| | | | The Folly of the GOP's Immigration Bill | | Supporters of a new Senate bill that aims to slash legal immigration by half over the next decade say that it will help create a skills-based economy. "[B]ut nothing could be further from the truth," argues the Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh.
"President Trump stated that he wanted to create a merit or skills-based immigration system like in Canada or Australia, but the Cotton-Perdue bill would not come close to achieving that goal. The immigration systems in Canada and Australia do emphasize skilled immigrants over family members but their immigration systems allow in far more immigrants, as a percentage of the population in both countries, than the United States," Nowrasteh writes.
"New immigrants to Canada who arrived in 2013 were equal to 0.74 percent of that country's population. New immigrants to Australia in 2013 were equal to a whopping 1.1 percent of their population. By contrast, immigrants to the United States in the same year equaled just 0.31 percent of our population. The only OECD countries that allow in fewer immigrants relative to their populations than the United States are Portugal, Korea, Mexico, and Japan."
| | Actually, Tillerson Has a Point About Democracy | | Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has come in for heavy criticism following reports suggesting that he intends to downplay U.S. promotion of democracy around the world. But he might have a point, argues Leonid Bershidsky for Bloomberg View. Instead, the private sector, not the government, might be the best tool for promoting American values.
"Arguably, the U.S. has always been better at projecting soft power through its private sector than through government channels. Hollywood, the music and tech industries, the lively and masterful media provide the shining examples everyone wants to imitate. Their success comes bundled with American values, such as a broader freedom of speech than in most other countries, openness to diversity, economic liberty, the constant quest for the next new thing," Bershidsky says.
"Tax breaks for expanding international reporting networks and starting foreign publications would work far better than direct investment in counterpropaganda, which is, essentially, state propaganda as well. An African journalist with experience stringing for a U.S. publication is worth a dozen state-funded PR projects: The website he will set up some day will do an honest, compelling job promoting democratic, humanist values."
| | China's Censors: Force-Feeding the Love | | | China's government has been perfecting a different approach to stifling online dissent, writes Sean Illing for Vox, citing a new study. Gone are the days of simply deterring dissent through punishment. Instead, officials have been flooding the web with positive news.
"This has allowed the Chinese government to manipulate citizens without appearing to do so. It permits just enough criticism to maintain the illusion of dissent and only acts overtly when fears of mass protest or collective action arise," Illing says.
From one of the study's authors: "We had always thought that the purpose of propaganda was to argue against or undermine critics of the regime, or to simply persuade people that the critics were wrong. But what we found is that the Chinese government doesn't bother with any of that.
"Instead, the content of their propaganda is what we call 'cheerleading' content. Basically, they flood the web with overwhelmingly positive content about China's politics and culture and history. What it amounts to is a sprawling distraction campaign rather than an attempt to sell a set of policies or defend the policies of the regime." | | Is Rouhani Destined to Disappoint? | | As Iran's Hassan Rouhani gets ready for his second inauguration, it is increasingly clear that the reformist president is being hemmed in by hardliners, writes Thomas Erdbrink in the New York Times. Fears that he will not fulfill a pledge to include female and younger politicians in his cabinet offer just one example.
"[A]lthough all the positions are not yet filled, it looks like the ministers will be a delicate mix of older technocrats, don't-rock-the-boat moderates and even some hard-liners. Reformists are now saying the 18 slots will all be filled by men, dashing hopes built up during Mr. Rouhani's campaign," Erdbrink says.
"The deeper involvement of [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei in the cabinet picks comes amid resistance from hard-liners to nearly every move Mr. Rouhani has made since his re-election in May.
"The supreme leader himself blasted the president over his cultural policies, saying that his government is too lenient toward what Mr. Khamenei calls 'Westernization.' Clerics blasted Mr. Rouhani's signing of a multibillion-dollar deal with the French oil company Total, saying he should be investing in the nuclear program instead."
| | America's Wars Becoming a Family Affair | | America's wars are increasingly becoming a family affair. That's bad for a country whose citizens are becoming more detached from the trauma of conflict, suggests Amy Schafer for Slate.
"About 61 percent of Americans have a familial connection to service, but only 33 percent of Americans under the age of 30 share that connection. In a government self-described as 'by the people, for the people,' fewer people than ever are interacting with those in uniform, and very few choose to serve," Schafer says.
"The United States has been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than 15 years. There have been calls recently to put 'boots on the ground' in Syria. Should the situation on the Korean peninsula deteriorate rapidly, there are already tens of thousands of U.S. troops already on the ground who may be in harm's way. Yet, for the vast majority of American society, these deployments are an abstraction. Most Americans won't fight in those conflicts and don't know anyone who will."
| | Don't Be Fooled By Germany's Calm | | Don't be fooled by what looks likely to be a comfortable reelection for Chancellor Angela Merkel. From geopolitics to the economy, Germany is facing wrenching changes that may require tough, divisive decisions from the country's leaders, The Economist's Charlemagne columnist writes.
Not only does Germany risk falling behind its economic peers with a low investment rate and a "conservative attitude to certain kinds of new technologies."
"The fabric of German society is also in flux," The Economist says. "The work of integrating the 1.2 million refugees who arrived during 2015 and 2016 is still at an early stage. Yet the country is not really debating how it should go about the job. The left avoids the subject, while the right proposes simply to stamp a traditional German identity on the newcomers. Few people are hashing out a more realistic vision for a hybrid, melting-pot form of Germanness. Meanwhile, as German society has grown more fluid and international, it has become harder to police. Recent terror attacks in Berlin and Hamburg, both committed by migrants who should have been deported but slipped through gaps in the system, have exposed serious security failings. That poses urgent questions in a country that is, for historical reasons, neuralgic about state surveillance." | | | | | | |
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