A Euro heads-up to U.S. immigration policy

Eurozone countries that have tighter skill-restrictive immigration policies actually end up with a less skilled mix of immigrants than countries with more open immigration.

For example, 45 percent of Ireland’s foreign-born residents and 34 percent of Britain’s have a university degree, compared with only 19 percent in Germany and 11 percent in Italy.

A Fistful of Euros, the best left-of-center overview blog of European issues I know of, has its overview of this paradox. As AFOE notes, there’s enough variation among Eurozone countries in immigration policies that an answer to this paradox may ultimately spit itself out.

Is it an English-language issue? Spain is getting more immigrants from Latin America, while both the UK and Ireland are getting an influx from current and former Commonwealth countries.

For the nonce, though, it seems clear the next president of the U.S. needs to lighten up on the drastic post-9/11 tightening of immigration.

Of course, as one commenter to the AFOE piece notes, Americans don’t even have to look across the pond: Canada has both looser immigration standards and, arguably, less xenophobia than the U.S.