[Vision2020] Some Refugee and New Citizen Facts for Jeff Harkins

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Hi Jeff,

I simply do not see any relevant connection between immigration and the unemployment and budget deficit figures that I cited to show that those countries who tax more spend more successfully for human and infrastructure capital.  I can see the argument from the standpoint of social problems such as crime and teen births, but not for the points that I made.

But even if I grant you the connection, your argument fails.  Here are the figures for new citizens per capita from Nationamaster.com and my favorite countries are among the top 13:

	Canada:	6.54169 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 2  	Belgium:	5.9919 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 3  	Sweden:	4.83226 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 4  	Switzerland:	3.83229 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 5  	Australia:	3.52414 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 6  	Denmark:	3.46097 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 7  	Netherlands:	3.04748 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 8  	United States:	3.03651 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 9  	Austria:	3.0055 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 10  	France:	2.47296 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 11  	Germany:	2.26492 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 12  	Norway:	2.06836 thousand per 1 million p 	
#	 13  	United Kingdom:	1.36 thousand per 1 million p 	

A much more telling statistic is how many refugees countries take in. Since 2003 Sweden has taken in over 70,000 Iraqis (fed, clothed, schooled, job trained, and taught Swedish)and we, the ones who started the unnecessary war, have taken in 54,000.  Sweden has 9 million people and we have 308 million.  Go figure on the compassion scale.

Here are the figures from Nationmaster for refugees per capita.  The top ten are Asia countries and the U.S. is #65.
  	
#	 11  	Norway:	 9,308.07 per 1 million people 	2005 	
#	 12  	Uganda:	 8,927.469 per 1 million people 	2005 	
#	 13  	Germany:	 8,488.191 per 1 million people 	2005 	
#	 14  	Sweden:	 8,301.714 per 1 million people 	2005 	
#	 15  	Denmark:	 8,193.165 per 1 million people 	2005 	
#	 16  	Kenya:	 7,335.155 per 1 million people 	2005 	
#	 17  	Netherlands:	 7,242.04 per 1 million people 	2005 

My countries also give the most foreign aid per capita as well.  They are certainly not as homogeneous you and others think they are.

Happy Epiphany,

Nick