It looks as if the US is going to implement an immigration law that mimics what countries like Australia have, a sort of point system that favors the well-educated and English-speaking. OK, there is a big shortage of plumbers and people in the other trades in OZ, so now the law favors people with a trade rather than lots of degrees.

Still, I prefer a system that leans toward taking in the poor and the downtrodden and all that stuff on the Statue of Liberty. I guess my ancestors all came tothe US with nothing, and I think others should have the same chance.

What do you think of the proposed changes?

What I don't like about the new law is that it is going to make it harder for people to bring in members of their extended family, like parents. My concernt is the effect it will have on the immigrant population. It seems to me that bringing in family helps make the immigrant more stable, because eventually all their ties are to the US. Immigrants who have family in their original country can be torn. I think that is especially true if there is extreme poverty or persecution. I think that proposed restriction is a mistake.

Over the next few years trends show us that there is going to be a global demand for labour in all markets. I am not sure why the US is trying to slow down potential employees and workers from entering the states.

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Michael Kettner
Managing Editor
www.expatriateglobal.com

The law will allow some increases, as it is the same one that should allow illegal immigrants to become legal. The idea behind the point system is to match immigrant skills to labor shortages. Bringing in an electronics technician when there aren't many jobs available, instead of using that spot to bring in a nurse, where there is a chroic shortage, doesn't really do anything for a labor shortage.

There was a time when increasing prosperity and an improving economy drastically increased the number of unskilled or light skill jobs available. I'm not sure that is true anymore. Low skill jobs used to pay enough to provide basics for a family of four with only one parent working. Now they don't.

General trends like unemployment rates don't mean anything if you don't have the right skills or if you are an employer looking for the right skills.

I am a big fan of what the Republican Candidate, Ron Paul is preaching on this subject. He believes in a free market of the truest sense and while it is a lofty unatainable goal I like the potential outcome of striving for it.

You can view his video at YouTube - Ron Paul in CNN debate on June 5, 2007

Michael

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Michael Kettner
Managing Editor
www.expatriateglobal.com

Predictions of worldwide labor shortages are always suspect, because as Sling points out, shortages are localized and specialized.

I still would like to see the US be the place where the people who match the inscription on the Statue of Liberty can come for a new beginning, but it doesn't help if we don't have any work that they are qualified to do.

I oppose any form of border controls. Bad people (e.g. rapists, murders, thieves, etc.) need to be put in jail no matter where they are. Good people should be free to go whereever they want.

Well, if there were universally balanced laws and enforcement, that would be fine. But there isn't.

The purpose of the laws (that weren't passed, by the way) is to regulate who comes in and what kind of work they do, not to keep out rapists, etc.

The problem they are not addressing is that we don't make legal immigration easy or even possible for those who really want or need to come to America. Mexico gets about 3000 slots per year. There are 18,000,000 people in Mexico City alone. We have a huge, long, and undefendable border with Mexico. Applying for visas is expensive, but so are the fees people pay to be smuggled across. If there were a reasonable chance of entry legally, we would all be better off, but there isn't.