4 ms·

I agree that giving the power of extradition to an employer or investor is ultimately going to undermine the benefits that the business relationship brought in

I agree that giving the power of extradition to an employer or investor is ultimately going to undermine the benefits that the business relationship brought in the first place. However, how do you define 'excellent'? A uni degree isn't indicative of excellent. It's not even a required component of 'excellent'.

geebee 17y ago
I don't know how to define excellent... I think the question is, should we make an attempt to select for positive qualities, or just accept almost completely random immigration. I've read about Australia's points system, and I'd say it's a big improvement over the US's system. I like Australia's system because it doesn't overly emphasize engineering or technology - sure, those are good attributes, but so is a background in nursing, medicine, plumbing, law, and so forth. It also (appears to) preserves freedom for the immigrant. I'd like to see any worker visa category in the US awarded directly to the immigrant, with no obligation to remain with the sponsoring employer. But there's no real way around the point you're making - any attempt to select for "excellence" is going to make use of formal credentials, like university degrees, membership in the bar, possession of a plumbing license, and so forth... and this is a problem considering that people like Steve Jobs had none of these things. So maybe some randomness would help. The real problem, I think, is that the only truly free system would be unlimited mobility across national borders, which is a practical impossibility right now. Any meaningful limits are going to leave some people who would have been good contributors out.
- netcan 17y ago
  The point system is for the various classes of permanent residency applications so it's not really apple's 2 apple's. There are also sponsored visa programs that come with employer, industry or geography restrictions from the family of US H1B visas. I'm currently in application in Australia, knee deep. Australia's system has it's own problems with it's own unintended consequences. It's very complicated. There are many similar visa classes each with their own rules that get tweaked constantly. That is by design. The system is intended to respond to a need for electrical engineers or plumbers as they come up. There is preference for local graduates of 2 year certification courses (nursing, social work, IT, welding, etc, etc.). This means that private TAFEs have agents going around India, China & Malaysia selling Permanent Residency courses that can be easily funded by "earning while you learn," virtually impossible for most people. There are stories of people expecting crazed recruiters for cushy jobs waiting at the airports while not actually having any idea what their course is about (nothing gets called what it is any more & the official descriptions are often completely meaningless). The low end of 2 year training courses are a boom business. All sorts of abuse, corruption & mess. I agree with you about preserving the rights of the immigrant. I don't think it's possible to do this though whil immigration is this restricted in the world.

geebee 17y ago

I don't know how to define excellent... I think the question is, should we make an attempt to select for positive qualities, or just accept almost completely random immigration. I've read about Australia's points system, and I'd say it's a big improvement over the US's system. I like Australia's system because it doesn't overly emphasize engineering or technology - sure, those are good attributes, but so is a background in nursing, medicine, plumbing, law, and so forth. It also (appears to) preserves freedom for the immigrant. I'd like to see any worker visa category in the US awarded directly to the immigrant, with no obligation to remain with the sponsoring employer. But there's no real way around the point you're making - any attempt to select for "excellence" is going to make use of formal credentials, like university degrees, membership in the bar, possession of a plumbing license, and so forth... and this is a problem considering that people like Steve Jobs had none of these things. So maybe some randomness would help. The real problem, I think, is that the only truly free system would be unlimited mobility across national borders, which is a practical impossibility right now. Any meaningful limits are going to leave some people who would have been good contributors out.

netcan 17y ago
The point system is for the various classes of permanent residency applications so it's not really apple's 2 apple's. There are also sponsored visa programs that come with employer, industry or geography restrictions from the family of US H1B visas. I'm currently in application in Australia, knee deep. Australia's system has it's own problems with it's own unintended consequences. It's very complicated. There are many similar visa classes each with their own rules that get tweaked constantly. That is by design. The system is intended to respond to a need for electrical engineers or plumbers as they come up. There is preference for local graduates of 2 year certification courses (nursing, social work, IT, welding, etc, etc.). This means that private TAFEs have agents going around India, China & Malaysia selling Permanent Residency courses that can be easily funded by "earning while you learn," virtually impossible for most people. There are stories of people expecting crazed recruiters for cushy jobs waiting at the airports while not actually having any idea what their course is about (nothing gets called what it is any more & the official descriptions are often completely meaningless). The low end of 2 year training courses are a boom business. All sorts of abuse, corruption & mess. I agree with you about preserving the rights of the immigrant. I don't think it's possible to do this though whil immigration is this restricted in the world.