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Lest you think this is a problem only for Africans & USA: I was denied visa, going to present my paper at NIPS 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. Czech citizen (EU), P
by Radim 8y ago
Lest you think this is a problem only for Africans & USA:
I was denied visa, going to present my paper at NIPS 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. Czech citizen (EU), PhD student at the time, with obvious ties to CZ.
I fully respect each country's right to refuse anyone, including without providing a reason (as was the case with me). I see it as "their loss" :-) You pesky computer scientists, stay away!
- baybal2 8y agoYes, this distresses me the most, these random refusal are 99% caused by the person failing some arbitrary checkbox list, or edicts like "reduce number of visas to country N by N percents" so they feel pain
- falcor84 8y agoRegarding the right to refuse anyone, I was of the same opinion myself but mostly changed my mind after reading this article posted on HN: http://www.owl232.net/papers/immigration.htm http://www.owl232.net/papers/immigration.htm I now find this to be a very interesting and subtle ethical question
- rukittenme 8y agoReally? What aspect of his argument convinced you?
- lrajlich 8y agowhat's the tl;dr? I only read the primae facie rights section and 1) this is reasoning by analogy, 2) the analogies don't make sense..
- raverbashing 8y agoI don't buy it. Because it focuses too much on "supposed" rights of the immigrant and not the rights of the one already there (which, as much as the "no borders" people deny that more crimes and bad stuff happens with unchecked migration, it does happen).
- everybodyknows 8y agoThe essay is missing a couple of sections: 3.6 Social Peace When large swathes of the work force suffer falling income sure to competition from immigrants, anger will rise to dangerous levels. 3.7 Maintenance of Social Capacity for Self-Governance Rule of law through government institutions, rather than by an elite of cronies through hired thugs, is possible only under certain conditions. Foremost of these being: 1) Engagement of citizens in government, going beyond the minimum of showing up at a polling booth every four years, and 2) Sufficient education to understand what's being voted upon. Though both of these are questions of degree rather than Boolean propositions, both nevertheless remain requirements of existential gravity for any free society. The election of 2016 shows just how imperiled 3.6 and 3.7 have become here in the United States. The author, writing back in 2010, lacked the 2016 evidence.
- thomasahle 8y agoDavid Miller also had an interesting episode on Philosophy bites on the issue: https://philosophybites.com/2016/11/david-miller-on-immigration.html https://philosophybites.com/2016/11/david-miller-on-immigrat...
- so_tired 8y agoYeah, but u get free access EU, the biggest, democratic and affluent economic bloc. SO i guess life balances out. Sort of. But yes. Denied visa after getting accepted really sucks. Do u still get "published in NIPS" credit or is the paper withdrawn ?
- sneak 8y agoWhy should a country’s government prevent you from traveling to/on a piece of land owned by a person who wants you there? What is there to respect about using violent force to prevent peaceful innocent people from freely associating and gathering? Why should they have that “right” to prevent you from peacefully traveling from A to B?
- slededit 8y agoThis may not apply to your case but a lot of these conference immigration issues come from getting paid to speak. Depending on how you phrase it the inspector may treat it as “work” which is a big no-no.