
More Than 750M Worldwide Would Migrate If They Could - Reedx
https://news.gallup.com/poll/245255/750-million-worldwide-migrate.aspx
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baybal2
I'd add some background to what fehyjn says below.

The entire world was relatively borderess prior to 20th century, and it was
completely outside of humanly possible for the state anywhere to keep tap on
every individual.

If you talk about the period from medieval, to early renaissance. It was very
natural for every polity to want to get more subjects. Feudal lords couldn't
have been more happy to see more people migrating to their domains.

Things started changed with appearance of early nation state model in late
renaissance. The more central the role of the nation state got, the further
right was the centre of power.

All of the above culminated with introduction of the visa system in Europe,
shortly prior to WWII, which was later adopted by nearly all nations around
the world.

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wpasc
Wasn't travel across great distances commensurately difficult, making such
restrictions unnecessary even if they weren't desired?

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harikb
It was also common for people to randomly get killed, barbarically, when
crossing/migrating to another place uninvited.

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fehyjn
Still don’t understand why I can’t just move to another country... I have a
degree, no criminal records. But I need visas, permits, etc. Why all this
difficulties?

~~~
refurb
I think the poll answers your question. It would be a little bit disruptive if
140M people suddenly moved to the US.

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magila
If we just threw open the flood gates sure, but that's far from the only
option. Simply increasing the immigration quotas gradually year-over-year
would eventually allow an equilibrium to be reached without creating a large
shock to the economy.

~~~
bassman9000
And I bet the imported values would be exactly the same as the ones held by
the current citizens.

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haunter
And they will. I think the current migration crisis in Europe is nothing
compared to when the Sahel will be finally total uninhabitable all those
people will move to Europe. And with the current speed of the global warming I
don't think it's that far away.

~~~
nostromo
This seems inevitable at this point.

Africa is headed for a population crisis. Places like Somalia and Niger have
around 6 or 7 children per woman. These are countries that already import a
lot of food to feed rapidly growing populations. If we have another energy
shock, it's unclear to me who is going to feed all of these babies.

~~~
14
This is what I am waiting for, anxiously too I will ad. How long before we see
the first heat wave kill a million people? Or drought kill several hundred
thousand people in a weeks time. Last year South Africa almost ran out of
water. I really think it will only be then that we realize the extent of our
dire situation and start really acting. What would our government do if there
were 5 million people lined up at the border? Would they shoot them down? I
don’t like to fear monger but the world is a rough place. It is also unclear
to me how we will handle this as it happens.

Edit: right after writing this the very next HN article I come across is
massive locust swarms threatening crops in Africa. Scary

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Blake_Emigro
I've worked in this industry for a while, helping people immigrate to Canada,
and one interesting thing I've experienced are newcomers that don't want their
former peers following them. They left for a different way of life and don't
want the past recreated in their new home.

For myself I tend to agree - I want to help those that believe moving to my
home country will improve their lives, while at the same time want them to
leave some baggage behind. Multiculturalism is great, until it isn't.

~~~
nestorherre
"I've worked in this industry for a while, helping people immigrate to Canada"

You still working in this? Would like to have a chat if possible.

~~~
heffer
Canadian immigration is rather straightforward and all avenues are well
described on the IRCC website. If you still have questions I'd recommend the
ImmigrationCanada and/or IWantOut subreddits. You can get excellent advice
there. If you do your homework and work out the possible avenues applicable to
your personal situation they are more than happy to help.

~~~
Blake_Emigro
You can keep your costs down by doing a lot of your own research, but there
are still shortcuts and pitfalls that you can be made aware of by getting some
professional advice. My recommendation is having a paid consult at the
beginning of your research, and then near the end before submitting an
application. The people of forums can typically only talk about their own
experience based on their own profile / program / timing, which will not be
exactly like yours. I've cleaned up many people's application messes, (I'm not
trying to solicit any business for myself.)

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jermaustin1
First World Problem, I know, but:

I don't understand why I should not be allowed to take a 2 year vacation in
another country without having to leave every 6 months and pray the border
agent doesn't find it suspicious that I keep coming back.

I don't want to take someone's job, or milk the welfare system, and I would be
a net positive to anywhere I decided to vacation (sales tax/VAT, property tax,
hotel tax, income tax from the profits off all the crap I bought to live,
etc).

I'd be happy if I still had to apply for a visa, but the typical 6 month visa
prevents me from easily signing a lease.

