we would become significantly more productive.
ReplyDelete