Immigration absolutely helps the US economy, because it parasitically siphons all the skilled workers out of other countries that it underdevelops and hoards their labor for itself.
People think remittances help underdeveloped countries, but labor is the superior of capital, losing that skilled labor is never worth the paltry sums that get sent back home. It's just another shape that imperialism takes.
In Canada we heavily base immigration on education. So we're siphoning off the best educated of other countries. I mean this is just fucking those countries.
I get what you two are saying, but this kind of removes agency from the people doing the moving.
Also: Should people not be allowed to move to another country if they’re “too useful” or “skilled”?
People make their own history, but they do not make it as they please. Our material conditions limit our agency. We go where the jobs are, where the money is, where the possibilities for a better future are. Those are all choices.
But you can't ignore the material conditions that lead to those choices. We aren't just free floating agents in a sea of possibilities.
That's not it, but in many cases Western imperialism is involved in the conditions that made these people want to leave in the first place.
That's truly one of the worst things about brain drain / educated people moving to the imperial core countries for the high salaries. Global south countries really need educated young people helping to solve their own problems, and Canada and the US rip out their heart and soul.
At least in tech / programming, a good chunk of us are devoting most of our labor time to not just wasteful things, but actively harmful things, like trying to get people to click on ads, or increasing viral engagement.
I mean tbf (at least in my case as an Egyptian) it's not just the high salaries. Maybe Egypt is an extreme case but this country just has no future. The regime isn't just dictatorial; it's also dumb. There's almost no money going to scientific research, the system as a whole was outdated 50 years ago, the military is monopolizing everything and undercutting the market because they can use ~~slave~~ conscript labor and don't pay taxes, etc etc. I'm firmly of the opinion that this is at least partially caused by Britain's unwillingness to fully decolonize in the 1920s and their godawful decolonization in the 1950s, but the fact remains that these countries have a duty to their people that they're not fulfilling, and that's why brain drain happens.
As a living example of said brain drain, salaries were near the bottom of my priority list when I made the decision. I was more concerned about living somewhere where I don't need to worry about being arrested because I said my opinion on the internet (or even just complained about prices) or because I do my prayers at the mosque (I was actually told by my mother to not go to the mosque all the time because I might get arrested. It's that bad). Below that were things like a sane administration that actually cares about things being even just barely functional, a decent education system and academia and the ability to have confidence that the country will actually exist in 20 years. Living in a wildly different country (especially as a Muslim in Japan as is my case (halal food is a pain to get here)) is such a pain you couldn't pay me to do it, but it's hard to turn down actually getting to have a future.
What I wanna say is that it's not just the Global South being undercut by the West; many Global South countries are failing at fulfilling their responsibility towards their constituents, and that's why they're leaving. Now how much the West was involved in creating this situation is another story, but you can't reduce it to just high salaries. Global South governments, as a rule, aren't interesting in solving their own problems. That's why the problem solvers go solve Western rich people's problems.
Egypt is also a useful case study, because the US props up its shitty government. That's also part of how the Global South is underdeveloped, it's a multifaceted machine that sucks out everyone who can help make the country better and gives support and resources to the people making it worse. It's not just legacy from the 20's and 50's, this is an ongoing problem that is created by imperialism.
Also when a Global South government tries to solve its problems, such as through nationalizing resources or land reform, the US buries them under sanctions and attempts to make a regime change. This, too, is part of how imperialism underdevelops the Global South.
Did you just say people moving to the US for a better life are a part of imperialism?
Don't misunderstand, the people moving to the US are blameless. Imperialism works by siphoning up all of the skilled labor around the world for itself in order to make life better for people within the imperial core, and this is part of how the imperial nations underdevelop other countries. People get educations in their home countries (often at the government's expense) and then they take that education out of the country to put it to use in the US (or France or Canada etc). They're just going where the jobs are, though, that's not their fault at all.
