How should we view immigration?

In My Humble Opinion
121

So you don’t really know what considerations presented this person from immigrating? Who might have been allowed to immigrate instead of her or why?

Exactly. Our immigration system is a nightmare of red tape and bureaucracy, but that’s about the only thing I agree with. I was further going to add that I don’t think it will be greatly improved by further privileging already relatively privileged people. But then again, I don’t know what exactly cased this person with two masters degree (in what? and doing what?) who speaks english (really not that much of a flex) from immigrating.

Really, it just seems like more of the “good guy visa” hypothesis. This idea by people who are ignorant of the immigration system that surely a visa should be available for their friend/neighbor/associate, without (a) understand why one isn’t already available and, worse, (b) being able to articulate why one should be available to their friend/neighbor/associate but not so many others who are differently situated.

For the record, I am much closer to (but not exactly at) an “open borders” mind set than I am to a “let’s make sure that relatively privileged individuals who speak English already can immigrate” mind set.

122

With 300-million plus English speakers and the language firmly entrenched in all of our institutions, you would need 10 million immigrants a year with a different language to even come close to challenging English in specific locations. Only Spanish has managed this, in part because of history and proximity, though there are enclaves of other languages.

Whether an immigrant speaks English or not is a non-issue at anything other than the individual level.