New Zealand Deports Overweight Chef.
I’m in favor of having a another quiet period on immigration. Sort of like what we had from the ’20’s to the ’60’s. I think it would be good for the country to more fully assimilate the people we’ve let in, and those we didn’t “let” in, before we continue to allow even more immigration.
But if we are going to have more immigration, can we at least have a conversation, a real conversation, about the “type” of people we let in? How about requiring language skills? How about requiring a certain level of income or savings? How about letting people that have certain skills that would be nice to have here or are in short supply here? (Real needed skills, not skills Mark Zuckerberg claims are in short supply.) What about age restrictions? You know, no old people that will begin hitting medicare as soon as they are here.
All of the questions asked in the previous paragraph are examples of the restrictions on immigration in place in other countries around the world.
I find it interesting that those nominally of the left want us to emulate other countries often. Let’s copy France’s medical care! Let’s have an industrial policy like China! But they never mention the immigration restrictions of other countries. Hey! Try getting into countries like Japan or South Korea. Unless you are there on a temporary work permit teaching English, I don’t think they want you. For any reason.
I spent nine months in Mauritius. I was in possession of a two year work permit while there. It was employer sponsored. I had the job before I went there (unlike what is the case with most of our immigrants). That country was beautiful. It is a tropical island. A very good job there would have a salary between the equivalent of $30,000 t0 $50,000 per year. Not a whole lot. But at that level of pay you could live within a few hundred yards of the beach. By this I mean have your own place and nice neighbors. It wouldn’t be like here in the U.S. where to live near the beach on that kind of money you would need roommates and have low lifes for neighbors. So what you find in Mauritius is that they are not particularly interested in having Americans that want to live there show up and take a job that could have been filled by a local. You are welcome in Mauritius if an employer has recruited you. You are also welcome in Mauritius if you bring a big bag of money. You are not welcome in Mauritius if you show up with no money or no plan.
Why should we be any different than Mauritius, or most other countries?