Europe: new immigration destination

[RainDog]

From Information Week

...The European Union wants to make it much easier for highly skilled workers from abroad to land jobs in the EU's 27 member countries.
The EU, which is predicting a severe workforce crisis over the next several decades as its Baby Boomer generation retires, aims to attract 20 million workers from the outside in the years to come.

The EU hopes that a new proposed "blue card" will help fill that void, providing a more attractive alternative to the U.S. green-card program, which critics say is plagued by backlogs, cumbersome processes, and insufficient quotas.

The blue card would provide educated immigrants, including tech professionals, with a two-year, renewable permit to work and reside in an EU member nation. Because the EU aims for a worker's blue-card application process to take less than three months, the visa would provide a fast track for foreign-born individuals to land jobs in EU member countries.

[SoCalDem]

1. Common sense dictates limits.. Importing poverty is not a good idea

especially in countries that offer social services that European countries offer..

[RainDog]

2. I think the deciding factor is education/skills

esp. in tech. No, they don't want to invite poor people, any more than any other country. (You can move to Belize if you can afford to buy yourself citizenship, for instance...)

This policy could excelerate the "brain drain" that Bush and the Theocrats (and every other totalitarian ideology that has taken over a nation) inspire. I'm certainly interested in keeping track of this possibility.

[SoCalDem]

3. I am advising my young friends to consider leaving.

If I were 25 years younger, I'd sure be thinking about it.. The world is getting smaller, and why not go where your skills are valued..and YOU are valued too ./.as a person

[RainDog]

4. And where things that YOU value are important

I really detest that the richest of the rich (and others) in this country are not willing to provide universal health care, or that the religious right is a force that, b/c of the electoral college - and general stupidity- has far too much influence in the U.S.

Canada is looking a little dicey lately. I watched a video in the pol. vid. forum. I never knew that Canada allows the DEA to operate on their land (I thought that sort of thing was limited to 3rd/2nd world bullying.)

I've been thinking about this for half a dozen years, so I'm glad to see that the EU is trying to make immigration easier.

[JCMach1]

5. I highly recommend it... bailed from US stagnation 5 yrs ago and haven't looked back

except to visit family.

[SoCalDem]

6. Good grief. it's been THAT long ago?

I remember when you were just thinking about it.:)

[RainDog]

7. Are you in the UAI?

(I just looked at your profile.)

Unfortunately, I am hopelessly eurocentric. can speak some of this or that, have lived there briefly, know people in diff. places there, the art and arch. speaks to me... and so does the wine and food and general pov.

[Romulox]

8. The US has the highest percentage of foreign born population of any country on earth...

Maybe it's time both of us took a break. More H1B immigrants have the same effect on native born white collar workers that day laborers have on native born carpenters.

[RainDog]

9. not really

there aren't that many Americans who go into subjects like theoretical math or comp sci, etc. etc. Also, students who come here do not vie for U.S. jobs, but many return to their own countries to help develop biz, etc. there. I'm speaking of education, of course, but for a student to get a green card, they have to have a job offer in an area in which there is a need for highly skilled workers.

The number of Americans with PhDs is much smaller than the number of day laborers. Most all of the foreign students here do not study liberal arts subjects, so there is no competition for those sorts of jobs. interestingly, in my informal not scientific survey, more females from other nations study "hard science" and math than do females here and subsequently create a presence that is sorely unrepresented in certain areas.

[Romulox]

10. H1B visas aren't educational visas granted to PHD candidates...

They are granted to corporations to sponsor foreign born workers when the company alleges that there are no qualified American workers.

The problem with this is that basic economics suggests that wages should rise in the face of a shortage. They haven't. Wages for ALL WORKERS have been stagnant in the US for 30 years. Moreover, instead of questioning why there is a dearth of native born PHD candidates n the sciences (a third-world primary education system, and massive downward pressure on wages from foreign competition, e.g.,) you suggest the problem can be solved by importing labor.

In the first instance, most workers are not PHD candidates, and neither are most immigrants to the US.

Moreover, I'm puzzled by the hierarchy of jobs you seem to propose: displacing US workers is acceptable, so long as the "liberal arts subjects" are reserved for the native born? Let me guess: your job is in such a field?

[RainDog]

11. No, my job is not in one of those fields

and you also misunderstood the intent of what I was saying... I was saying that liberal arts jobs do not pay as well as jobs in hard sciences, etc. and therefore the students are not taking jobs in those areas.

I NEVER said that displacing workers is acceptable. the only way I can understand how you got from my post to your reply is that youmisunderstood me when I said highly qualified workers... I meant those same PhD students. That's the only way I can figure out your response. I don't think I ever mentioned the type of visa... which for students would be J-1, iirc. I don't think I ever mentioned labor in my entire post, did I? I was talking about those students because my ex husband was one of them when we met (he's actually from Europe, not from the Asiatic area (India included) which is where most int'l students come from these days.

So maybe we were just talking about two different things all along. problem with the internets. however, I find it really sad that you would assume the worst about me and turn what I said in such a way. another problem with the internets, I suppose.

but you might want to ask a question and talk about things rather than make an accusation, you know?

[RainDog]

12. btw

I voted against Reagan when so many in labor jumped ship and voted for him. Then he turned around and gutted the unions. why don't you put your anger where it belongs, because it sure as shit doesn't belong with me.