Immigration is a key issue in many developed countries and in the United States a candidate for President could win or lose because of his stance on the subject. With millions of people traveling abroad these days it would seem prudent to develop an agreement such as the GAMP, but the ideas put forth by Mr. Straubhaar are fraught with danger.
Taxing immigration to prevent ‘The Brain Drain’ seems at first thought to be a good idea, but when a closer look is taken the problems are many. First, what if a migrant was unable to pay this ‘migration tax’? Would they just give up and stay in their home country? I think not! A tax would likely lead to an increase in the amount of illegal immigration. Secondly, how would an international body impose such a tax? If this body were created it would have to be large and operate in every country participating. Lastly, I don’t think governments of the world would like to have an international body imposing taxes on their citizens. They would like to tax them themselves.
Another area I strongly disagree with Mr. Straubhaar is that of the amount of immigration that happens from south to north. I’m not sure if the author has read the statistics or not, but there are 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States alone. That means 1 out of every 25 people living in the United States are free riding. That does not seem like ‘extremely exaggerated fears’.
A General Agreement on Movements of People should not be a global agreement. Rather, such an agreement should be negotiated between two countries on a bilateral basis. A nation should be able to act in its own interest and to the benefit of its own people. If one nation is experiencing a ‘brain drain’ then it should find alternative ways to keep its brightest at home. To tax a country for providing immigrants with a better opportunity seems a little absurd. The rush to regulate every aspect of the global economy through global institutions needs to slow and in my opinion stop altogether.
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