Waves of immigration have often led to xenophobia.
What net benefit?? After your million or so permanent tourists have taken away the housing, jobs and governmental assistance, after y’all have taken a large amount of food and screwed up the ecosystem, what exactly is it you are giving back in return…besides a total lack of understanding when it comes to the history and culture, that is?
What does “net benefit” mean in your language?
Sounds like xenophobia to me. Keep everyone out. You got yours. No more. Trump-101.
What the hell are you talking about? How can it be xenophobia when I don’t live there and in fact have never even been there?
Then why are you arguing?
It is called “empathy”, and despite right wing clams to the contrary it is a good thing. I can understand why New Zealand tightly regulates who visits and who stays. It is a beautiful place with a delicate ecosystem and outsiders can fuck that up without even trying.
Fair enough. EXACTLY what MAGA says about people trying to move to the US. Or they just outright say the racist crap. This just plays better on TV.
Get your red hat at the door.
ETA: To be clear, New Zealand can absolutely regulate immigration as they see fit. I certainly have no “right” to move there at all. And I have not even begun to try. And yeah, it is a beautiful place worth protecting.
If you can’t see the difference between a million people entering a country the size of the U.S , and a million people entering a country the size of New Zealand, then one of us has a major problem when it comes to perspective.
And you cannot see the difference between an example for illustration and actual data.
My quick math suggests that 1 million people to the US is equivalent to 18,000 people to New Zealand…with some wiggle room (I would not bet the farm on my math though).
My even quicker eyesight shows that you claimed a million immigrants in New Zealand could be a net benefit…and I’m still wondering what that net benefit might be.
Cities that lose population over time diminish (see: Detroit, MI). Cities that grow thrive (see: Charlotte, NC).
You can extrapolate that to bigger sizes like a country. (and consider the Detroit metro population is almost as big as the total population of New Zealand).
Time for a reality check. The total number of immigrants to New Zealand in 2024 was under 130,000. The population of the entire country is around 5 million people, so a rather obvious problem would arise if a million United Statsians tried to immigrate in a short period of time.
Dude…it was an example pulled out of my ass.
Give it a rest.
And 3034??? I get typos happen but hard pressed to figure how that happened.
ETA: Ah…I get the typo now (2024). NP. Carry on.
EETA: I should not have busted you for a typo. We all do it (at least I certainly do). Bad etiquette on my part. My apologies.
Misprint-2024.
Please allow me to make a comment on immigration for those who are considering emigrating to Europe: a basic requirement for this is a very good command of the local language. Knowledge of English is sufficient for tourists in large cities, but it is by no means enough for a longer or permanent stay. It should also be noted that European banks do not accept US citizens as customers, which does not make the situation any easier. There is a severe housing shortage in many European countries, especially in cities. I know people who have been looking for an apartment for years. Locals are not enthusiastic about immigrants, who are added to the already large number of refugees and asylum seekers. Americans are not particularly popular; they are considered arrogant and condescending, if only because they often speak English inconsiderately and assume that everyone must and wants to understand them. The bureaucracy is enormous, real estate acquisition and house construction are heavily regulated, and you can’t just put your house anywhere just because there is space for it. In the long run, nothing works without good contacts with the locals. Due to high immigration, more and more locals are leaning toward right-wing parties.
The situation in the US looks alarming, at least from the outside. Emigration may be the only way out for some parts of the population, but you should definitely live in the immigration country for a year or two before making a final decision, otherwise you may go from bad to worse.
If I were going to move to another country I would make it a priority to become fluent in the local language. I am not adept at learning languages but I’d be sure to become fluent in the local language no matter how much work it took me to do so.
Excellent approach, the right time to start is ….now, since it might take some time!
Given that the whole of the West hasn’t been able to build sufficient housing for the last two decades, I think this is naive.
No small part of the rise in populism over the whole world is the housing crisis, and that’s caused in part by the fact that western democracies bureaucracies have become both crushing and moribund.
Over the past 25 years, the Boston are has added 800,000 jobs and 200,000 housing units. And we’ve all known that was a problem before 25 years ago.
Naw…it’s not naive. It is politics. If I moved to New Zealand and wrote a check to the government for more than a New Zealand citizen would have paid in a lifetime how am I being the bad guy moving there? If the government does not use that new money to help a New Zealander that’s on them. Not seeing how I am the bad guy in this.
And really…are you opposed to immigrants?
What? How the hell did you get that?
My point was only that if you go someplace with a housing shortage, which is a lot of places, you won’t make the housing shortage better, and you’ll suffer the ire of the locals. Around here there’s plenty of money, but still not enough housing. The issue is indeed politics (largely permitting, zoning, and NIMBY), but writing a check won’t fix that.