An article in the NY Times points to the other side, but seldom heard part of the debate: selective immigration. As I pointed out before, the immigration debate when it comes to jobs that pay poorly is different than the one for high-skilled positions: Congress wants to raise the quota for immigrant nurses. This action hurts poor countries in many ways that are better explained in the article. But there’s more. There are enough qualified applicants for nursing positions in this country, but not enough people willing to accept the lousy pay to teach them. Hence, our misguided one-sided, every nation must bow to us attitude not only drains much needed asssitance in places where it is needed, it also prevents willing participants here from taking jobs that would help the economy and their local communities.

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems!