• queermunist she/her
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    707 months ago

    Immigration absolutely helps the US economy, because it parasitically siphons all the skilled workers out of other countries that it underdevelops and hoards their labor for itself.

    People think remittances help underdeveloped countries, but labor is the superior of capital, losing that skilled labor is never worth the paltry sums that get sent back home. It’s just another shape that imperialism takes.

    • BarqsHasBite
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      7 months ago

      In Canada we heavily base immigration on education. So we’re siphoning off the best educated of other countries. I mean this is just fucking those countries.

      • Dessalines
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        97 months ago

        That’s truly one of the worst things about brain drain / educated people moving to the imperial core countries for the high salaries. Global south countries really need educated young people helping to solve their own problems, and Canada and the US rip out their heart and soul.

        At least in tech / programming, a good chunk of us are devoting most of our labor time to not just wasteful things, but actively harmful things, like trying to get people to click on ads, or increasing viral engagement.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness
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          67 months ago

          I mean tbf (at least in my case as an Egyptian) it’s not just the high salaries. Maybe Egypt is an extreme case but this country just has no future. The regime isn’t just dictatorial; it’s also dumb. There’s almost no money going to scientific research, the system as a whole was outdated 50 years ago, the military is monopolizing everything and undercutting the market because they can use slave conscript labor and don’t pay taxes, etc etc. I’m firmly of the opinion that this is at least partially caused by Britain’s unwillingness to fully decolonize in the 1920s and their godawful decolonization in the 1950s, but the fact remains that these countries have a duty to their people that they’re not fulfilling, and that’s why brain drain happens.

          As a living example of said brain drain, salaries were near the bottom of my priority list when I made the decision. I was more concerned about living somewhere where I don’t need to worry about being arrested because I said my opinion on the internet (or even just complained about prices) or because I do my prayers at the mosque (I was actually told by my mother to not go to the mosque all the time because I might get arrested. It’s that bad). Below that were things like a sane administration that actually cares about things being even just barely functional, a decent education system and academia and the ability to have confidence that the country will actually exist in 20 years. Living in a wildly different country (especially as a Muslim in Japan as is my case (halal food is a pain to get here)) is such a pain you couldn’t pay me to do it, but it’s hard to turn down actually getting to have a future.

          What I wanna say is that it’s not just the Global South being undercut by the West; many Global South countries are failing at fulfilling their responsibility towards their constituents, and that’s why they’re leaving. Now how much the West was involved in creating this situation is another story, but you can’t reduce it to just high salaries. Global South governments, as a rule, aren’t interesting in solving their own problems. That’s why the problem solvers go solve Western rich people’s problems.

          • queermunist she/her
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            57 months ago

            Egypt is also a useful case study, because the US props up its shitty government. That’s also part of how the Global South is underdeveloped, it’s a multifaceted machine that sucks out everyone who can help make the country better and gives support and resources to the people making it worse. It’s not just legacy from the 20’s and 50’s, this is an ongoing problem that is created by imperialism.

            Also when a Global South government tries to solve its problems, such as through nationalizing resources or land reform, the US buries them under sanctions and attempts to make a regime change. This, too, is part of how imperialism underdevelops the Global South.

      • @TropicalDingdong
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        37 months ago

        I mean that’s the whole point of the US higher education system, excepting the Republicans (with the help of Democrats) broke the parts of our immigration system that is supposed to take advantage of educating the world.

    • @TheControlled
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      47 months ago

      Did you just say people moving to the US for a better life are a part of imperialism?

      • queermunist she/her
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        137 months ago

        Don’t misunderstand, the people moving to the US are blameless. Imperialism works by siphoning up all of the skilled labor around the world for itself in order to make life better for people within the imperial core, and this is part of how the imperial nations underdevelop other countries. People get educations in their home countries (often at the government’s expense) and then they take that education out of the country to put it to use in the US (or France or Canada etc). They’re just going where the jobs are, though, that’s not their fault at all.

    • @Shard
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      47 months ago

      Except where there’s little opportunity to utilize the highly skilled labor. They are going abroad anyway to find job opportunities befitting of their skill set and the highest bidder. Doesn’t matter if the US or EU took them, they’re leaving because the local opportunity doesn’t exist.

      • queermunist she/her
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        67 months ago

        Yes, and the people who could develop that local opportunity aren’t there. They all leave as soon as they can.

        That’s why I said they’re underdeveloped countries. They’re not “developing” in truth, but are being kept from becoming developed. How do you think that happens? In part it happens because of the IMF giving predatory loans and then imposing austerity on the people when the government can’t pay their loans back, but it also happens because labor is the superior of capital and these countries are losing skilled labor.

        I am not blaming them for leaving their countries. I am blaming underdevelopment, which is a product of imperialism.