Immigration

[aphar]

Developed countries face declining birth rates that make natural population growth negative (in all developed countries except USA). This makes it necessary to import foreign immigrants to replenish the labor force. Transportation has become cheap enough to make global mobility a reality, while the quality of life in the developed world is still far better than in other places. This means that the developed countries are accepting immigrants from all over the world and have to deal with both benefits of this global pool and its drawbacks. I consider the issue from the point of view of a citizen of a developed country, whose main concern is the quality of life and stability of his homeland.

There are two major aspects in the immigration policy:

1. who to let in, and
2. what to do with those who are let in

who do we want to let into the country?

There are three main venues for immigration:

1. Refuge
2. Family
3. Skills

Refugees

Refugees (mostly "political") are becoming a more significant source of immigration, especially after ~10 years ago a political asylum was granted to an african woman fleeing the tradition of "female circumcision". This means that all african women are now eligible! I think this venue should be throttled: the is a purely humanitarian issue and we should weigh the imperative of helping others against the imperative of helping ourselves. We cannot accept all disadvantaged minorities from all over the world.

Family

Relatives of immigrants are routinely allowed to reunite, creating a network effect. This must be throttled by introducing a hard limit that individuals receiving public assistance at any time in the last 5 years cannot invite anybody (unless, say, the newcomers take upon themselves a legally enforceable responsibility to support those who invited them.

Skills

This should be made the major venue, like it is now for Australia and New Zealand. USA already has the "outstanding ability" visa, but the burden of proof is quite outstanding there (the standard examples the application mentions are Nobel Prize and Olympic medal). I think that a lower standard, similar to the "point system" used by Australia and New Zealand, whereas education, skills, and experience increase the score while the age decreases it, is a good idea.

what to do with those who are let in

There are two main approaches to new immigrants:

1. Multiculturalism
2. Integration

Multiculturalism

This approach has been prevalent in Europe and Canada and has now taken its pernicious hold in the US too. It encourages the creation of ghettos where people can live out their whole miserable lives without learning a single word in the language of the country they live in (which actually makes their lives miserable - and the lives of their children too!) This is double-plus-un-good and should be stopped. E.g., every new immigrant should be required to attend something like an Israeli ulpan where she will learn the language and traditions of her new homeland. There should be a graduation exam and those who fail it should be deported (with the usual age exemption, similar to the current exemption for the elderly from the language proficiency exam for the citizenship).

Integration

The melting pot doctrine has been historically prevalent in the USA and still is prevalent in Israel. This is the model we should follow - the immigrant should integrate into their new homeland, not create an enclave of the old homeland in the new one. Preserving the traditions should take a back seat to integration: this society is not obligated to accommodate hijabs and yarmulkas, and if an immigrant cannot integrate in this country well enough to make a living without public assistance, he should be up for deportation.

Comments

[magpie73.livejournal.com]

Dear Alfar,
It's the central issue of the most of dem,ographyc researches. Till now all this seem rathe hopless - especially regarding Vernadsky, Khailov, teyar de Chadin works. The only way to solve the question - as well as the question of the Earth overpopulating, don't forget about it, is neglected by the most powerbodies. No wonder, it eould change the World organization pattern. But it's slow wayand since ithasd not been started yeat - I have no hope You are welcome to see it here. Trough wider public enlitenment toward sustainable development http://www.olgasorokina.org/txt_SustDevelopment.htm and here^ Conflict solving http://www.olgasorokina.org/txt_Conflict%20solving.htm
All the best!