And how Canada “cherry picks” immigrants from around the world.
‘Fareed Zakaria looks at how the immigration systems work – and don’t work – in Japan, Europe, Canada and the U.S. in the TV special: “Global Lessons: The GPS Roadmap for Making Immigration Work” on CNN at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 10. Watch on CNN International on Saturday, June 16, at 4 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET’
Interesting article. Japan sounds like an awful place to live as an immigrant, but it certainly does look like that they’re going to have to change their attitudes to new arrivals soon if they don’t want their aging crisis to get any worse than it already is – I read that many Japanese young people “have no interest in sex”:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-16500768
and that instead of trying to bring in more immigrants to help the elderly they are looking at having robots take over these responsibilities in the future…
I think that it is a bit silly to look at “Europe” as some sort of unified immigration bloc. It is true that EU citizens can move about throughout the EU with very few strings attached, but we are still individual nation states here with completely different immigration policies for immigrants in place. The UK, for one, has a similar points-based immigration approach along the lines of Canada, while most EU countries tend to make it possible for students to continue to reside after completing their studies. In a few years the “EU Blue Card”, modeled on the US Green Card, should be in place, but I doubt that it will start to gain any real traction until the economic crisis passes us by.
One issue that I found interesting was that the article seemed to completely ignore the fact that both the EU and US have greater issues with illegal immigration than Canada or Japan could ever hope to have, though I do wonder how Canada would react should the US suffer a major economic downturn and lots of immigrants start to look further north…? It would turn into the same situation that we have here in the EU – Lots of migrant workers come in through Greece or Italy, but their goal is usually to reach the UK or France.
@Don
I guess in a couple of years Japan will only have robots for citizens. Do they have to pay taxes 🙂
I just got a funny Email from U.S. based relatives that I want to share:
“Do you know anyone who wants permanent residence status in the US? For a $1 million investment in one of our companies and 12 months of paperwork, they are in. I need to find people from unattractive parts of the world or who want to be next to the Mayo clinic.”
Citizenship for sale: Foreign investors flock to U.S.
Good riddance, Eduardo.
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin drew public ire last month following the revelation that he had renounced his U.S. citizenship, a move widely seen as a tax dodge. But thousands of wealthy foreigners are lining up to replace him, making investments here and putting themselves on a path to citizenship in the process.
The State Department expects to issue over 6,000 “investor visas” in the current fiscal year, which would be an all-time record. Other countries, meanwhile, are following the U.S.‘s lead, keen to spur growth inlean economic times.
“Our goal is certainly job creation, and that’s what this program is all about,” said Bill Wright, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “At the same time, it’s allowing somebody from a foreign country to come and invest in our nation.”
Under the government’s EB-5 Immigrant Investor program, foreign investors can get conditional visas that allow them and their families to live, work and attend school in the U.S. To qualify for the visa, they must invest at least $1 million in a new or recently created business, or $500,000 for businesses in rural or high-unemployment areas.
The investment must be demonstrated to have created or preserved at least 10 full-time jobs for U.S.workers within two years. Assuming this condition is met, investors and their families graduate to permanent resident status, and can apply for full citizenship three years later.”
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@mooley, thank you. You may want to go over here and repost your comment there:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/06/11/fareed-zakaria-immigration-lessons-for-the-u-s-from-around-the-world-getting-them-in-and-keeping-them-in/
I just posted an article on the state of Canada’s immigrant investor program on that thread. Sounds like the US may be considering discontinuing theirs.
http://www.canada.com/Future+immigrant+investor+program+uncertain/6771301/story.html