Except where there's little opportunity to utilize the highly skilled labor. They are going abroad anyway to find job opportunities befitting of their skill set and the highest bidder. Doesn't matter if the US or EU took them, they're leaving because the local opportunity doesn't exist.
Yes, and the people who could develop that local opportunity aren't there. They all leave as soon as they can.
That's why I said they're underdeveloped countries. They're not "developing" in truth, but are being kept from becoming developed. How do you think that happens? In part it happens because of the IMF giving predatory loans and then imposing austerity on the people when the government can't pay their loans back, but it also happens because labor is the superior of capital and these countries are losing skilled labor.
I am not blaming them for leaving their countries. I am blaming underdevelopment, which is a product of imperialism.
The president made the remark while arguing that Japan, along with Russia and China, would perform better economically if the countries embraced immigration more.
Oh, well that's true enough. Japan is crazy anti immigration despite that being a solution to their low birth rate.
I can't speak to Russia or China, but Japan has a history of xenophobia going back CENTURIES. It's not exactly a newsflash.
Even still, it's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.
That pot better be careful around police...
True, also: from what I understand, Korea has been historically worse.
Why am I seeing multiple news reports today about Joe Biden where they remove context to polarize his comments further? This feels, to me, like a new media trend
Japan simply is xenophobic. I lived there for 2 years. That's just a fact.
He's not wrong but also I believe there's a saying in English about stones and glass houses.
Even the most bigoted parts of the US are nowhere near as xenophobic as Japan. Housing discrimination based on race is still perfectly acceptable over there, many people will refuse to rent to foreigners.
As always, more projection
Lol what?
The US is one of the most xenophobic countries in the world.
Japan is notably more xenophobic. No matter how long you live in Japan, even if you manage to get full citizenship (which even celebrities who have lived there for decades struggle with), you are never considered "Japanese" by the native-born Japanese people.
The USA on the other hand is comparatively easy to become a citizen of and has laws banning discrimination based on race and national origin for employers. A citizen is a citizen is a citizen. The only job in the entire country that requires you be born as a citizen is the POTUS.
most?
Don't get out much, eh? Xenophobia is present all throughout the world in different amounts, it has its roots in any insulated human nature. The US is far from the worst on Earth though, despite whatever cherry-picked propaganda one may read. We just do have some, particularly in more interior regions.
It's really not. Not to sound like I'm erasing racism in the US, but the reason you hear about it is because it's tested and contested so much. It's almost always way worse in more homogeneous nations.
Its really not and I challenge you to provide stats that say otherwise. Of course its one of the countries with the most racial tension, but that comes along with being one of the most racially diverse.
I mean he's not wrong, but where does he expect China to get immigrants from? They're 20% of the world.
He's also cherry picking data. It's a weird flex.
The proportion of immigrants in the US isn't exactly high compared to somewhere like Canada.
China xenophobic? I don’t think Biden knows what the word means. The oldest mosque outside of the Middle East is in China of all places built in 627 CE, and still standing.
What happened to the mosques in Spain and Occupied Palestine? Turned into bars and chicken coops.
Okay I hate the West as much as any other guy, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. China 1400 years ago isn't in any way the same as China today. Nowadays it's that most Muslim Chinese groups are accepted as Chinese (the Hui are about as Chinese as the Han, for example) and that's why they can practice Islam in peace; otherwise you're treated like the Uighurs. Also foreigners in China are absolutely treated as outsiders; that's just a fact.
not demolishing a single mosque isn't exactly the kind of standard one sets when determining xenophobia
As neat as Japan sounds and as much as I’d like to be there, I mean, he’s not wrong
I watch YouTubers who moved to and live there talk about how they’re just indefinitely treated like a tourist
I think "extremely ethnocentric" is a more fair description/criticism of Japan. Close to 98% of their population is ethnically homogeneous, so it kinda makes sense.
Pretty much every country in the world where citizenship, nationality, and ethnicity are the same thing you find xenophobia.
Who cares what this genocidal fascist has to say. The sooner he kicks it the better it will be for everyone else.
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