The economic downturn of the late 2000s resulted in a recession that has reached into every corner of the earth, but it is a fact that economic conditions ride a wave. There may be a period of time where there is great growth, followed by a downturn, but then it rises again.
The more robust an economy is before a recession, the better it will return. The United States is particularly prized because of this because even though things may be tough right now in the country, it will return to its previous strength, just as it has done in the past.
Many think tanks, politicians and writers believe that a full and speedy economic recovery lies within the human capital that is the American immigrant.
This has become such a universal rallying cry that it even inspires both sides of the aisle. Republicans and Democrats are cooperating to reform immigration laws to attract greater numbers of young and motivated foreigners to assist in the country’s improvement and eventually become citizens as well.
This legislation is casually called STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Its intention is to retain foreign college students in the United States on work visas if they studied one of the above disciplines.
The only contention that Republicans seem to have with this program (which they like quite a lot) is that they also want to end the Green Card Lottery.
Republicans would prefer to give green cards out for STEM because it is based on merit instead of just by chance as is the case in the Green Card Lottery.
This exposes an essential conflict within the politics of the United States: Is this a country that rewards merit or a country that provides equal opportunity.
The argument for the Green Card Lottery claims that the people who are applying for the Diversity Visa have not had the opportunity yet to prove their own merit and only in a just society can they develop the skills to prove themselves. Many immigrants see the United States as that just society.
The Green Card Lottery should absolutely be kept open, because it not only provides a degree of diversity within the immigration system (which is dominated by China and India), but it also relieves the burden of unemployment.
Some folks, who wish to argue against immigration, like to say that immigrants take away the jobs of the people who already live in America, but a cursory examination of this statement will find it to be inaccurate.
What the United States has is a disparity in worker’s appropriateness, not a shortage of jobs; the people already in the country do not have the requisite skills or eligibility to get the empty jobs, whereas new immigrants from the Diversity Visa program can easily fill these positions.
We can compare a healthy immigration system (with a relatively free flowing stream of immigrants and emigrants) to a river. When it is flowing it is healthy and clear, but when it stops flowing, it stagnates and the water becomes murky and undrinkable. Immigration Reform can make the economic river truly potable and beautiful.