A recent subscription-only Economist.com article (here
is the full version on a different page) highlights the need for a
reform of the American immigration law.

The Namesake is a moving study of the human side of immigration, but it
is also a success story. Ganguli snags an academic job, fathers two
perfect children, moves to the suburbs and acquires an Entourage of
Bengali friends. His son, who is lumbered with the name Gogol Ganguli,
studies architecture at Yale and acquires an all-American girlfriend --
rich, blond and well connected.

Ganguli is part of a huge army of immigrants who have brought their
brains and enthusiasm to the United States, not just Indians and
Pakistanis but also Chinese, Koreans and Europeans.

America's high-tech industries are powered by foreign brains. Almost a
third of Silicon Valley start-ups since 1995 were founded by Indians or
Chinese. They also power its great universities, particularly the
science departments. About 40 per cent of people earning PhDs in
computer science and engineering are foreign born.

While there are worse laws in the world (and surely worse implemented
ones) America knows the value of foreign brains all too good. However
there are several issues that have tangled the immigration issue.

Illegal immigration is a political hot topic - where it's easy to win
votes by complaining about 'the job stealing foreigners'. However the
economic benefits of illegal and legal immigrants is undisputed by
economists and mostly even by law makers.

I myself have been through the various immigration procedures in the
last years and while I must say it's not easy - it's a fair system. As
most bureaucratic systems it works well as long as you fit in one of the
main visa and green card stereotypes. If not you have to fight for your
future. There are many different categories that all have there very
specific prerequisites.

It is a bit 'unfortunate' that the 9/11 attacks originated from
foreigners. The Patriot Act and later legislation has therefore focused
on making 'the borders secure'. Europe had the opposite experience -
most attackers lived (or were born) in Europe. Whatever that says about
the societies - it has played a big role on how Europe and the US coped
with the new challenge. Judging from my experience once you are in the
US there is very little confrontation with the government (if you plan
to avoid it) which contrasts with Europe where you are usually under a
more stringent overview by your fellow goverment.

Therefore the US has focused much on the outer danger and on my view has
overdone things a little. The Bush administration has plans to reform
the immigration laws before the end of the term - and it would much good
with that. Not just because 11 million 'illegal aliens' would become tax
payers - also to make sure America stays the 'place to go' for talented
young people in the world.

Here are my specific suggestions for such a reform:

- For each country that has a visa waiver agreement right now - abolish
the need for working visa or green cards - citizens of these countries
should be automatically allowed to work in the US or in Europe

- Streamline visa categories (i.e. to 5) and simplify requirements

- Use a realistic quota for all visa categories (i.e. 500k for H1B and 2
Million for a guest worker visa)

- Every country that signs a free trade agreement with the US should get
a higher quota for potential immigrants than non FTA countries

- Share intelligence and data about future immigrants (i.e. local credit
history) from their home country