Topics/Groups
Our goal will be to formulate ideal immigration policies. Note that
these should be from the point of view of the national good.
The latter comprises issues of the economy, government budgets, the
environment, culture, quality of life and so on.
The topics are:
Group members:
Note:
This is not a policy question per se, but knowledge of this is
important for formulating policy.
Issues:
- Does immigration bring a net fiscal benefit or drain on the federal
level?
This is in both short-term budget senses and long-term senses
such as Social Security.
- What about on the state and local government levels?
- What are the impacts, negative and positive, on education?
- To what degree is welfare spending on immigrants an issue? Note
that this includes both cash and non-cash forms of welfare, examples of
non-cash being Medi-Cal/Medicaid and housing subsidies.
- What are the impacts of immigration on public health, e.g.
resurgence of TB?
- What are the impacts of immigration on transportation?
- What are the impacts of immigration on the environment?
- Is there a net positive or negative impact on the overall economy,
say as measured in terms of per capita GDP (say, of natives and earlier
immigrants)?
- What is the impact of immigration on the economic well-being and
political clout of native minorities (African-Americans and indigenous
peoples)?
- What about the impact of immigration on less obvious economic
measures, such as real estate prices and international trade?
- What percentage of immigrants ultimately develop serviceable
English skills? For those who don't, what is the "cost" to the nation,
if any?
- What about the intangible cultural benefits---the enrichment of our
language, food, music, spiritual sense, even our sense of humor? How
are all these to be weighed? On the other hand, is the nation in any
danger of being balkanized?
- Above all, how much new immigration per year, legal and illegal, is
desirable/manageable? Even putting political acceptability aside, there
presumably are limits. Our freeway onramps have traffic signals to
regulate the inflow to a freeway; what is the right amount of inflow per
year for immigration?
Group members:
Issues:
- What are the history and ostensible goals of current policy?
- Under what conditions should employers be allowed to sponsor
workers for immigration or temporary work visas?
- Should Americans (i.e. U.S. citizens and permanent residents) be
given hiring priority, and retention priority in the case of a layoff,
over foreign nationals?
- Should there be separate policies in the case of hiring/retaining
"the best and the brightest"? What percentage of employer-sponsored
immigrants are in that category?
- Are employer-sponsored immigrants and temporary workers paid fair
wages? If not, how should we fix this?
- What percentage of our yearly mix of legal immigrants should be in
this category?
- What are the goals of our issuing of foreign-student visas? Are
they being met? Should they be modified? Of those who end up staying
in the U.S., what professions do they go into?
Group members:
Issues:
- What are the history and ostensible goals of current policy?
- Is the actual day-to-day operation of this policy living up to its
"family values" goals? Do sponsored siblings, for instance, settle near
their sponsors? Or is it mainly an route to economic betterment?
- What kinds of family members should be sponsorable? How should the
categories be prioritized with respect to each other?
- Is chain migration an important issue?
- Do family immigrants "take jobs Americans won't do"?
- What percentage of our yearly mix of legal immigrants should be in
this category?
- Should there be an additional qualification that family immigrants
possess some minimal facility with English? Would such a policy likely
change the current mix in terms of nationality, socioeconomic class?
Would it unfairly disadvantage would-be immigrants from countries in
which English, or at least some Latin derivate, is not widely spoken?
- What should be the financial responsibilities of the sponsors in
terms of welfare usage by their sponsored immigrants?
Group members:
Issues:
- What are the history and ostensible goals of current policy?
- To what degree does the definition of "well-founded fear of
persecution" become politicized? How can this be avoided?
- Is the U.S. doing its share relative to other developed countries
in terms of accepting immigrants for humanitarian reasons?
- Is the actual day-to-day operation of this policy living up to its
humanitarian goals? Are many of those who seek political asylum
actually economic immigrants? How many, for instance, would be willing
to emigrate to poor but democratic countries?
- What should our humanitarian goals be, and how should applicants
be assessed against them?
- What percentage of our yearly mix of legal immigrants should be in
this category?
Group members:
Issues:
- What are the history and ostensible goals of current policy on
unauthorized immigration?
- How many unauthorized immigrants are there in the U.S. at any one
time? How many new ones come each year? Is the rate accelerating?
- How many arrive via unauthorized entry, as opposed to overstaying
visas? Are different methods needed to stem the tide in these two
categories?
- What is their typical level of education, facility in English,
etc.? How many are single? How many of them have spouses or children
here, and of those, how many are here legally? How many "mixed"
families--some members authorized, some not--are here?
- Do unauthorized immigrants "take jobs Americans won't do"?
- Do unauthorized immigrants come to the U.S. because they were in
truly dire economic straits back home?
- To what degree have employer sanctions worked in reducing
unauthorized immigration? What should be done to make it work?
- Would a wall on the southern border be effective at reducing
unauthorized immigration? If so, would it be desirable? If yes to both
questions, should there be one on the northern border as well?
- Would the guest worker programs proposed in Congress this year be
effective in reducing unauthorized immigration?
- Should there be some sort of amnesty/earned legalization? Did the
1986 amnesty "work"?
- What are the policies regarding unauthorized immigration in other
countries, especially those whose citizens live/work in the U.S. without
authorization?
- What's wrong with unauthorized immigration anyway? Is it merely because
it is illegal/alegal?