3 ms·

This is the weirdest argument I've ever seen on HN. 1. No nation on Earth allows foreigners to move and work without a visa. Singling out the US here is compl

This is the weirdest argument I've ever seen on HN. 1. No nation on Earth allows foreigners to move and work without a visa. Singling out the US here is completely illogical. 2. A nation regulating the movement of people into it's borders is a fundamental function of any government. Not having that would be like removing passwords from your server and opening it to the internet.

winter_blue 6y ago
It seems like you completely missed the point, or are intentionally being facetious and trolling here. (No where did I say anything about doing away visas. If the US had a less restrictive visa policy, like Canada or other Western countries, I would have few complaints.) Most countries, at least most Western countries don't have a hard numerical limit on high-skilled work visas. (They might have numerical limits/targets on permanent residents, but rarely on highly-paid, educated, high-skilled workers.) The only countries that do (that I'm aware of) are the United States and Switzerland. Note: most other countries don't arbitrary numerical limits on high-skilled work visas whatsoever. Switzerland has a limit of 8,500. This is for one of richest most advanced economies in the world with a population with 8.5 million. The visas are obviously rapidly exhausted. For example, here is an article from 2017 complaining about it: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/worker-visas_cantons-demand-more-access-to-foreign-employees/43478508 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/worker-visas_cantons-demand-mor... The Swiss high-skilled work visa limit as percent of population is ~0.1%. Why is the limit so low in Switzerland? Answer: Xenophobia. The United States has a limit of 65,000 plus 20,000 for US advanced degree holders (and an exemption for non-profit research). Also an extremely rich country with an advanced economy that would (yes) benefit from high-skilled immigration. People that graduate from Harvard often can't manage to find a way to stay in the country, because of the US' horribly restrictive visa/immigration policy. Here's an article from the Harvard Crimson about it from freaking 2007: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/9/raise-the-h-1b-cap-many-members/ https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/9/raise-the-h-1b-c... The American high-skilled work visa limit as percent of population is ~0.03%. Why is the limit so low in the US? Also, answer: Xenophobia. The xenophobia is so bad that the Trump administration has been trying extremely hard to exclude/deport this tiny 0.03% of new highly-paid educated immigrants. I was personally affected by this, as a previous visa of mine was denied for bullshit grounds (that courts have ruled in individual cases as being facetious and motivated by anti-immigrant animus). People with $200k+ salaries are being denied on joke grounds and told to depart the US. The United States is so xenophobic that it cannot tolerate adding 0.03% of highly-skilled well-paid educated people per year to its population.

winter_blue 6y ago

It seems like you completely missed the point, or are intentionally being facetious and trolling here. (No where did I say anything about doing away visas. If the US had a less restrictive visa policy, like Canada or other Western countries, I would have few complaints.) Most countries, at least most Western countries don't have a hard numerical limit on high-skilled work visas. (They might have numerical limits/targets on permanent residents, but rarely on highly-paid, educated, high-skilled workers.) The only countries that do (that I'm aware of) are the United States and Switzerland. Note: most other countries don't arbitrary numerical limits on high-skilled work visas whatsoever. Switzerland has a limit of 8,500. This is for one of richest most advanced economies in the world with a population with 8.5 million. The visas are obviously rapidly exhausted. For example, here is an article from 2017 complaining about it: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/worker-visas_cantons-demand-more-access-to-foreign-employees/43478508 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/worker-visas_cantons-demand-mor... The Swiss high-skilled work visa limit as percent of population is ~0.1%. Why is the limit so low in Switzerland? Answer: Xenophobia. The United States has a limit of 65,000 plus 20,000 for US advanced degree holders (and an exemption for non-profit research). Also an extremely rich country with an advanced economy that would (yes) benefit from high-skilled immigration. People that graduate from Harvard often can't manage to find a way to stay in the country, because of the US' horribly restrictive visa/immigration policy. Here's an article from the Harvard Crimson about it from freaking 2007: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/9/raise-the-h-1b-cap-many-members/ https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/9/raise-the-h-1b-c... The American high-skilled work visa limit as percent of population is ~0.03%. Why is the limit so low in the US? Also, answer: Xenophobia. The xenophobia is so bad that the Trump administration has been trying extremely hard to exclude/deport this tiny 0.03% of new highly-paid educated immigrants. I was personally affected by this, as a previous visa of mine was denied for bullshit grounds (that courts have ruled in individual cases as being facetious and motivated by anti-immigrant animus). People with $200k+ salaries are being denied on joke grounds and told to depart the US. The United States is so xenophobic that it cannot tolerate adding 0.03% of highly-skilled well-paid educated people per year to its population.