Immigration

Alright, a general disclaimer here: I don't know what I'm talking about. I will happily defer questions of immigration to experts in the field.

That being said, I have some extremely controversial thoughts on immigration in general. Mainly, I don't really see why it should be limited at all. Side note: My job isn't directly impacted by immigration (yet), nor has immigration directly impacted someone that I know. So I'm coming from a very privileged standpoint here.

That being said, my thought has always been, if there's someone out there willing to do your job for cheaper, let them. I mean if it's you, it sucks that you lose your job, but if you don't lose it, you're perpetuating an injustice. You're taking that job from someone else who is more desperate for work than you are. Denying work to immigrants in general is giving privilege to Americans for no right other than being born in America.

But I've had this discussion before, and it seems like that's just what nations are supposed to do, make their own population better at the expense of others. And so paying its own workers more for labor than those of foreign countries is just part of being a nation.

Only allowing a certain number of immigrants in is valuing citizens more just for being citizens. Again, I guess this is the point of nation-states, but I feel like it doesn't get explained that way very often, and I kinda disagree with it (While reaping all the benefits from it at the same time). I just can't think of a good reason why someone who wants to come here and be productive shouldn't be allowed to. I mean they "take jobs away" but don't they also buy things? Does increasing the population necessarily decrease jobs for everyone? I would think the increase in population would also increase the number of jobs.

Maybe here, finally, is where we get to the heart of the matter. Maybe most immigrants are low-skilled workers. IF that is the case, then allowing unlimited immigrants would create a higher proportion of low-skill low-paying workers, which I think isn't great for an economy. (There are quite a few "if"s and "I think"s in that bit...)

So the H-1B program was created, to try to lure only high-skilled workers. High-skilled workers make more money and buy more things, which generates more wealth overall? Although reading that sentence again just sounds like trickle-down economics...I'm going to say that in general, a larger proportion of your population being high-skilled workers is probably a good idea, and acknowledge that I'm way out of my league here.

So what's the point? Basically, America wants to maximize the well-being of its citizens, at the expense of others. (I think this is just what nation-states do). So it limits immigration to avoid getting too many low-skilled workers. However, it would like to "brain drain" other nations, stealing their best and brightest, also in this line of reasoning H-1B was created. It seems likely that companies have recently been exploiting the H-1B process to hire unskilled labor, however. So I would argue that, although the H-1B process does a good thing overall, the requirements should be made stricter.