>Unsurprisingly, countries (just like neighborhoods that crack down on AirBNB) might want to optimize for people who want to stay long term, adopt their values,

>Unsurprisingly, countries (just like neighborhoods that crack down on AirBNB) might want to optimize for people who want to stay long term, adopt their values, become part of the social fabric...not just maximize marginal income from people who will never even try to learn the language and don't have a single local friend. agreed... and there certainly are visa paths for people willing to participate in this sort of optimisation, the Korean visa I hold being a good example. >What's more, the arguments all have a whiff of colonialism to them. As do the blithe statements about "<country> is so CHEAP." That's always a bit cringe.