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Detroit Wants Its Own High-Tech Visa
dcblogs writes "Detroit, a city in bankruptcy and dealing with a shrinking population, hopes to turn itself around with the help of 50,000 employment-based green cards. In exchange for the visa, an immigrant would be required to 'live and work' in Detroit for an undetermined length of time. The visas would be made available under the EB-2 visa category, a visa for advanced degree professionals or those deemed with 'exceptional ability' in the sciences, arts and business. The proposal was made by Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder. Daniel Costa, an immigration policy analyst at Economic Policy Institute, said Snyder would have more credibility on the issue if he were doing more to help workers in Detroit. In 2011, the state cut jobless benefits by six weeks to 20. 'I also think the federal government should be offering people in the U.S. some money and land in Detroit if they'll move there,' said Costa, or 'just offer it to people across the country who have advanced degrees.'"
Here's the problem with importing more and more workers: They're going to get fucked by the Big Boys just like the rest of is. I have no illusions about this.
How about Dan Costa's idea? If the feds want Detroit to live, offer business grants to get people to open up shop there, give the existing population work (instead of just importing more people), and give them the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Doesn't using the phrase "an immigrant would be required to 'live and work' in Detroit for an undetermined length of time" sound a lot like an indentured labour program? It seems awfully familiar to what the Brits did to/in India during the 1800s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_indenture_system)
The Democratic Party should be the one imploding, not the GOP-- but the offer of free handouts is a tough one to campaign against. It's amazing how most failing cities have been under de facto on-party rule for decades, yet that party has managed to blame the other one for all its ills.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
It's the Republicans' fault that Detroit is in the state that it's in?
Detroit has had one-party Democrat rule for more than two generations.
Republican politicians were neither 'the' nor 'a' reason Detroit was mis-managed. Literal decades after decades of single-party rule robbed the locals of any need for their politicians to defend/justify their actions, so they went off the rails in a spectacular fashion.
The ONLY blame you can heap on Republicans in Detroit would be for letting the Democrats run the city by failing to win more elections... But are we really going to blame the loser of an election for the actions of the winner?
Ken
I have lived in Detroit and paying an extra tax so that I have no police, no fire department, no streetlights, no security, no infrastructure and unplowed streets is just not appealing. Especially when you can live 8 or more miles north to live in a better area without the drawbacks or the extra tax.