Greeks and Danes don’t want to get rich through low-skill immigration

“As Greece installs ‘sound cannons’ on border, Denmark passes law allowing asylum seekers to be sent overseas” (Washington Post):

A law passed by Denmark’s Parliament on Thursday allows asylum seekers to be sent outside Europe to await the review of their applications.

In Greece, high-tech “sound cannons” are being used to deter migrants from crossing into the European Union from Turkey.

The sound cannons are part of a larger strategy to create a high-tech barrier that will prevent migrants from entering Greece in hopes of seeking asylum. Artificial intelligence will be used to analyze potentially suspicious movement captured by long-range cameras, and the country is also experimenting with using the technology to conduct lie detector tests during interviews with asylum seekers, according to the AP.

In Denmark, attempts to discourage migration have taken on a different form: A law that passed Thursday means asylum seekers can be sent to another country outside Europe while they wait for their cases to be reviewed.

“If you apply for asylum in Denmark, you know that you will be sent back to a country outside Europe, and therefore we hope that people will stop seeking asylum in Denmark,” Rasmus Stoklund, a spokesman for the Danish government, told broadcaster DR, according to Reuters.

Although it’s not yet clear what countries will take in refugees under such an arrangement, Denmark and Rwanda recently signed a memorandum of understanding that has led to speculation that migrants will probably be relocated to Africa.

Denmark, one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, has increasingly taken a hard-line stance on migration in recent years. The Danish Refugee Council said in a statement that sending refugees to a third country was analogous to Australia’s much-criticized policy of housing asylum seekers in offshore camps, and warned that the model has meant that migrants face “physical assault, slow asylum proceedings, lack of access to health care and lack of access to legal assistance.”

From joebiden.com:

Immigration is essential to who we are as a nation, our core values, and our aspirations for our future. … Trump’s policies are also bad for our economy. For generations, immigrants have fortified our most valuable competitive advantage–our spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. Research suggests that “the total annual contribution of foreign-born workers is roughly $2 trillion.” Key sectors of the U.S. economy, from agriculture to technology, rely on immigration. Working-age immigrants keep our economy growing, our communities thriving, and country moving forward.

Coming the above two… Greeks and Danes don’t want to be rich. From Denmark, 2019 (“send them back”):

Americans, it seems, also are averse to becoming rich, even those who have faith in wealth-via-low-skill-migration. “U.S. Aid to Central America Hasn’t Slowed Migration. Can Kamala Harris?” (New York Times, June 6):

As vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. led an enormous push to deter people from crossing into the United States by devoting hundreds of millions of dollars to Central America, hoping to make the region more tolerable for the poor — so that fewer would abandon it. Now, as President Biden, he is doubling down on that strategy once again and assigning his own vice president, Kamala Harris, the prickly challenge of carrying out his plan to commit $4 billion in a remarkably similar approach as she travels to the region Sunday. “When I was vice president, I focused on providing the help needed to address these root causes of migration,” Mr. Biden said in a recent speech to Congress. “It helped keep people in their own countries instead of being forced to leave. Our plan worked.” But the numbers tell a different story. After years of the United States flooding Central America with aid, migration from the region soared in 2019 and is on the upswing once more.

Here in Guatemala, which has received more than $1.6 billion in American aid over the last decade, poverty rates have risen, malnutrition has become a national crisis, corruption is unbridled and the country is sending more unaccompanied children to the United States than anywhere else in the world.

One, called the Rural Value Chains Project, spent part of its $20 million in American aid building outhouses for potato farmers — many of which were quickly abandoned or torn apart for scrap metal.

Uncle Joe wouldn’t lie to us (unlike you know who!). Thus, since every person from Guatemala who arrives in the U.S. makes us richer, happier (“our core values”), and more hopeful (“our aspirations for the future”), it is odd that we would want to spend $1.6 billion of our hard-earned wages to discourage Guatemalans from coming here.

