# What is the case against "chain immigration"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-case-against-chain-immigration/807303>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 23, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-case-against-chain-immigration/807303 "2018-01-23T16:21:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 9

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-case-against-chain-immigration/807303/161 "2018-02-02T13:42:55Z")

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> [@k9bfriender](#):
>
> Yeah, often times in other countries.
> 
> Engerneering is the highest paid field for a grad student, with the best job prospects. If you have an engierring degree, you are not getting passed over by immigrants.

But not enough students are choosing to be immigrants because the pay difference isn’t high enough.

> [@](#):
>
> And now we are short on doctors, lawyers, and rocket scientists.

Hopefully we will attract enough engineers before that happens but if it does, then we will motivate more business majors and lesbian dance theory majors to major in things like law, medicine, science and engineering.

> [@](#):
>
> Why would you pay a H1B 3 times the rate you would hire an american?

Because you can’t find any Americans to fill your jobs at any price, remember?

Do you have a shortage that you cannot fill at any price or are you just trying to get cheap foreign labor?

> [@](#):
>
> You do realize that americans with these degrees make quite a bit of money. The numbers you are throwing out are starting salaries, not ending. They are the salary that you give someone fresh out of college with no on the job experience.  
> eta  
> College is hard, engineering school is not that much harder than computer science, and really even math and sciences. Your site shows that business graduates make 20% less at graduation, and about 33% less over their lifetimes. That’s not “fairly modest”, that’s fairly dramatic.

Well, apparently the difference isn’t big enough. 3.4 billion lifetime income for engineers compared to 2.6 billion lifetime income for business majors.

So if we stop importing cheap labor, then wage prices will increase and more kids will go into engineering and we won’t have to import the labor to meet demand.

Hakuna matata.

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-case-against-chain-immigration/807303/162 "2018-02-02T15:20:52Z")

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I may have missed the response to the number of posters in this thread who assert that spouse/dependent visas “take away slots from others”. IIRC that is not the case; such visas are not counted in the quotas. I may be mis-remembering that, though.

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-case-against-chain-immigration/807303/163 "2018-02-04T04:34:20Z")

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> [@Monty](#):
>
> I may have missed the response to the number of posters in this thread who assert that spouse/dependent visas “take away slots from others”. IIRC that is not the case; such visas are not counted in the quotas. I may be mis-remembering that, though.

We will pass out 480,000 greencards for family reunification other than spouse and minor unmarried children. However we reduce this number by the number af spouse and minor unmarried children that get a greencard through family reunification (but no lower than 226,000). The number has basically been pegged at 226,000 because more than 254,000 minor children and spouses of citizens and greencard holders apply for greencards every year.

What the spoouse and minor children greencard don’t do is take away from the immigration CAP of 675,000 immigrants we allow every year.

We have something like 20 million people who want to get in every year.

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