NorthHawk wrote:As usual, the devil is in the details.
With the merit based scoring system it depends a lot on how much emphasis is put on things like the ability to speak English.
For instance, if the total possible score is 100 and the maximum points for speaking English is 5, then it might not be that big of a deal, but it it's worth 25 points, then it becomes a big obstacle for some otherwise worthy people.
And a merit based system has some advantages if the society is targeting a specific industry or technology.
For instance if there was a big push on nuclear power and there was a shortfall of nuclear engineers, a merit based system could be part of the solution. It's not the only answer, but could be a part of the answer.
Wouldn't that depend on the level of proficiency that is required? A 500 word vocabulary isn't much, just the very basic stuff necessary for emergency situations. Besides, if they're going to be employable, then they are going to have to learn at least some English. Most work places that offer jobs for anything other than farm labor, like my place of work, requires that all successful applicants be able to verbally communicate in English.
But the main thing is that we should be admitting worthy candidates based on some type of objective criteria, not just those that won a random lottery or simply because they have family over here. I'm all for a robust (relative to Trump's proposal) immigration policy, but I want the cream of the crop, those that are going to make good citizens and can pull their own weight.
