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Comment by Indolat | Hacker News Reader

Their point system is set really very, very high and costs much more money than most people can ever save (try saving 5-10 thousands when your monthly salary is some 200 US$ and you have to live off it). I'm pretty sure that some 95% of Australians would never pass it if they were born in a different country. (Long live the privilege of birth!)

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The high bar is there to ensure the system satisfies the "will they contribute to our economy" criterion.

Sure, that results in immigrants being more qualified and having more earning potential than the average native citizen. Nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, it means each immigrant will in average increase the country's GDP/capita. It also means the working class will be less likely to oppose immigration.

Where are you from? In middle-income developing countries (Brazil, India, China, Mexico, etc), educated, middle-class people typically earn well over $1000 per month. People who earn $200 per month usually don't fulfill the other requirements in the first place.

Not a middle-income location and not from middle-class. I still managed to leave it, but you have no single idea how much effort and pain it cost me.

More power to you! But I hope you understand my point. The developed countries accept immigrants out of self-interest, not in order to help developing countries.

This is still not a good reason to set the bar so high that only few people from thousands can pass it.

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