10 ms·

Germany to admit 400k skilled immigrants annually

49 points by rustoo 5y ago

tranpolines 5y ago
- tasubotadas 5y ago
  Tbh, this extends to the entire DACH region.
  - tranpolines 5y ago
- HatchedLake721 5y ago
  Desire to talk about immigrants, muslims and bash Germany a little bit made you signup for Hacker News 10 mins ago and make this your first comment?
  - tranpolines 5y ago
- MadSudaca 5y ago
  Why I keep saying that the US, Canada are the least racist countries in the world, in that order, IMO.
  - germanyexposed 5y ago
  - nceqs3 5y ago
    The data backs this up too.
    - sgift 5y ago
      Obviously, this depends on the source, e.g.: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/least-racist-countries https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/least-rac... Netherlands 1, Canada 2, US 69
      - MadSudaca 5y ago
        I would like to see how many of these countries fare in terms of racist sentiment, with a demographic distribution more similar to that found in the americas.
      - nceqs3 5y ago
        Denmark, a country that limits the number of non-white people in neighborhoods, is ranked as the 5th least racist country?
jonp888 5y ago
The headline makes it sound like a new policy to bring in 400,000 people and then stop, but the German immigration system does not work on quotas. Anyone from an EU country has equal rights to a German citizen, any job that can't be adequately filled by an EU applicant can be given to someone from outside the EU.
- candiodari 5y ago
  Aside from taking a job in 1/4th of Germany (granted, not Munich) is likely to at least confront you with racist violence, if you don't get the pleasure of participating. And yes, as an EU citizen too, white ... if they notice you don't know the language or have an accent, it'll be coming.
blub 5y ago
I can say from experience that skilled migrants are wanted only in very specific domains like IT, engineering and some areas of medicine, etc. If you’re not active in those domains, you will not get a job according to your qualifications even with good German skills. I have many acquaintances that work e.g. in IT and while they don’t have problems finding a job, their spouses are facing serious difficulties leading to e.g. changing fields (with the associated loss of experience/earning potential), spending years getting another college diploma or settling for less. And I’m talking mainly about Europeans here, with already recognised diplomas and full rights on the labour market. With that out of the way, I’m puzzled by the premise of the article. How do countries become unable to satisfy local demand through local supply? Something must be fundamentally wrong with the market. In medical care for example the conditions are bad and the salaries aren’t good. And while in IT the average salary’s good compared to many other countries, it’s nowhere near what one can get in e.g. Zurich, London or the US. Software developer is just another middle class job. This lack of applicants seems to be at least partly driven by insufficient remuneration. Not surprising that the politicians and companies would rather import labour rather than developing the local market and motivating the locals.
- germanyexposed 5y ago
- netsharc 5y ago
  At least on paper, if you have a college degree and a job offer, you can get an EU residence permit (people use the term "visa" but officially visas are just for visitors staying for a maximum of 3 months, if you want to stay longer you'll get a residence permits, in the first few years they are limited to 2 year increments): https://visaguide.world/europe/eu-blue-card/ https://visaguide.world/europe/eu-blue-card/ . I know a non-EU-ian who got one for Germany because she got a job writing English descriptions of items for an online store..
- diego_moita 5y ago
  > only in very specific domains like IT, engineering and some areas of medicine Because these are globalized domains. The expertise necessary to work in these areas is very much the same in Germany, Latin America or Asia. Therefore any immigrant can do them anywhere. OTOH, the required knowledge to work in law, business and other related areas are dependent on the place it is applied.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
lnsru 5y ago
I can tell one thing about Germany: the salaries are bad joke!!! Let’s look at Munich in particular. Salary €60k at first job after immigration unless you’re wanted specialist joining Apple. That’s 3000€ every month after taxes where rent goes from 1000€ for 30 sq meters apparent to 1800€ for 3 rooms apartment in normal location. Now if you are car mechanic or some clerk salary goes towards €40k and one cannot afford living in Munich at all. Other cities might be better and salary will increase in the next job, but in total it’s not nice country for immigration. As a skilled guy in Poland I would have very similar lifestyle without going anywhere.
- berndi 5y ago
  You're right, an easy fix for this is to live and work outside of metropolitan areas where you get the same standard of living for a fraction of the cost.
- forgingahead 5y ago
  Out of curiousity, why do you think the salaries have been so low in Germany? For certain sectors I can imagine outsourcing has occurred to lower wage jurisdictions in Central/Eastern Europe, so maybe that has put some downward pressure on salary growth - but what about localised professions, like blue collar jobs etc? Or is it just generally white collar wages that are not that high?
