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Immigration Policy : A Desirable Principle For Establishing Immigration Criteria Essay

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Throughout American history, immigration policy, as Marcelo Suárez-Orozco notes, has been driven by the concern of whether or not newly admitted immigrants “would [be able to] contribute to the American project.” Current US immigration regulations, most notably, the criteria for Green Card eligibility established by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), were drafted with this same fear in mind, and are based off of two principles that may be summarized as: family unification and talent attraction. Though there is much to be said on the topic of family unification, and the value of the family unit itself is a point of contention, for the sake of evaluating immigration criteria, this paper will take for granted that family unification is a desirable principle for establishing immigration criteria. Accordingly, the focus of this paper will be on the principle of talent attraction in immigration policy, the specifics of which are laid out by the INA as follows: First Preference: Priority Workers, including aliens with extraordinary abilities, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers Second Preference: Members of professions holding an advanced degree or persons of exceptional ability Third Preference: Skilled Workers, professionals and other qualified workers Fourth Preference: Employment creation immigrants (investors or entrepreneurs)
These criteria are geared toward allowing only the most talented and

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