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Comment by amai | Hacker News Reader

Why does Germany still have so many economic immigrants if the economy is doing so badly?

Economic immigrant in Germany here. And most of my friends are also skilled -economic- migrants (mostly doctors/engineers/scientists) as well. Maybe I can draw a picture. There are a number of reasons, but I would say the biggest one is this: while I am told things are a lot worse than it was, the situation here is still a lot better than it is in my home country. I also have no hope for my home country; while I think Germany will probably get better eventually.

Now, for the alternatives; emigrating to US is rather challenging with all the H1B shenanigans going on, while my friends who has moved to Canada all eventually came to hate their lives and moved to other places. If you don't speak the local language, there are not many jobs in a lot of the European countries. Japan is not really welcoming to immigrants, and Australia is seen as too remote. This leaves you with few choices in the first world; Britain, Netherlands, and Germany. I got the first job offer from Germany, so I am here. Quite a few of my friends were thinking along similar lines, so they are scattered across these three countries.

Because the government continues to expand social welfare programs.

If bad economy leads to better social welfare programs than we need more "bad economy". It seems to be good for the people. It is strange that sometimes it is forgotten that economic growth as an indicator only makes sense if at the same time it improves life of the people. Economic growth can also be decoupled from people wellbeing, which happens easily if one doesn't fight against inequality and monopolies in capitalistic societies.

No, it's not good for most people. It's only good for those who rely on welfare programs. It's not sustainable as the money has to come from somewhere. The government has never before seen tax revenue but they still cannot pay the bills and they constantly come up with new ideas to take more money from people.

Let me give you an example. Regular workers in Germany pay for health insurance - people on welfare don't. It's paid for by the government. The government raised welfare payments and promised the insurance companies that they'd cover the costs of insurance for those on welfare. The government then said "Well, we'll pay amount x" but amount x is not enough. The insurance companies now need money so they've raised the rates for every working person to make up for this.

Other people living on welfare is good for you, too. Because if they don’t get welfare, they might turn to crime, drugs and violence to survive. And of course you are overlooking that it can happen to you, that you get sick, workless and poor. The social safety net is there for you, too.

And regarding German healthcare: The rich also don’t pay for public health insurance in Germany. And even if they do their amount is lower compared to their income, see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beitragsbemessungsgrenze

If the insurance companies need money they should and could take it from the rich. And this would be fair and good for everyone.

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