  - chefkoch 5y ago
    Equality is much higher in europe then the US. It's the same for lawyers, doctors etc.
  - yobbo 5y ago
    The question is rather why software salaries are so high in USA. That is the real anomaly.
    - danielrpa 5y ago
      Because US tech companies are the most successful in the world and there is an immense demand for workers located in US-friendly time zones. It's simple market economics. I wouldn't be surprised if there is more demand for highly skilled tech workers in California alone than any other country in the world.
evancoop 5y ago
This is an article about Germany's immigration policy that ought to be about America's education system. If we could "manufacture" skilled workers, the debate over "importing" them would be moot. A quote like "...our nation has far too many people without jobs, far too many jobs without people to fill them..." is a statement about education, plain and simple.
- bopbeepboop 5y ago
- diego_moita 5y ago
  > ought to be about America's education system I think you're missing an important part of the puzzle: there are no people for the jobs, skilled or not. Look at the list with the most critical shortage: construction, transportation and hospitality. These are not areas where complex education is required. Without immigration every developed economy in the world will find it very hard to sustain growth, like in Japan, Eastern Europe and South Korea. We're entering a totally new age in human history: the age of population decline. But very few people have noticed this.
  - jpgvm 5y ago
    This is the correct reason. Putting aside the attrocious US education system the economy literally relies on immigration of both skilled and unskilled labour. They irony is some of the nation's most dependent on immigration (US/Australia) are the most vehemently against it, either because or causing racism. (chicken or egg I'm not sure). I can guarantee you no matter which populist you vote in their cabinet will not allow them to do any serious harm to immigration, noone wants to be the next Japan.
cryptica 5y ago
EU is terrible for software developers because there is too much competition from immigrants who are willing to accept lower pay and are more compliant employees; sometimes willing to carry out unethical activities on behalf of their bosses. It forces locals to also accept lower pay and also engage in unethical activities if they want to stay employed. Also, the funding environment is a mess. The government only seems to fund useless projects which are doomed to fail.
- 2ion 5y ago
  It's even worse. The company I'm working at is discovering "near shoring" in countries adjacent to the EU, like Serbia. Much cheaper than local labour and no less qualified. For me to say, the contractors we're working with from there are just as good or better than the average developer Joe from here. As long as you can communicate in English, you can nearshore a lot of stuff. And esp. in Germany lack of English communication ability on the German side is one of the last barriers keeping nearshoring out of a lot of firms.
  - acjacobson 5y ago
    Even so the trend now is to have a few intermediaries who are native German speakers manage the near-shore team. You don't need the full engineering team to speak German - just a few key coordinating managers - and it's nearly as efficient and productive.
tomohawk 5y ago
[flagged]
sebow 5y ago
Corporations & Companies that have such high margins made out of cheap foreign labor,constantly lobby for further cheap labor because the price of living in the west is constantly rising, and hiring local hands damages profits. I'm seriously wondering if people are only pretending to be stupid when talking issues about issues akin to this one, where it's very easy to scream: "racism" instead of providing actual solutions, or even discussing the problem. Germany has a lot of problems, as do other countries that rely on the 'never-ending' supplying of foreign labor(which is unrealistic).When you cut the pipeline of cheap labor: see the 2014-2016 boom which ended with corona, people act surprised when local communities won't do the job because the pay is a joke for their needs.The solution is not regulation or creating volatile unions, after all the markets eventually truly balance out(assuming players play fair).The core issue to be tackled is the ease to which companies can strangle local economies because they rise the cost of living through the mentioned cycle. Funnily enough, the article states that China will surpass US economically in the 30s, yet it maintains the rhetoric that immigration is the solution.It's not: If you're a fan and want to replicate the Chinese "success" at least acknowledge what they did: population boom(to such a high degree that now they have an aging problem), vastly increasing their middle class, etc.Some of the western corporatists applaud a nation that rose up in a fashion that has nothing to do with their own proposed solution: immigration in china is de facto null.('Maybe' it just has something to do with massive profits made there.) Now i'm not saying let's replicate China, because nobody mentions their dead body in the closet, but let's also not propose a "solution" that has been tried so many times and besides being a brain drain, it's a constant push from companies showing their greed for 'cheap' profits.
