Op-ed: Immigration Meritocracy

The Providence Journal declares my op-ed fit to print! Here is the un-edited version.

Make Immigration Policy a Meritocracy
The Providence Journal
17 August 2006

As our country deals with the highly-politicized problem of illegal immigrants, we need to take this time to rethink the very basis of our immigration policy. According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services, our country annually accepts up to 480,000 family-sponsored immigrants, up to 140,000 employment-based immigrants, and up to 55,000 diversity immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. That policy emphasizes diversity at the expense of merit and diminishes our competitiveness in the global economy.

It is therefore within our national interest to strengthen the requirements for employment-based immigrants and to allow more people to immigrate under that category. We need to stop judging people based on the color of their skin and start judging them on their ability. Consequentially, by increasing the flow of smart people into this country, we would also boost our economy.

Immigrants with higher education can contribute more positively to this country. First, we are in dire need of well-educated people. They will help fill the high-demand skilled jobs in engineering, scientific research, and math education. Second, this policy has already been successfully implemented in Canada and Australia, which highly value skilled workers in their immigration processes.

Letting only smart people in is a win-win-win policy. Because they have already signaled to their future employers that they are smart and hardworking employees by working hard to earn advanced degrees, their employers will be more willing to pay them higher wages. Since they are higher-paid, they will contribute more taxes. So, our society will benefit from their labor, our government from their taxes, and they will benefit from getting the opportunities that were denied to them back home.

Of course, by favoring one group, we deny that favor to another group. Less smart people would find it harder to immigrate. This seems unfair. Less educated immigrants, after all, also work hard. They are, in fact, usually willing to work harder and for less money than the average American applying for the same job. But, unfortunately, because our country cannot contain everyone who wants in, it has to manage the scarcity of American soil by keeping some people out. It should keep out less educated immigrants, I believe, because they contribute less to our society.

First, their oversupply is competing down low-paid wages. That competition hits the government-mandated floor on wages: our minimum wage. Because some employers are not willing to pay even that much, yet some workers are willing to accept much less in return for their labor, black markets develop, especially in urban centers like my hometown, Atlanta. But, because their pay is so low, yet their healthcare needs are all the same, they depend more heavily on our healthcare system. Their drag on the healthcare system is unjustified by their unregulated—and therefore untaxed—black market wages.

If the United States favored brains in the immigration process, we will increase aptitude here and encourage it abroad. If now, many foreign students study hard in our classrooms only to return to make money in their workrooms back home, then this policy would encourage foreign students to become domestic students. By studying hard to get into this country, students would also increase education levels at home. America will take many, but not all, and those who stay will contribute greater to domestic life as a result of our policy.

I do not mean that all immigrants should meet such high expectations, but most. Refugees should be exempt, for example; and those who come from places where higher education is more dream than reality. For most, however, a rigorous application of the meritocracy standard will lead this country on a road to a better immigration policy. It’s what our country deserves.