From: Arlo Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 14 2004 - 18:21:21 BST
Jon,
>It's all about balance. There must be some Quality-related reason that
>people from all over the world come to the United States, rather than
>Denmark, for important medical procedures. The American health care system
>somehow has a good reputation around the world. I'd be willing to bet that
>if the US health care system had been socialized long, long ago (like back
>in the 1940s) America would not be "the last best hope" for people who
>need the best health care. Would you agree?
>
>As for education, you'll notice the same phenomena. People from all over
>the world come here for literally "the best" education in the world. So
>there must be something of very high Quality about it.
>
>And most of all, people from all over the world still dream about one day
>coming to the United States. Hatred for the West has been overblown by the
>media--if one country comes closest to utopia on earth in the hearts and
>minds of people all across the globe, it's still America. (Not the
>socialist-minded intellectuals, or the religious zealots, but the average
>people with dreams deep in their hearts of a kind Dynamic Freedom that
>they've never experienced--whatEVER the reason is, as Pirsig says, there
>is SOMETHING mysteriously dynamic about America that other nations don't
>have. America is like a dream girl.)
Before I answer, I want to make clear (to avoid dichotomizing this) that I
am NOT saying Denmark = All Good, America = All Bad. Just so we have that
clear...
Let me try to disentangle several things here.
First, No one is denying that the American culture is not more free than in
many other nations. But I don't think you can claim that our immigration is
the result of being "best" in all ways. First, English has evolved, through
American hegemony and globalization, into much more a world language than,
say, Danish. As a result, familiarity with the language fuels a lot of
immigration when fleeing to a "western" country.
Plus, legal immigration to Denmark and other countries (except for applying
for asylum) is actually more difficult that getting into the US, simply
because those countries are smaller. But don't forget that in the last five
years, nearly a quarter of a million people legally immigrated to Denmark.
That's impressive for it's size. Canada is somewhere around 200,000 legal
immigrants a year.
Germany has let in nearly a million legal immigrants a year, very close to
the number legally allowed into the US. So I don't think you accurately
paint the picture that "they're coming to America".
Second, with the Universities I think you are seeing two phenomena. One, is
as I've stated above, ESL as a result of hegemony makes it more likely that
students will choose English language countries as there point of study.
Two, like above it paints in inaccurate picture. The University of Bonn has
nearly 1/4 of its students from abroad. Or that Danish "Public statistics
show that the number of foreign students coming to Denmark to study at
Danish universities is now higher than the number of Danish students going
abroad." I could find statistics from other Unis, but you'd see the same
thing. The European Universities are just as crowded with foreign students
as here in the US. But I do think you need to consider that "studying
abroad" is highly valued in many European cultures, not because "American"
education is better, but because diversity and exposure is valued. I have a
friend who works for the German firm Virbraccoustic, who studied a year for
his PhD at Bowling Green University. The reason, as he said to me, was that
his vitae was stronger showing studying abroad than simply studying
exclusively in Germany. You'd be hard pressed to find that attitude in the
American dialogue.
I'll get to health care later, in another post.
Arlo
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