- iso1631 5y ago
  > after all the markets eventually truly balance out(assuming players play fair) So you're saying your entire rant is meaningless. There's a massive imbalance in power which means players don't "play fair"
- 2ion 5y ago
  > I'm seriously wondering if people are only pretending to be stupid when talking issues about issues akin to this one, where it's very easy to scream: "racism" instead of providing actual solutions, or even discussing the problem. Germany has a lot of problems, as do other countries that rely on the 'never-ending' supplying of foreign labor(which is unrealistic).When you cut the pipeline of cheap labor: To add to your point, the pipeline of cheap labor is also getting cut at the other end --- with quality of life increases, skill and education increase, manufacturing hubs like China are getting continuously more expensive to use vs already expensive local hands. With this diminishing cost differential, the only way out is for the countries that were depending on that differential to increase their value-add to the global economy in order to eke out a new differential by being able to demand a premium on local products (knowledge products and physical products) because of tech/quality advantages. Unfortunately, exactly in this regard Germany is also falling back in the world. After losing leading positions in consumer electronics (80s/90s), mobile communication technology (90s/00s) and so on, little is left except from big auto, and big auto is already generating most of their profits abroad rather than at home. Frankly, it's getting hard to see what the country is wanting to sell to the world. There might be some highly competitive businesses left (see BionTech by sheer luck, a so-called and often-praised hidden champion), but that's hardly entire sectors of the economy. Again, I'm not able to discern what the selling point of Germany is supposed to be. And no politician has made any honest attempt to tell and plan instead of running on hope alone. At the moment, Germany's migration-fueled economy parts are growing based on the most primitive producitivity factor in existence --- head count. And head count is not going to be enough for the future. You need factor productivity, and that's not coming.
info781 5y ago
The USA is not short of labor it is short of trained labor especially in the trades and hospitality industries. Illegal immigration in the last decade decimated participation in those industries and many people turned to drugs and made themselves unemployable. College level training is excellent but hands on training especially at the community college level needs to be revamped. The USA issues over one million green cards per year far more than any where else.
- sva_ 5y ago
  > The USA issues over one million green cards per year far more than any where else. That number seems excessive. > Each year, the U.S. issues a maximum of 140,000 green cards to immigrants sponsored by employers and approved for permanent residence — a number frozen since 1990. Another 226,000 “family preference” green cards are reserved for family members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/80000-green-cards-are-about-to-disappear-from-the-us/2021/10/14/74c096fc-2cef-11ec-b17d-985c186de338_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/80000-green-cards-ar...
pasabagi 5y ago
The weird paradox about Germany is that, while the political structure incentivise this kind of nuanced, fairly sensible policy, it's probably on the more immigrant-unfriendly side of european states, culturally speaking. You're going to be a foreigner, when you're here, and that does mean that people will treat you badly. You will be expected to assimilate, and if you're black or brown, you can expect a lot of petty subtle/not-so-subtle racism from state employees. I don't not recommend it (I'm an immigrant), but at the same time, you've got to be aware that some people are going to treat you as a second-class citizen as long as they are aware you're not german.
- m00dy 5y ago
  This is true for not just Germany but probably all the countries in this planet. Humankind is sucks
  - pasabagi 5y ago
    Kinda? It's on a scale. Where I grew up (London[0]), the concept of culture was that everybody brings their own, and it's cool to have a whole load of different cultures living side-by-side. In Germany, it's a lot more like you're supposed to become German, culturally. It's much more obvious when you go through the immigration process and have to learn about 'german' culture, and by that, they mean a certain type of white west christian german cultural traditions. [0]: I don't know if it's still like that.
  - MadSudaca 5y ago
    Not every country. Certainly a lot less likely in countries whose populations majorly descend from people who emigrated there in the last few centuries. A Venezuelan-Canadian I met once in Europe made an interesting remark I never forgot. In the USA/Canada people care about what you do. In Europe, they care about who you are. What you do is much more in your control than who you are.
    - m00dy 5y ago
      Every country has its dynamics to implement discrimination among its people. It is because Humankind is sucking. Generally speaking, let's look at humans' known history for the past 2000 years. We are still missing a system that allocates resources so efficiently to make each of us happy.
browcount 5y ago

