I think we agree - skilled migrants are fine. I'm a skilled migrant (I hope!) and I pay more in income tax than about 90-95% of the people in my adopted country

I think we agree - skilled migrants are fine. I'm a skilled migrant (I hope!) and I pay more in income tax than about 90-95% of the people in my adopted country. But they wouldn't be thrilled if I'd tried to move here when I was 70. Unless I had a giant pile of cash, of course. I don't _like_ that it pretty much all comes down to money. I'd love to be able to say "this buddy of mine is a broke artist but he's super sound, great guy, plays the drums like nobody else and brings joy to all around him - that's the kind of person you want right?" but I don't know of a way to implement that sort of system without 1) being incredibly prone to bias and 2) being pretty expensive if you're not careful.