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Comment by petilon | Hacker News Reader

This is because of racial quotas (or per-country quotas) that exist for green cards. More here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2018/05/21/will-...

This quota should be removed.

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Seems absurd that a country with 1 billion would have the same quotas as a country with 1000 times fewer people.

Just to be clear... "The limits are calculated each fiscal year depending on the total number of family-sponsored and employment-based visas available. No more than 7 percent of the visas may be issued to natives of any one independent country in a fiscal year; no more than 2 percent may issued to any one dependency of any independent country. The per-country limit does not indicate, however, that a country is entitled to the maximum number of visas each year, just that it cannot receive more than that number." https://www.uscis.gov/tools/glossary/country-limit

Thanks for clarifying. My previous statement would be incorrect in that case.

I think maximum percent limits make sense. But, 7% might be a bit aggressive.

After all, a country's borders aren't necessarily the best indicator of cultural diversity brought by those people. India (the biggest contributor to the H1B) is internally a lot more diverse than more ethnically homogeneous, yet highly populated countries such has Bangladesh, Russia, UK, Japan or France.

These visas are intended to expand our economy, create jobs and ensure that the US remains a technological and economic superpower. Country of birth has no bearing on an immigrant's ability to contribute to these goals. If it makes sense to allow immigration of highly qualified workers then it makes sense to allow them to immigrate regardless of country of birth.

  racial quotas (or per-country quotas)

Those are two very different things.

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