Disqus - Latest Comments for ziel

Re: Why Is Switzerland the World’s Most Immigrant-Friendly Country?

ziel — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:43:14 -0000

That's a very plausible explanation for why the Swiss are welcoming of immigrants.

Now let's see, why would Australia be more welcoming of immigration than the U.S.? Perhaps it might have to do with the type of people immigrating?

Let's look at Autralia's foreign born population and divide them into two groups - one group who your typical, shameless American would consider 'Undesirable' and the other 'Desirable'. The Desirables would hail from Europe (excluding Eastern Europe), India, and East Asia (and of course North America). "Undesirables" would be from everywhere else.

The data can be found here:
http://www.migrationinformation.org/DataHub/cou...

What we find is that the "Desirables" make up two-thirds of immigrants in Australia. Contrast that with the U.S., where the "Undesirable" group makes up close to 80% of immigrants (from the same source). Given this, it is certainly plausible that Aussies can be every bit the xenophobic bigots that Yanks are, while still being more positive towards immigration.

(unformatted raw data follows for Australia)
Region No. (000's)
So. Asia (not India) 141
S.E. Asia 553
Oceania not N.Z. 106
E. Eur 136
Africa 249
So/Centr Amer 86
W. Asia 191
Other 11
Total 'Undesirable' 1473

East Asia 389
No. Amer. 94
N. Z. 390
India 147
W. Eur 1110
N. Eur 269
S. Eur 544
Total 'Desirable' 2943

Total Foreign Born 4416

Re: Why Is Switzerland the World’s Most Immigrant-Friendly Country?

ziel — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:22:50 -0000

I don't see how the absolute size matters, either. But it's important _who_ your foreign-born are. When you're an Anglo country, and over 40% of immigrants are from Northern/Western Europe, North America and New Zealand, that's 4 out of 10 foreign born you don't even notice. Then when another 20% are East Asian and Southern European (i.e., high functioning), that immigrant population gets to be much less of an issue. Of course, immigration in Australian is still very controversial, witness the unrest over "Lebanese" (i.e., West Asians) a few years back.

Re: More Tiny Humans for the Glory of Our Kind!

ziel — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:38:21 -0000

Putnam elaborates on his celebrated work on social capital—defined most simply as social networks upon which people depend. He analyzes material from a large, nationwide study of ethnic diversity carried out in the United States in 2000. Putnam finds that trust in others is high and social capital correspondingly well-developed in homogeneous communities, such as largely white suburbs. Both are low in more diverse neighborhoods, such as ethnically mixed inner-city areas.

Such a correlation is probably to be expected. After all, we feel most at home with people who are like ourselves. However, Putnam also finds something he didn’t anticipate: In more diverse communities, Americans distrust not only people who aren’t like them but also people who are. Diversity seems to encourage social isolation, not enrichment. In diverse neighborhoods, all citizens display lower levels of confidence in local government and media; are less likely to be involved in local voluntary groups; are less likely to vote; and have lower levels of expressed happiness.

Source.

Do you have evidence to support the likelihood of "the other way around"? Evidence, that is, not dependent on a 4-decade moratorium on immigration between 1924 and 1965?

Re: More Tiny Humans for the Glory of Our Kind!

ziel — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:40:53 -0000

We observe a great disparity of wages between 'rich' and 'poor' countries. It's basically this(and, of course, the fall of transportation costs).that motivates immigration from one country to another. Until the wages for the same job are equalized, there will be this movements.

Yes, of course. That is why it is necessary for a people and a duty of their government to restrict this movement into their lands by force, through whatever physical or legal or punitive barriers prove necessary.

When wages 'equalize' between the U.S. and Mexico, there will still be well over 5 billion people in the world determined to equalize them further. There is no end. This is fine if wage parity across the globe is your primary goal. But for those of us with other goals - such as the continuation (at least thru our grandchildrens' lives) of the United States as a bastion of freedom and rule of law in an otherwise corrupt and lawless world, this is a most unsatisfactory outcome.