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Comment by d8421l01vv4r | Hacker News Reader

>Wouldn't that be better than accepting blue-collar workers from Eastern Europe? Are you ‘bigoted’ because I think a PhD from India would be better for the economy than a blue-collar worker from E-Europe?

It doesn't work exactly like that. The "value" of a worker depends on the demand for workers in said field. Accepting a million people with PhDs in particle physics doesn't add much to the economy when there are hardly any job openings (you get 999700 physicist working lower-skilled jobs or on the dole). I don't know exactly how the situation in Briatin is right now, but I'm guessing that part of the reason why blue collar workers from Easter-EU come to work Britain, is because there has been demand for them.

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> The "value" of a worker depends on the demand for workers in said field. Accepting a million people with PhDs in particle physics

That is true. But then, make a uniform standard and measure everyone fairly (whether from European Union or India).

Look at Australia's highly-skilled visa (189). They have a "Skilled Occupations List" that consists of jobs that are in demand (including non-university technical occupations).

There is no reason why this can't be implemented in the UK.

There are a couple advantages to the EU system that I can think of:

* Workers can (in theory) move around the EU depending on the demand for them in the different regions.

* Lower bureaucratic cost.

> Lower bureaucratic cost.

Muhahahaha. EU is the largest and by definition most inefficient bureaucracy in the history of the world

Source: living there for 30-ish years.

Could you articulate more?

Do you know that European countries pay to stay in Europe?

Not "ideologically", but in terms of money. Now, I am Poland, I have contributed to the EU budget with 3.526 billion eur [0], we have free movement of people, but no, you don't like my people because they are not master/phd? This was not our agreement. If you don't like the fact that people are free to come there, we can discuss about it. Further, if people go there, it means that the country needs such people. So, what are you UK complaining about? I am sorry, but: http://imgur.com/u9oqSWm

If such people come and work there for a very low salary, then the country may try to regulate itself by privileging its own citizens first - and this you CAN do. You CAN regulate your own country, it's not true that you can't. You simply don't have to make it impossible for people to come and work there, because this goes against European values - and it's also fair.

The truth is that it's easy to close borders instead of trying to solve conflicts: it takes less effort, and "move on". But this is short term thinking.

[0] http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/member-countries/poland/...

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