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Engineers Are Leaving America For Canada (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a report via Bloomberg: The H-1B was created in 1990, part of an immigration overhaul signed into law by President George H.W. Bush that also created the EB-5 investor visa -- the subject of a fracas involving Kushner Cos. seeking Chinese investment -- and the diversity lottery, which Trump has attacked. Today, an estimated half a million H-1B holders live in the U.S. No one tracks exactly how many ditch their skilled visas for the permanent residency Canada offers, but during the first year of Trump's presidency, the number of tech professionals globally who got permanent residency in Canada ticked up almost 40 percent from 2016, to more than 11,000.
In 1967, Canada became the first country to adopt a points-based immigration system. The country regularly tweaks how it rates applicants based on national goals and research into what makes for successful integration: A job offer used to come with 600 points, but now it's worth just 200. Other factors like speaking fluent English or French -- or, even better, both -- have been given more weight over the years. Country of origin is irrelevant. In 2016, Canada increased national immigration levels to 300,000 new permanent residents annually. Last year, in consultation with trade groups, it created a program called the Global Skills Strategy to issue temporary work permits to people with job offers in certain categories, including senior software engineers, in as little as two weeks. Since the program started in June, more than 5,600 people have been granted permits, from the U.S., India, Pakistan, Brazil, and elsewhere.
In 1967, Canada became the first country to adopt a points-based immigration system. The country regularly tweaks how it rates applicants based on national goals and research into what makes for successful integration: A job offer used to come with 600 points, but now it's worth just 200. Other factors like speaking fluent English or French -- or, even better, both -- have been given more weight over the years. Country of origin is irrelevant. In 2016, Canada increased national immigration levels to 300,000 new permanent residents annually. Last year, in consultation with trade groups, it created a program called the Global Skills Strategy to issue temporary work permits to people with job offers in certain categories, including senior software engineers, in as little as two weeks. Since the program started in June, more than 5,600 people have been granted permits, from the U.S., India, Pakistan, Brazil, and elsewhere.
I've read multiple times that the H1-B program allows 85,000 applicants a year, but I've also read the half a million figure. Are they just not going home when their Visas are up? Are the Visas being issued for decades at a time so that they build up in the system? Or are they saying that most H1-B Visas are converted to permanent residency?
One thing I can say: Companies stopped training once they could rely on the H1-B visa program. One more thing, I know two or three people who were laid off and replaced by H1-Bs, which is supposed to be illegal.
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Where would they go, the US is the most right wing capitalist country in the world
Singapore is a low-tax authoritarian country which spends little on social programs, spends robustly on their military, executes drug dealers, and they even spank petty criminals.
Australia and NZ also have similar systems, but progressives in the US claim that it's racist for Trump wanting to have it as you pointed out. But they'll laud the immigration system in all three countries as great. Considering the absolute shitshow going on up here in Canada right now? There's a lot of angry people, and you're hearing a lot of "maybe Japans immigration system is better."
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fewer school shoots
The death rate from school shootings in the US is ~20/year. (For comparison, the school-age population is 64,000,000.) That's above the crushed-by-vending-machine death rate (~3/year), but below the killed-by-dogs death rate (34/year), and far below the texting-while-driving death rate (6,000/year). (All figures for US only.)
If the risk of school shootings is a serious factor in motivating you to move to another country, you should be *far* more motivated to move to a country that lacks mobile phones.
(Numbers: 151 total deaths from school shootings in the 2010s thus far. 64,000,000 students in primary or secondary education. 1 in 112 million annual death rate from vending machines. Other death rates for dog attacks, texting while driving, etc.)