49 points by rustoo 5y ago

tasubotadas 5y ago
Tbh, this extends to the entire DACH region.
- tranpolines 5y ago
HatchedLake721 5y ago
Desire to talk about immigrants, muslims and bash Germany a little bit made you signup for Hacker News 10 mins ago and make this your first comment?
- tranpolines 5y ago
MadSudaca 5y ago
Why I keep saying that the US, Canada are the least racist countries in the world, in that order, IMO.
- germanyexposed 5y ago
- nceqs3 5y ago
  The data backs this up too.
  - sgift 5y ago
    Obviously, this depends on the source, e.g.: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/least-racist-countries https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/least-rac... Netherlands 1, Canada 2, US 69
    - MadSudaca 5y ago
      I would like to see how many of these countries fare in terms of racist sentiment, with a demographic distribution more similar to that found in the americas.
    - nceqs3 5y ago
      Denmark, a country that limits the number of non-white people in neighborhoods, is ranked as the 5th least racist country?

The headline makes it sound like a new policy to bring in 400,000 people and then stop, but the German immigration system does not work on quotas. Anyone from an EU country has equal rights to a German citizen, any job that can't be adequately filled by an EU applicant can be given to someone from outside the EU.

candiodari 5y ago
Aside from taking a job in 1/4th of Germany (granted, not Munich) is likely to at least confront you with racist violence, if you don't get the pleasure of participating. And yes, as an EU citizen too, white ... if they notice you don't know the language or have an accent, it'll be coming.

blub 5y ago

I can say from experience that skilled migrants are wanted only in very specific domains like IT, engineering and some areas of medicine, etc. If you’re not active in those domains, you will not get a job according to your qualifications even with good German skills. I have many acquaintances that work e.g. in IT and while they don’t have problems finding a job, their spouses are facing serious difficulties leading to e.g. changing fields (with the associated loss of experience/earning potential), spending years getting another college diploma or settling for less. And I’m talking mainly about Europeans here, with already recognised diplomas and full rights on the labour market. With that out of the way, I’m puzzled by the premise of the article. How do countries become unable to satisfy local demand through local supply? Something must be fundamentally wrong with the market. In medical care for example the conditions are bad and the salaries aren’t good. And while in IT the average salary’s good compared to many other countries, it’s nowhere near what one can get in e.g. Zurich, London or the US. Software developer is just another middle class job. This lack of applicants seems to be at least partly driven by insufficient remuneration. Not surprising that the politicians and companies would rather import labour rather than developing the local market and motivating the locals.

germanyexposed 5y ago
netsharc 5y ago
At least on paper, if you have a college degree and a job offer, you can get an EU residence permit (people use the term "visa" but officially visas are just for visitors staying for a maximum of 3 months, if you want to stay longer you'll get a residence permits, in the first few years they are limited to 2 year increments): https://visaguide.world/europe/eu-blue-card/ https://visaguide.world/europe/eu-blue-card/ . I know a non-EU-ian who got one for Germany because she got a job writing English descriptions of items for an online store..
diego_moita 5y ago
> only in very specific domains like IT, engineering and some areas of medicine Because these are globalized domains. The expertise necessary to work in these areas is very much the same in Germany, Latin America or Asia. Therefore any immigrant can do them anywhere. OTOH, the required knowledge to work in law, business and other related areas are dependent on the place it is applied.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

lnsru 5y ago

I can tell one thing about Germany: the salaries are bad joke!!! Let’s look at Munich in particular. Salary €60k at first job after immigration unless you’re wanted specialist joining Apple. That’s 3000€ every month after taxes where rent goes from 1000€ for 30 sq meters apparent to 1800€ for 3 rooms apartment in normal location. Now if you are car mechanic or some clerk salary goes towards €40k and one cannot afford living in Munich at all. Other cities might be better and salary will increase in the next job, but in total it’s not nice country for immigration. As a skilled guy in Poland I would have very similar lifestyle without going anywhere.

