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Comment by frgtpsswrdlame | Hacker News Reader

Great article. I wonder if something like this could be used in the US to help bridge the partisan divide on immigration. A deal where we reduce immigration but ask people to sponsor as some sort of civic duty. I think it might reduce anti-immigrant sentiment if Americans were in close contact with the struggles immigrants face. I also think a lot of the Trump voterbase feels that their culture is being wiped out by immigrants, a sponsor program may give them some feeling of control back.

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A deal where we reduce immigration but ask people to sponsor as some sort of civic duty.

I'd suggest changing ask to allow, and remove any mention of "civic duty".

The Canadian government didn't go out and ask families to take refugees into their homes -- Canadians applied for permission to take refugees into their homes. And wasn't a trivial process; the vetting of refugee sponsors was probably more detailed than the vetting of the refugees themselves, since the government wanted to make sure that sponsors were going to be able to take care of the refugees and were not going to try to exploit them.

Even with the arduous process for groups to apply to sponsor refugees, the Canadian government had more applicants than their target number of refugees.

> A deal where we reduce immigration but ask people to sponsor as some sort of civic duty.

How about you can have all the immigration you want if you sponsor it?

> I think it might reduce anti-immigrant sentiment if Americans were in close contact with the struggles immigrants face.

I think it might reduce the pro-immigrant sentiment if (certain) Americans were in close contact with the struggles immigrants bring.

> How about you can have all the immigration you want if you sponsor it?

Pretty much all immigrant visa categories (and certainly the vast majority of actual visas granted) are sponsored, either employer or family, so, sure, just uncap all those categories and be done?

^Yep. When I was sponsored, the US government basically told us that if we try and claim any public benefits for the next 5 years, they'd come after my sponsor for reimbursement. Sponsor had to show adequate financial resources to sponsor our family.

This probably does not apply for refugees, but definitely does for family-based sponsorships.

Canada does the same thing. I'm a spousal sponsored immigrant and if I were to claim anything as such my partner is actually the one the govnernemnt holds responsible for funding it [from australia, so hardly the same category as a refugee]

There is nothing like this little teaspoon of hate to brighten your day.

OH yeah, love it. Friend comes back from India and is talking about how people are scared because of the recent murders. Constantly hearing about how bad we are for taking American jobs or hurting your salaries. Now knowing if/when the new government will try and screw me. Listening to jerks talk about immigrants in broad terms, then claim without a shred of self-awareness that Trump is only anti-illegal immigrant.

> struggles immigrants bring

I can't even begin to tell you all the struggles me and my immigrant friend have brought to all you americans. We sure are an awful bunch.

Oh wait sorry. We are white Canadians who just came here for better tech jobs. Are we still awful or are we some of the "good ones"?

You should include a note in your next tax return for the feds to not use any of your taxes to pay for his road/social security/medicare/anything. I'm sure he'd prefer his roads to come only from blueblooded American taxes.

Is it bad or racist for a nation to prefer high-paid immigrants who generate more GDP?

Depends, doesn't it? Your race and nationality aren't the important pieces of information. The cultural similarity is convenient, but not crucial. Similarly, shared language.

Everything else being equal, the country can probably absorb more educated people with some money than it can uneducated people who are poor.

> How about you can have all the immigration you want if you sponsor it?

That'd be great! If you could just please ask Congress to actually let us do that, we can get started right away.

Sorry, was I supposed to say "Nooooo, I'm a lazy liberal NIMBY who demands change but won't contribute"?

How does this make any sense whatsoever? "We want to stop anti-immigration sentiment, so let's force people to take these people into their homes."

Insanity - this would only make it worse.

GP didn't imply "force", he implied /encourage/ by calling it civic duty.

Please don't use quotation marks to make it look like you're quoting someone when you're not. That's not fair to the other person.

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