We don't need no stinking PhD's . . .
So if you're highly skilled/educated and looking to work somewhere that actually wants you, looks like Europe may be worth a look.
It would be great to see something similar in the US, but with the "I'm tougher on immigration than you are" rhetoric from all of the mainstream candidates in the run up to 2008, I guess that's a forlorn hope.
I'd argue that not all of europe is open to immigration - it was only in the last 2 weeks that the East Europeans could finally work anywhere in the EU zone - but the strongest economies tend to be the most open (isn't that a Republican argument?)
Ireland, for example, has massive immigration right now. I think 3% of the population is Polish, now. Immigration has been the fuel for their economic growth the past 10 years.
Italy is an example of a country that needs immigrants most, but just isn't coming to terms with it. They're screwed. There just aren't enough children being born. Still, they refuse to open their country up to immigrants (ironic, if you look at how successful Italians have been in America). The time will come when they won't have a choice, and will have to open the flood gates - that's when the real shock will hit!
As an immigrant, I think I have a slightly different perspective on immigration here in America. First of all, it's a good thing, and we need more of it! People who say "we're losing the country" have been saying that for 200 years now. We need more people to allow our economy to grow, and if there's one country that can accommodate more people, it's America.
It's still the same, all over the world, the BEST people want to come to America. Many are going to Europe because they don't have a choice, and that's sad. It's also, as you mentions, OUR loss.
Cheers,
Davo
It's unfortunate, but right now America is being told that the world is a big scary place and we have to watch out for threats. That has a knock on effect - everyone from "the world" is now a threat! That means the family from rural England who is going to Disney World for a 2 week holiday with the kids - you wouldn't believe it, but many have been interrogated like they're criminals.
It's been a horrible 7 year - but with Obama and Huckabee winning in Iowa last night, there is just a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel.
Cheers,
Davo
Many people in the academy talk about "white privilege", this idea that just by being white you've got an advantage over other people in the US -- it's undeniably true, yet, the vast majority of white people will stop listening to you the moment you say that.
The problems of blacks in the US got a lot of attention in the 1960's, but the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 brought attention to "Ethnic Whites", a group of people who changed allegiance from Democrat to Republican. Ethnic Whites are the largely working-class population of post-1900 European immigrants and their children. These include Italian-Americans, Polish Americans, French Canadians, and European Jews. (Jews are a special case, however, because they've developed narratives of oppression and opposition much like blacks have.)
Unlike blacks, ethnic whites are well-treated by the police, because many cops are ethnic whites. You'll find ethnic whites concentrated in blue-collar jobs, particularly construction -- quite a few ethnic white women become primary school teachers. Ethnic whites are often unionized, and many do well financially.
There's also a population of underclass whites that have been in the US for longer. You'll find them in the "heartland" of America and concentrated in certain inner cities. There's a sterotype of underclass blacks that are stuck in a self-destructive relationship with the welfare state, numerically there are far more underclass whites who spend their days answering correspondence from social services and the family court -- their kids don't get attention, empathy or help from the schools, instead they get powerful psychotropic drugs to zone them out so they can sit in a chair and not disrupt the class.
Children of working-class and underclass white families find it hard to be accepted in upper class circles (say, the kind of people who graduate from Harvard.) Something in the way they walk, the way they talk, the way they dress causes upper class to perceive them as "not like us" and "not cut out" for what they do. Ethnic whites don't know how to read the 'code' in which upper class people communicate, which causes them more trouble fitting in -- they find there's an "invisible ceiling" that constrains them.
Blacks and other minorities (for instance, Jewish immigrants) have a narrattive to explain the discrimination they face -- ethnic whites don't, which adds to their pain (They see it as a personal failure) and makes them vulnerable to right-wing crackpotism.
Immigrants are coming to the US to work in jobs at all class levels. There's a lot of talk about Hispanic immigrants who work in agriculture -- it's been an issue in California for a long time, but it's becoming an issue in all agricultural areas today, such as upstate New York. Spanish speaking workers in upstate get upwards of $10 an hour... It's not a scheme to evade minimum wage laws, but a response to a lack of skilled and willing agricultural labor in US rural areas.
In my area I notice a lot of immigrants working in lower-level white-color work, particularly as line managers. A lot of software work in in this category. There's a lot of tension about class in the software industry: even though IT and software workers need a level of training, initiative, intelligence and skill as many doctors, lawyers, or accountants, they don't have professional status or a professional organization to back them up. (Last time I saw him, my Uncle asked me why I was wasting my life writing software when somebody as smart as me should be teaching in College or making a fortune on Wall Street.) Bad project management is endemic in the industry, and every so often you see evidence that IT workers are considered an underclass. For instance, the largest employer in our region brought in a speaker on IT management who wrote a book called "Leading Geeks"... Such a speaker who used pejorative words to describe blacks or white-color workers would have caused an uproar, but most people thought the title of that book was funny.
At the higher levels, there certainly is a stream of immigrants who fit in just fine with the Harvard set, get MBAs, become entrepreneurs, get big jobs in big companies, become tenured professors and all that. I've found that they're often nice people to work for, and I appreciate their work ethic (as I do other immigrants.) Yet, ethnic whites in the US are resentful that these people can break the "upper class code" while they can't.
A particularly pressing part of the US (and Europe) immigration problem is the way that immigration interacts with intergenerational conflicts. In the long term, US citizens are becoming more tolerant. Kids are growing up watching "Dora the Explorer', whose parents look like Hispanic farm workers. Schools are learning that they have to provide a discrimination-free environment or face the potential for being bankrupted by lawsuits.
The earlier you were born, however, the more likely you were to grow up in a racist environment and the more hostility you're likely to have towards immigrants. Unfortunately, America's baby boom generation is retiring soon and will find itself supported by a smaller population of workers. Immigrants swell the labor pool, helping the government and private markets finance retirements, as well as keeping the cost of services down (so retirees can afford to buy something with their fixed incomes.)
Older Americans who oppose immigration are cutting the legs off the stool that supports them.
I have a couple friends who are Mechanical Engineers. They are Italian and both are working to complete PhDs. They recently went to a job fair and the hiring guys wouldn't even talk to them. They were only interested in entry level (Bachelors-level) graduates. Your mileage may vary, but if you are a foreign national that would like to work in the U.S., you'd probably be better off getting a Masters degree if you want to pursue graduate-level studies.