I think it's strong evidence of a big paradigm shift in America for people to denounce the non-citizen's attempt to follow the American dream. It seems kinda funny to me that our country was supposedly built by a bunch of outcasts who greeted the rest of the world(except blacks, native americans, chinese, etc.) with open arms, and yet people are pushing strong to isolate our country from our neighbors. The idea here seems to be "I'm going to take advantage of this great system of opportunity myself, and I've already been helped by my parents' trips through it, but I'll kill myself before I let a dirty wetback try it." Fucking hypocrites.

My take on this is also very uninformed and touchy-feely, so please don't shoot too many holes it, because I really don't care that much. I understand that my way of life can only exist with the exploitation of third worlders and second worlders and even my fellow, less-lucky/capable first worlders. I try not to drive my politics with vague idealistic principles, and I'm not really sure what the practical consequences of any border-policy/immigration changes would be.

(Reply) (Thread)

The thing is, nativism is no new thing in American politics. The laws passed at the turn of the century to keep out Chinese, Japanese, the laws after World War II to keep out Eastern Europeans; we only ever played at throwing open our gates to the world.
That said, I'm pretty sentimental about the whole thing too. Bleeding-heart liberal and all that.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Throw open the doors! (but only for "high-skilled" applicants)
From the American Electronics Association's newsletter:

Senate Majority Leader Takes Action on High-Skilled Visa Reform
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) announced recently that he will introduce his own border-security bill on March 27, 2006, to immediately begin debate on high-skilled visa reform. As the Senate Judiciary Committee continues to work on its own bill, AeA is closely following any action on provisions relating to H-1B, EB (green cards), and student visas.
Specifically, in the Judiciary Committee bill (and presumably in the Frist bill as well), there are several provisions that are of great importance to AeA and its member companies. AeA will continue to work to assure passage of the following:

A market based cap on H-1B visas, rather than the current cap of 65,000;
Exemptions from EB caps for an extended group of workers that are needed for their knowledge or contributions to innovation in fields like science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM);
An easing of visa requirements for prospective foreign students seeking to pursue advanced degree study in the U.S.; and
A direct path to green cards for advanced degree graduates of U.S. universities.

(Reply) (Thread)

Honestly, I feel like there should be more of a focus on a path to LPR status and, eventually, citizenship for unskilled workers. (Being a pinko commy liberal wingnut, I will all too happily advocate things that are against the economic self-interest of Our Great Nation.)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

The math on the Diversity Lottery looks sort of odd. There are 6.9 million applicants, of which 50K are accepted, and 6.4 million are rejected? Is there a third option that applies to 450K people, or is the math wrong?

Nifty way to put the point, by the way.

(Reply) (Thread)

The other 450K people are, how you say, 'disappeared'. For depopulation purposes. You probably don't want to ask too many questions about them.

.....

See, this happens every time I mock Nick for being a math major who can't count- it comes back to bite me when I'm trying to make a serious post. Thanks for pointing that out, though, and many props.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)