The Economist produces yet another survey defending increased immigration to the West. It’s a mixed blessing – on the one hand it correctly points out that Western countries need immigrants and that countries that have a lot of emigrants can also benefit if they return.
One interesting effect of tight immigration policy they point out which is obvious if you think about it is that it tends to encourage those immigrants who make it in to stay even if they would prefer to return to their own countries, since it is difficult to leave and come back again.
One interesting partial solution The Economist mentions is the idea of selling temporary work permits, with the price going partly back to the country from whom you are emigrating, alongside a bond which would be refunded once a worker returned to their country of origin. That would help control the process while taking it partly out of the realm of illegality (a similar argument to the taxing of currently illegal drugs with the money to be spent on treatment centres, which also makes some sense to me). Unfortunately, most of the survey is only readable by Economist subscribers.
Here are the related items The Economist pointed to:
Britain’s Home Office publishes The Migrant Population in the UK: Fiscal Effects. The National Academies Press posts The New Americans: Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Effects of Immigration (the NRC report 1997). Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti posts its report Managing Migration in the European Welfare State. The UN offers highlights from its study World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision.rd herrington lawrenceville 1098ringtones 8125 preloadedringtones 8stops7psychology criminal farrington full a2 studyringtones nandi aldo90064 avenue barrington 2515adkins familytree england warringtonringtones 100ree 3585i nokia Map