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7 thoughts on “Greeks and Danes don’t want to get rich through low-skill immigration

  1. As anyone who has worked in the foreign aid field knows, much or most foreign aid ends up being siphoned off either into the pockets of US contractors or the foreign elite. Foreign aid is typically poor people in rich countries giving money to rich people in poor countries. Sounds like a reasonable idea, raise the standard of living in poor countries so there is less incentive to emigrate to rich countries but we can’t even raise the standard of living in inner city Chicago or NY or Appalachia, and yet we are confident we can do so in Guatemala & do so to such a degree that we can overcome the differential in GDP which is about 16:1 according to World Bank data?

  2. Two minute explanation of what’s wrong:
    “Economic Hitmen Cartoon”
    (courtesy of John Perkins, author of ‘Confessions Of An Economic Hitman)

  3. There is one thread tracing much of the world’s economic problems, it Big Banks. Everywhere I see an intransigent problem, there is a BB nearby sucking some rent out of it. Why would any real person bank with (BB: Citi, Dimon, HSNB, Barclays, Deusch,etc)?
    Despair… oh wait, they rent that too.

  4. If immigrants “keep our economy growing, our communities thriving, and country moving forward”, then why don’t they make their home countries grow, thrive, and move forward?

    • They come form countries that did not figure out how or not yet able to print money the way so inflation stays under 20% annually.
      Since we do not like people and thus do not want pay employees more money so they could consume and borrow more and feel better and since AI is now making decisions, pass the law to treat it as sentient, arrange salary for it and give it mortgages and car leases. Make it go to school to re-train periodically so teacher union is happy. Problem solved.

  5. Sort of off topic but not really…
    There’s got to be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of this Covid-19 fraud! But I guess that’s a feature not a bug!

    S. FL Sun Sentienl, 06/12/21 – City commissioner and family got questionable COVID-19 loans, records show

    https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/north-lauderdale/fl-ne-regina-martin-family-ppp-loans-20210612-ijvczyjgn5cqnoslkldf447szi-story.html

    “A city commissioner and members of her extended family received COVID-19 relief money for businesses they don’t appear to own, records show.

    North Lauderdale City Commissioner Regina Martin, her brother-in-law and her niece-in-law collected $100,000 in all from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, records show.

    Records from the Small Business Administration, which oversaw the program meant to help keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic, show:

    Martin received a $20,000 PPP loan in July, using a code earmarked for insurance agencies and brokerages. She received a second $20,000 loan in February, using a code earmarked for tax preparation services. In paperwork for both loans, she reported being the sole employee.

    Martin’s brother-in-law, Andre Archat, received a $20,000 loan in July. The code used was for insurance agencies and brokerages.

    Jazzmine Archat, who is Andre Archat’s daughter and Martin’s niece by marriage, received a $20,000 PPP loan in July, using a code for short-term lodging in the travel industry. She received a second $20,000 loan in April, using a code for “personal services.”

    The problem: Martin doesn’t work in insurance or tax preparation and isn’t licensed as an insurance agent in Florida, despite getting a loan intended for an insurance business and another for tax preparation.

    Financial disclosures she submitted to the city show her only employment outside North Lauderdale City Hall is at The Embassy Academy, a K-12 school. On her City Hall profile, she lists herself as the senior pastor at Embassy Church of South Florida, founder and operator of Embassy College and The Embassy Academy.

    On her loan applications, she used the home address of Tamarac City Commissioner Marlon Bolton as a business address.

    In Andre Archat’s case, he doesn’t own a business in an insurance category as his loan listed. He told the South Florida Sun Sentinel the loan was supposed to be for his marketing consulting group called Innov8. He says someone at SBA must have made a mistake. A spokeswoman for SBA declined to comment.

    Jazzmine Archat doesn’t own a travel-related business as listed in her loan. Her father said both loans were supposed to be for her business JazzG, where she works as a cosmetologist doing “lashes.” She does not have a cosmetology license, which the state requires for lash work”…”

    Bio for the N. Lauderdale Commissioner Dr. Regina Martin:

    https://nlauderdale.org/quick_links/city_commission/commissioner_regina_martin.php

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