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When I lived there, I was amused how the Danish government was forced to provide free education and a $1,000 a month stipend to foreign EU university students, and then did such a bad job integrating them they all went home.
Doesn't sound so different.
It's not a program, it's that under EU law citizens and EU nationals cannot be treated differently. In Denmark university is free, and everyone is entitled to a stipend while studying called SU (can't remember what it stands for).
It's insanely wasteful, destructive, short-sighted and, most of all, cruel.
If I had to describe the US in one sentence, that would be it. If I had to present an example of how paradoxically destructive the system is in the US, I'd pick her story, because it's oddly reflective of probably most stories I hear out of the US. Great deeds marred by evil, intentional or not.
I mean basically everyone I know is either a first, second, or third gen immigrant.
If I tell you not to go to the top of mount Everest as you will die and no one will come save you, then you choose to go to the top of Everest and freeze is who is at fault? The Nepal government or you? Imo that is 100% your fault.
Apparently it’s been like this for a long time too.
And I can tell you this: If I were to have children, they are going to have plenty more opportunity here than they would if I still lived in the US. Even if they are poor, they are likely to have food, housing, and medical care.
If you lack things like food, housing, and medical care, moving to the US might seem like a viable option, though.
High wages (or any income at all) can lure people into all sorts of situations. It is those that have that power to act responsible.
You would not believe the pure economic calculations and soullessness that my northern European country visits upon refugees and migrants. The State is an all powerful and all encompassing entity that crushes anyone in its path.
All combined USA isn't as welcoming for higher skilled individuals from India and China vs other developed countries.
This fear isn't entirely misplaced, IMO, considering the US history with the natives who lived here thousands of years before European migrants arrived.
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/brief-history-us-immigr...
That said, I don't think the current US system is sustainable or even coherent. Hopefully it can be improved to minimize harm for all involved.
Citizenship should be automatic for those that have been around since (public) middle school (give or take).
You're ignoring the fact that most foreigners from the same country of origin will chose to live with their own communities, creating ethnic ghettos, that the parents don't magically stop teaching their birth language, culture and customs to their kids when they move to a foreign country, that Europe isn't really far from Africa or Middle-East so that families will go back to country the parent's country of origin every summer.
So basically the American model of society in action in Europe.
Still, IMHO ghettos are (mostly) the result of lazy assimilation policies.
It's funny, just today, in between these comments I had a discussion with an Ukrainian mother that was concerned that her kid had too many Russian speakers in her school group, and so that would make it harder for her to learn the local language...
(Considering all these comments I perhaps should have been softer about "giving up [their] ethnicity", I didn't want to mean completely ! Retaining some of the old one is fine, even good, as long as the culture and the values are compatible - it's not like Nations are completely homogeneous anyway, and diversity is strength !)
The examples of educated and well integrated individuals are very sympathetic and most people would agree that US immigration policy is deeply flawed but any path the permanent residency will create powerful incentives. Are you saying any 12yo who comes and lives in the US for six years automatically gets citizenship?
Is that really what we want to incentivize? I'm concerned that trying to "patch" up immigration policy with one-off fixes will just created further problems in the future.
Maybe it would be better to create a true professional immigration process (like Canada?) that would accommodate these individuals and eliminate the mess that's H1B?
IMO, being able to vote in the country you live and pay taxes in is basically a fundamental human right.
The idea that you should deprive immigrants who are living somewhere permanently of the right of self determination based on some sort of nationalistic idea of how countries should function just seems extremely misguided to me.
If you don't want to let them in that's one thing but once they're living there and paying taxes beyond maybe a few years they're entitled to vote.
I'm not sure why you're saying that like it's a good thing. That sounds horrible.
But I do agree with you. If by "southern Europe", GP meant Italy, I can definitely confirm what you're saying. Like many Romanians, I have family members in Italy and the children either don't speak Romanian at all or speak it quite badly.
And yeah, it can be hard to strike the right balance - do these family members spend some effort to teach Romanian to their kids ?
Oh do they? Actually going on the field shows pretty clear signs that those don’t mix, even if the state forbids us from doing stats on how many ethnicities beat up our white kids.
What is your intent, really? What is your intent with our kids?
You just made that up, especially in the context of influence of school.
2. Outside the largest cities, there's not much diversity. And people are notorious for coming off as "cold" here in Scandinavia.
3. Difficult to qualify for immigration. You may need a job visa, higher education, and enough funds / income to live 1-2 years on your own. Depending on what country you want to enter. It can be difficult to come up with $20k-$40k in savings, if you're from a third world country.
Am I misunderstanding, or is this just a way of saying they have high productivity?
I'd be open to hearing in what ways the US demonstrates fascism. Under the old [Presidential] administration I do remember the blind nationalism and racist overtones.