berndi 5y ago
You're right, an easy fix for this is to live and work outside of metropolitan areas where you get the same standard of living for a fraction of the cost.
forgingahead 5y ago
Out of curiousity, why do you think the salaries have been so low in Germany? For certain sectors I can imagine outsourcing has occurred to lower wage jurisdictions in Central/Eastern Europe, so maybe that has put some downward pressure on salary growth - but what about localised professions, like blue collar jobs etc? Or is it just generally white collar wages that are not that high?
- chefkoch 5y ago
  Equality is much higher in europe then the US. It's the same for lawyers, doctors etc.
- yobbo 5y ago
  The question is rather why software salaries are so high in USA. That is the real anomaly.
  - danielrpa 5y ago
    Because US tech companies are the most successful in the world and there is an immense demand for workers located in US-friendly time zones. It's simple market economics. I wouldn't be surprised if there is more demand for highly skilled tech workers in California alone than any other country in the world.

evancoop 5y ago

This is an article about Germany's immigration policy that ought to be about America's education system. If we could "manufacture" skilled workers, the debate over "importing" them would be moot. A quote like "...our nation has far too many people without jobs, far too many jobs without people to fill them..." is a statement about education, plain and simple.

bopbeepboop 5y ago
diego_moita 5y ago
> ought to be about America's education system I think you're missing an important part of the puzzle: there are no people for the jobs, skilled or not. Look at the list with the most critical shortage: construction, transportation and hospitality. These are not areas where complex education is required. Without immigration every developed economy in the world will find it very hard to sustain growth, like in Japan, Eastern Europe and South Korea. We're entering a totally new age in human history: the age of population decline. But very few people have noticed this.
- jpgvm 5y ago
  This is the correct reason. Putting aside the attrocious US education system the economy literally relies on immigration of both skilled and unskilled labour. They irony is some of the nation's most dependent on immigration (US/Australia) are the most vehemently against it, either because or causing racism. (chicken or egg I'm not sure). I can guarantee you no matter which populist you vote in their cabinet will not allow them to do any serious harm to immigration, noone wants to be the next Japan.

cryptica 5y ago

EU is terrible for software developers because there is too much competition from immigrants who are willing to accept lower pay and are more compliant employees; sometimes willing to carry out unethical activities on behalf of their bosses. It forces locals to also accept lower pay and also engage in unethical activities if they want to stay employed. Also, the funding environment is a mess. The government only seems to fund useless projects which are doomed to fail.

2ion 5y ago
It's even worse. The company I'm working at is discovering "near shoring" in countries adjacent to the EU, like Serbia. Much cheaper than local labour and no less qualified. For me to say, the contractors we're working with from there are just as good or better than the average developer Joe from here. As long as you can communicate in English, you can nearshore a lot of stuff. And esp. in Germany lack of English communication ability on the German side is one of the last barriers keeping nearshoring out of a lot of firms.
- acjacobson 5y ago
  Even so the trend now is to have a few intermediaries who are native German speakers manage the near-shore team. You don't need the full engineering team to speak German - just a few key coordinating managers - and it's nearly as efficient and productive.

tomohawk 5y ago

[flagged]

sebow 5y ago

Corporations & Companies that have such high margins made out of cheap foreign labor,constantly lobby for further cheap labor because the price of living in the west is constantly rising, and hiring local hands damages profits. I'm seriously wondering if people are only pretending to be stupid when talking issues about issues akin to this one, where it's very easy to scream: "racism" instead of providing actual solutions, or even discussing the problem. Germany has a lot of problems, as do other countries that rely on the 'never-ending' supplying of foreign labor(which is unrealistic).When you cut the pipeline of cheap labor: see the 2014-2016 boom which ended with corona, people act surprised when local communities won't do the job because the pay is a joke for their needs.The solution is not regulation or creating volatile unions, after all the markets eventually truly balance out(assuming players play fair).The core issue to be tackled is the ease to which companies can strangle local economies because they rise the cost of living through the mentioned cycle. Funnily enough, the article states that China will surpass US economically in the 30s, yet it maintains the rhetoric that immigration is the solution.It's not: If you're a fan and want to replicate the Chinese "success" at least acknowledge what they did: population boom(to such a high degree that now they have an aging problem), vastly increasing their middle class, etc.Some of the western corporatists applaud a nation that rose up in a fashion that has nothing to do with their own proposed solution: immigration in china is de facto null.('Maybe' it just has something to do with massive profits made there.) Now i'm not saying let's replicate China, because nobody mentions their dead body in the closet, but let's also not propose a "solution" that has been tried so many times and besides being a brain drain, it's a constant push from companies showing their greed for 'cheap' profits.

