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{"id":486,"date":"2014-05-22T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/introducing-the-swap-visa.html"},"modified":"2014-05-22T08:44:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T08:44:00","slug":"introducing-the-swap-visa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/introducing-the-swap-visa.html","title":{"rendered":"Introducing: the Swap Visa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So this is in the category of \u201ca solution in search of a problem,\u201d but I was thinking about immigration earlier, in light of a story that Ann Althouse linked to<\/a> about a woman in an unhappy marriage, in which all her commenters observed, \u201cher husband married her for the green card and she doesn\u2019t see it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s split prospective immigrants into two broad groups: \u00a0those coming to the U.S. to better their lives, because their home country is poor or more repressive than this country; and those coming to the U.S. for a multitude of personal reasons: \u00a0love of a person or of the culture, a different way of life, or a specific opportunity due to a specialized interest. \u00a0In the former case, there generally isn\u2019t much reciprocal immigration: \u00a0no one moves to India to better their standard of living, but in the latter case, there may be as many Americans attracted to, say, German\u2019s Biergarten culture as there are Germans attracted to the American West.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019d like to see a visa\/green card system that recognizes the reciprocality of such rich country-to-rich country immigration. \u00a0Imagine that the US and other similarly-wealthy countries mutually agree to let citizens migrate freely among their countries so long as, within certain tolerances, the exchanges are equal in number. \u00a0No need for individuals to try to fit into the requisite \u201cneeded skills\u201d categories or for employers to prove they couldn\u2019t find a qualified local for the job, and no need for a couple to rush marriage while they\u2019re still getting to know each other. \u00a0(This would also remove the issue of same-sex couples who may not be able to marry in one, or both, of the countries.) <\/p>\n

How do you determine whether a country is \u201crich enough\u201d to qualify for a Swap Visa arrangement? \u00a0I suppose any country for which the exchanges are, over time, mutual, would fit the bill. <\/p>\n

Is it needed? \u00a0Do people suffer greatly due to the lack of such a system. \u00a0No, of course not \u2013but I suspect that it would benefit a meaningful number of people and contribute to an overall principle of free movement of peoples, so why not?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"