Introducing: the Swap Visa

Last updated on: May 22, 2014 at 8:44 am by Jane the Actuary

Introducing: the Swap Visa 2014-05-22T08:44:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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So this is in the category of “a solution in search of a problem,” but I was thinking about immigration earlier, in light of a story that Ann Althouse linked to about a woman in an unhappy marriage, in which all her commenters observed, “her husband married her for the green card and she doesn’t see it!”

Let’s split prospective immigrants into two broad groups: those coming to the U.S. to better their lives, because their home country is poor or more repressive than this country; and those coming to the U.S. for a multitude of personal reasons: love of a person or of the culture, a different way of life, or a specific opportunity due to a specialized interest. In the former case, there generally isn’t much reciprocal immigration: no one moves to India to better their standard of living, but in the latter case, there may be as many Americans attracted to, say, German’s Biergarten culture as there are Germans attracted to the American West.

So I’d like to see a visa/green card system that recognizes the reciprocality of such rich country-to-rich country immigration. Imagine that the US and other similarly-wealthy countries mutually agree to let citizens migrate freely among their countries so long as, within certain tolerances, the exchanges are equal in number. No need for individuals to try to fit into the requisite “needed skills” categories or for employers to prove they couldn’t find a qualified local for the job, and no need for a couple to rush marriage while they’re still getting to know each other. (This would also remove the issue of same-sex couples who may not be able to marry in one, or both, of the countries.)

How do you determine whether a country is “rich enough” to qualify for a Swap Visa arrangement? I suppose any country for which the exchanges are, over time, mutual, would fit the bill.

Is it needed? Do people suffer greatly due to the lack of such a system. No, of course not –but I suspect that it would benefit a meaningful number of people and contribute to an overall principle of free movement of peoples, so why not?

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