For 32 years, the minds of people around the world have been excited by the news of the drawing of 55,000 documents that allow you to legally live in the United States. In the public consciousness, this document is called a green card, but in fact they are correctly called diversification cards - Divercity Card.
Every year, more than five million people around the world look for opportunities to obtain this document. Why this is necessary for residents of Hungary, Ukraine or Burkina Faso, it is clear. But why is this for the Americans themselves, why is the initiative going to be put under the knife all the time and why is it not canceled? Let's find out.
What is a green card?
It is a tool that allows a foreign national to live and work for ten years in the United States. This is a kind of permanent residence permit, thanks to which for ten years a citizen can stay in America with family members, work, receive medical insurance and social insurance. Moreover, when the card ends, it can be extended.
Citizens of which countries are green cards available?
Drawings of cards are held between the inhabitants of countries that have been elected by the US State Department as meeting certain criteria. In particular, this year, Brazil and Canada, India and China, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Vietnam and another dozen countries were excluded from the number of countries whose citizens are allowed to participate in the lottery. The reason is excessive activity in past years, when these countries accounted for more than half of the lottery participants.
The visas proposed for distribution are divided between states in direct proportion to the number of applications submitted, and a reduction factor is applied to this number, taking into account the available migration. Applications should be submitted on the official website of the program (all sorts of intermediary agents do nothing and can not increase the chances of success, so there is no point in paying for their services). In 2020, for example, 13 million people took part in the lottery.
Why was the "Green Card" introduced?
In its current form, this operation has been carried out since 1990, when the rules of the lottery were enshrined at the legislative level by the Migration Act, signed by George H.W. Bush. Then the initiative received the support of both houses of Congress, and among the apologists were both Democrats and Republicans.
The idea was simple: such an interesting way of migration would increase ethnic and cultural diversity by stimulating migration from different countries. What for?
- Increasing competitiveness of the labor market
Many economists give the lottery the most positive assessments, because it has a positive effect on the economic stability of the United States, increasing the chances of successful competition in the global market by luring specialists from abroad to America.
First of all, the total number of workers is growing, which increases the generated profits and allows American companies to get large segments of the market. Secondly, the lottery usually involves quite successful people who, nevertheless, have lower (compared to US citizens) salary expectations, which increases the salary of US citizens in the same positions.
- Innovation
As already mentioned, migrants from economically, socially and technologically developed countries bring their academic degrees, university education, inventions and know-how, and if none of this is the case, then skilled workers, which contributes to the acceleration of scientific and technological progress and the introduction of innovative practices.
- Reducing crime
The stereotype of migration as a crime factor is not so wrong. Traditional migration to the United States increases the crime rate, but the option with a green card, on the contrary, helps to reduce criminalization and improve statistics, despite the fact that individual cardholders turn out to be villains.
This, in turn, gives rise to calls to abolish the lottery as such.
Why do they want to cancel this initiative?
Since 2005, proposals to abolish the lottery have sounded with enviable regularity. The first reason is serious and especially serious crimes organized and committed by people with a diversification map. The second is numerous cases of fraudulent transactions.
It regularly turns out that a person who received a green card or entered the United States thanks to this document turns out to be a criminal. Many Islamic fundamental terrorists and activists have entered the U.S. through marriages, fictitious or real, and this tool. According to statistics, despite the general decrease in the crime rate due to the arrival of migrants, the chance of catching an increase in the number of "terrorists" in the accountable territory is minimally growing. However, the pros prevail – even Donald Trump, a born populist populist, was forced to abandon the idea of abolishing the lottery.
The second difficulty is associated with a large number of cases of fraudulent activities, most often associated with intermediaries. They either filled out questionnaires so that the recipient could send them on his own behalf, or simply hid with the money of customers, which gave rise to scandals. There have been cases of registration of people without their will for the purpose of subsequent resale to interested parties.
To overcome these trends, it is necessary to introduce new checks, as well as to increase the level of protection of personal data of users, algorithms for selecting winners recognized as worthy of a residence permit, and massive information campaigns explaining the rules of the lottery and possible restrictions.
Would you like to win a green card and live in the UNITED STATES for a couple of years?