~~~
fxtentacle
Because other people that seemed to be like you based on easily measurable
characteristics tried to stay after all.

That said, apart from the US, I wouldn't know any country where a rich German
citizen couldn't get a long-term business or investment visa.

~~~
president
> Because other people that seemed to be like you based on easily measurable
> characteristics tried to stay after all.

Exactly. Like all things, a few bad actors spoil it for the rest of us.

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vinniejames
Seems to be the exception to the rule, it's not a few bad apples. The vast
majority looking to move are not looking for an extended vacation

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jcpsimmons
I wonder if this correlates to the resolution and frequency of social media
use globally. I might be completely happy with my apartment and job in the EU,
but seeing 'ads' for the US on social media every day may begin to chip away
at my contentment through the introduction of a comparison.

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pkaye
> seeing 'ads' for the US on social media every day

What ads are you talking about?

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mcantelon
What some call "American cultural imperialism" is what he/she is likely
talking about.

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fnord77
21% of people in the EU would migrate? Wish they broke this down by country
and where they would go

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avocado4
\- Desire to migrate in Northern America up for the first time

\- U.S. still No. 1 desired destination for potential migrants

\- 18 countries attract two-thirds of all potential migrants worldwide

~~~
turk73
I'm ok with it as long as you come here and integrate, don't take welfare, and
understand our Bill of Rights isn't a suggestion. We're done making
"accommodations" on that stuff.

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aaron695
If you ever want proof HN is not Libertarian, they way it downvotes open
borders shows it is not.

Libertarians don't have to believe open borders work fully but should be open
to talking about it.

It's also something in the future people will judge us for. They will live in
a world where richness is less border based though, so get rose colored
glasses. Like slavery, easy to judge when you don't get to do it.

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orf
Looking at those numbers, isn’t the EU the most desired place to migrate to?
Feels odd to not split the USA into its member states while splitting Europe
up.

How many of those potential migrants want to move to Texas vs Spain?

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notyourwork
An American citizen can freely move to any state in the United States. A
citizen of European countries may or may not be able to freely move to other
European countries without citizenship related changes, visas or other
sponsorship.

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petschge
Within the EU movement if fairly unrestricted and does not require anything
that you listed. Go check
[http://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/147/free-m...](http://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/147/free-
movement-of-persons)

~~~
sp332
Schengen includes some non-EU countries and still excludes a bunch of European
countries.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Schengen_Agreement_La...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Schengen_Agreement_Labelled_Map_2)

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JohnFen
I'd migrate if I could, but given that I'm not extremely wealthy, there aren't
many countries that I'd want to live in that would also take me.

Canada, maybe. I'm looking into that.

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mrits
Bucketing all North America together made this less interesting. I can't help
but think the reasons of migrating from Mexico would not be the same as US or
Canadian citizens.

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foogazi
There’s an entry for Latin America & Caribbean which Mexico is a part of

An instead of North America it says ‘Northern America’ which makes me believe
this refers to just the US & Canada

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jstewartmobile
Why welcome people who run from problems rather than fixing them--especially
when many are of considerable wealth, and are disproportionately responsible
for the unsatisfactory condition of their own countries?

If we shut the door on wealthy Chinese/Indians/Saudis/Nigerians/etc, I'd bet
big money that the condition of those countries would improve rapidly and
substantially.

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evancox100
Old, from 2018

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mcantelon
Lots of people would move into other people's nicer homes if they could too,
but the owners of the homes might take issue with that. Nations are a form of
collective property.

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atemerev
Good. World cultures need more diversity and exposure to each other. I am
Russian who lived in Switzerland, Spain, Denmark, US and Italy. I’ve got tons
of experience and emotions from each of these countries, and I am thankful
that they welcomed me.

~~~
fxtentacle
You might be the exception here because you can read, write, communicate in
English, and handle computers.

A farmer from rural Malawi who cannot write and doesn't speak English would
not be able to integrate into a European countries' economy and, accordingly,
would be a lot less welcome.

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1996
People act in their own selfish interest.

This farmer from rural Malawi who can't communicate in English may not want to
move to Europe, because he would have a bad time there.

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ailideex
I would have a 1,000,000,000.00 USD a year salary if I could. Just saying.

