From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Thu Jul 15 2004 - 04:11:53 BST
Jon,
> Let me see if I understand you correctly.
I don't think you do.
First and foremost, the English
> language is the main reason most people legally immigrate to America.
I did not say this, I said this is one of many factors.
It's wrong
> (and misleading) to suggest personal freedom (such as religious freedom) has
> anything to do with it.
I did not say this, I said that personal freedom (such as religious freedom) is
one reason people from many less free countries immigrate to America, Canada,
Denmark or Germany.
If this "implies" anything, it should be that America is not the "sole" shining
light to where everyone from around the globe flocks to.
Furthermore, as long as you don't factor in certain
> elements of reality, such as the size, laws, and languages of Denmark and
> Germany, the number of legal immigrants coming into those nations would
handily
> surpass the number coming into America.
I didn't say this, I'm pointing out that these are factors influencing global
emmigration.
I'm pointing out that for a country its size, Denmark receives a lot of
immigration each year. What, you think these are just the leftovers from what
America turns down?
In other words, more people would
> legally immigrate to Denmark and Germany if these two nations were more like
> America?
>
I did not say this, I'm saying (again) that immigration is strong NOW in Canada,
Denmark and Germany. That these three countries get a significant amount of
immigration requests each year.
If the statistics don't fit into a "everyone is flocking to America" belief, for
that I apologize.
How do you account for Germany taking nearly the same number of legal immigrants
back as far as I could find in a quick search (1991) as America? A little less,
but considering the huge size difference, and that German is not as widespread
as English, don't you think that's impressive? Do you think these are all
people who yearned to come to America, but had to settle for a second-rate
socialist country like Germany?
Or could it be that maybe, just maybe, other countries are desirable immigration
destinations for just as many people as come to the USA?
> As far as foreigners attending American Universities, once again the English
> language is the main reason they attend.
Sigh, no, I did not say this. Surely you must realize that to study somewhere at
the University level, you must have a degree of fluency with the language.
English is a global language, and so Universities in English speaking countries
have a larger "lingual" audience to pull from.
English is the single most
> important motivating factor.
Show me where I said this? This is getting tedious....
Prestige and Quality of American education is less of an
> incentive than the English language.
And show me where I said this?....
The second most important factor is
> because foreigners have a great desire to experience diversity (could it be
> because America is more diverse than other nations?).
Or this?... "second most important factor"? I said it is one, and you can't
ignore things like this when you paint your "everyone just wants to come to
America and America only because we are the best" picture.
Many "foreigners", many, you can search for the statistics if you're truly
interested, "flock" to European Universities as well. You just don't see the
out-flocking "from" America, and one factor for this is a complete de-valueing
of "education abroad experience", another is that America is a monolingual
nation. How many Americans do you know that are fluent in another language?
What about two others? Now ask your European friends how many languages they
speak?
Sure they come to America, but they go to prestigious and Quality Educational
Universities in Germany, Denmark and Canada too. This is my point.
But you know what, you check the statistics if you're really interested...
> Anyway, you've got me thinking. I look forward to your post about health
> care.
You have wondering what the value would be? I'll sleep on it...
Arlo
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Jul 15 2004 - 04:13:52 BST