iso1631 5y ago
> after all the markets eventually truly balance out(assuming players play fair) So you're saying your entire rant is meaningless. There's a massive imbalance in power which means players don't "play fair"
2ion 5y ago
> I'm seriously wondering if people are only pretending to be stupid when talking issues about issues akin to this one, where it's very easy to scream: "racism" instead of providing actual solutions, or even discussing the problem. Germany has a lot of problems, as do other countries that rely on the 'never-ending' supplying of foreign labor(which is unrealistic).When you cut the pipeline of cheap labor: To add to your point, the pipeline of cheap labor is also getting cut at the other end --- with quality of life increases, skill and education increase, manufacturing hubs like China are getting continuously more expensive to use vs already expensive local hands. With this diminishing cost differential, the only way out is for the countries that were depending on that differential to increase their value-add to the global economy in order to eke out a new differential by being able to demand a premium on local products (knowledge products and physical products) because of tech/quality advantages. Unfortunately, exactly in this regard Germany is also falling back in the world. After losing leading positions in consumer electronics (80s/90s), mobile communication technology (90s/00s) and so on, little is left except from big auto, and big auto is already generating most of their profits abroad rather than at home. Frankly, it's getting hard to see what the country is wanting to sell to the world. There might be some highly competitive businesses left (see BionTech by sheer luck, a so-called and often-praised hidden champion), but that's hardly entire sectors of the economy. Again, I'm not able to discern what the selling point of Germany is supposed to be. And no politician has made any honest attempt to tell and plan instead of running on hope alone. At the moment, Germany's migration-fueled economy parts are growing based on the most primitive producitivity factor in existence --- head count. And head count is not going to be enough for the future. You need factor productivity, and that's not coming.

info781 5y ago

The USA is not short of labor it is short of trained labor especially in the trades and hospitality industries. Illegal immigration in the last decade decimated participation in those industries and many people turned to drugs and made themselves unemployable. College level training is excellent but hands on training especially at the community college level needs to be revamped. The USA issues over one million green cards per year far more than any where else.

sva_ 5y ago
> The USA issues over one million green cards per year far more than any where else. That number seems excessive. > Each year, the U.S. issues a maximum of 140,000 green cards to immigrants sponsored by employers and approved for permanent residence — a number frozen since 1990. Another 226,000 “family preference” green cards are reserved for family members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/80000-green-cards-are-about-to-disappear-from-the-us/2021/10/14/74c096fc-2cef-11ec-b17d-985c186de338_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/80000-green-cards-ar...

pasabagi 5y ago

The weird paradox about Germany is that, while the political structure incentivise this kind of nuanced, fairly sensible policy, it's probably on the more immigrant-unfriendly side of european states, culturally speaking. You're going to be a foreigner, when you're here, and that does mean that people will treat you badly. You will be expected to assimilate, and if you're black or brown, you can expect a lot of petty subtle/not-so-subtle racism from state employees. I don't not recommend it (I'm an immigrant), but at the same time, you've got to be aware that some people are going to treat you as a second-class citizen as long as they are aware you're not german.

m00dy 5y ago
This is true for not just Germany but probably all the countries in this planet. Humankind is sucks
- pasabagi 5y ago
  Kinda? It's on a scale. Where I grew up (London[0]), the concept of culture was that everybody brings their own, and it's cool to have a whole load of different cultures living side-by-side. In Germany, it's a lot more like you're supposed to become German, culturally. It's much more obvious when you go through the immigration process and have to learn about 'german' culture, and by that, they mean a certain type of white west christian german cultural traditions. [0]: I don't know if it's still like that.
- MadSudaca 5y ago
  Not every country. Certainly a lot less likely in countries whose populations majorly descend from people who emigrated there in the last few centuries. A Venezuelan-Canadian I met once in Europe made an interesting remark I never forgot. In the USA/Canada people care about what you do. In Europe, they care about who you are. What you do is much more in your control than who you are.
  - m00dy 5y ago
    Every country has its dynamics to implement discrimination among its people. It is because Humankind is sucking. Generally speaking, let's look at humans' known history for the past 2000 years. We are still missing a system that allocates resources so efficiently to make each of us happy.

browcount 5y ago