Tuesday, November 12, 2013
How To Limit Immigration, Without Racial Quotas And In The National Interest
"IN TIMES of austerity, travel documents come cheap. Portugal is the latest of several European countries to start selling visas to foreign investors; others are slashing their prices. These schemes grant the right to live and travel within the European Union. A passport often follows a few years later.
Christian Kälin of Henley & Partners, a consultancy, says Portugal’s Golden Residence Permit is the “most attractive in Europe”. It needs investment of €1m ($1.3m) in financial assets over five years, €500,000 in property or the creation of ten jobs. Spain is mulling a “golden visa” at the same price. Ireland asks for a donation or investment of €500,000 (it cut this from €1m in July).
Five countries will provide the right kind of investors with passports particularly swiftly. Two are in the EU: Austria and Cyprus, where the cash-strapped government has just cut its price from €10m to €2.5m. The others are Caribbean: St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica. Their passports bring not just camouflage but also some handy visa-free travel."
Is there anything wrong with this.
In my opinion only that the citizenship it sells is for the entire EU but the selling is done by individual countries.
I can't see anything wrong with the principle indeed why not take it further. UKIP policy is to permanently allow net immigration of 50,000 a year, but we want to select for the skilled and those likely to be net contributors to the economy.
Why not auction off these 50,000 citizenships? The people buying them are highly unlikely to be welfare dependents. They are likely to have some substantial economic talent, even if it is only salesmanship.
I might add they have to pass an IQ test putting them half a standard deviation above average IQ (ie 106) but that may just be me. However it would be in the genetic national interest without having any racial connotations that anybody who does not accept any IQ differences between races could object to. And obviously it could not include the right to bring in other family members for free.
Since the more of something you have for sale the lower the price you have to accept I don't think we would get as much as the $250,000 (£150,000) people pay to become citizens of Antigua but I would expect it would settle at between £50K - £100K. If we make the IQ qualification I suggest the price would automatically be lower.
In libertarian terms it also solves an ideological problem. Most libertarians have never accepted citizenship as a property and thus been dubious about any limits on immigration but if people are buying and selling it then, by their definition, it is property and fits the theory.
What to do with the £2.5 - 5 billion?
I suggest investing the lot in the Aquarius floating island concept developed by the Millenial Foundation and powered by ocean thermal power (OTEC). Prices are not fully determined but should come in at no more than £2 bn per island with a potential population of 100,000. such islands can, incidentally, provide enough algae grown high protein food to each feed millions of people and as previously described, building them would provide dockyard employment.
Christian Kälin of Henley & Partners, a consultancy, says Portugal’s Golden Residence Permit is the “most attractive in Europe”. It needs investment of €1m ($1.3m) in financial assets over five years, €500,000 in property or the creation of ten jobs. Spain is mulling a “golden visa” at the same price. Ireland asks for a donation or investment of €500,000 (it cut this from €1m in July).
Five countries will provide the right kind of investors with passports particularly swiftly. Two are in the EU: Austria and Cyprus, where the cash-strapped government has just cut its price from €10m to €2.5m. The others are Caribbean: St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica. Their passports bring not just camouflage but also some handy visa-free travel."
Is there anything wrong with this.
In my opinion only that the citizenship it sells is for the entire EU but the selling is done by individual countries.
I can't see anything wrong with the principle indeed why not take it further. UKIP policy is to permanently allow net immigration of 50,000 a year, but we want to select for the skilled and those likely to be net contributors to the economy.
Why not auction off these 50,000 citizenships? The people buying them are highly unlikely to be welfare dependents. They are likely to have some substantial economic talent, even if it is only salesmanship.
I might add they have to pass an IQ test putting them half a standard deviation above average IQ (ie 106) but that may just be me. However it would be in the genetic national interest without having any racial connotations that anybody who does not accept any IQ differences between races could object to. And obviously it could not include the right to bring in other family members for free.
Since the more of something you have for sale the lower the price you have to accept I don't think we would get as much as the $250,000 (£150,000) people pay to become citizens of Antigua but I would expect it would settle at between £50K - £100K. If we make the IQ qualification I suggest the price would automatically be lower.
In libertarian terms it also solves an ideological problem. Most libertarians have never accepted citizenship as a property and thus been dubious about any limits on immigration but if people are buying and selling it then, by their definition, it is property and fits the theory.
What to do with the £2.5 - 5 billion?
I suggest investing the lot in the Aquarius floating island concept developed by the Millenial Foundation and powered by ocean thermal power (OTEC). Prices are not fully determined but should come in at no more than £2 bn per island with a potential population of 100,000. such islands can, incidentally, provide enough algae grown high protein food to each feed millions of people and as previously described, building them would provide dockyard employment.
Labels: British politics, Fixing the economy, Science/technology
