America is a country with a defective immigration system. We are too tight about letting people in our country, yet too incompetent about controlling illegal immigration. We have a porous border with Mexico that lets in illegal workers, drug dealers, kidnappers, and even ISIS members! What America doesn’t understand is that we cannot compete internationally without having a very flexible labor force. That means we need a large supply of people who are willing to work here and we need to let them get quick work visas on an as-needed basis. That way we control who comes in rather than being flooded with whomever happens to be desperate at that point in time. We need to optimize by hiring the best workers for particular tasks out of huge pools of applicants rather than just taking what the cat dragged in.
The thing America forgets is that many people want to come to America — and that is a huge asset. Can you imagine what America would be like if it were not so attractive? Nobody would want to come here. If we were short of programmers, we wouldn’t be able to get any. If we were short of farm laborers, nobody would come. America is a beautiful place, yet we don’t take advantage of what we have. We are analogous to a hot girl who makes it impossible for rich guys to meet her without filling out endless forms. Sure, the girl ends up with a boyfriend, but not the best one she could get. If she would spend a little more time analyzing the opportunities and make it a little easier for those opportune people to meet her, she could get a much better boyfriend.
America lets immigrants in and then after a long time offers them citizenship. I feel this is the wrong idea. We give citizenship to people who are here to work, and who are not here to be Americans. I feel that citizenship should be exclusively for people who want to be American for richer or for poorer while the others should come on renewable 5 year work visas perhaps without their families. The minute their kids get used to America, if there is a problem, it is no longer easy to send them back!
If parts of America could be designed specifically to entice foreigners to come and work, that might really stimulate the economy. We’d have the high tech staff needed for our big technical companies to grow, and we’d have the cheap labor to be able to compete with China and El Salvador! I’m very in favor of special economic zones to be created in America which would not only be beautiful, but cater to the cultural and linguistic needs of people from particular other countries.
Since America makes importing workers such a headache, many companies are heading overseas. That makes sense. If Donald Trump runs for president, perhaps he will put a 35% tax on outsourcing, but maybe he will let foreign workers come here to work. That would be a wonderful twist on fate. We’ll wait and see.