Legal immigrants to the US - which countries would you prefer them to come from?

[Gatsby]

Any of those named countries would be fine. Immigrants from those nations should have no trouble assimilating into American culture.

I'm especially supportive of recruiting skilled immigrants from Russia, China, and Iran as a form of realpolitik. We can brain-drain the top talent of our rivals, and we should.

 

[Nickyjo]

If someone is looking to escape oppression in Chile, wouldn't they have escaped that by the time they get to Mexico?

Presumably, countries in their journey could offer asylum. What’s your point? A person under US law is not disqualified from obtaining asylum if they passed through other countries. If you deny them, where do you deport them to?

 

[Nickyjo]

Of course. The same goes for all the people coming through Mexico to our country. The minute they cross into Mexico they are no longer being oppressed by their government. Upon crossing the border of Mexico if they were truly seeking asylum they should have immediately applied for asylum. Clearly they are not seeking asylum but lying in an attempt to circumvent our immigration laws. Anyone with any intelligence can see this. But what is really pathetic about all this is the fact that all the law abiding people all over the world who have been waiting for decades to legally come to this country and are being refused in favor of these lying scum. We are turning away decent people in favor of sneaky underhanded lying scum.

The law says they are eligible to apply for asylum. They can be rejected if they were “firmly resettled” in a third country. But the question remains as to what you do with them? Our treaty obligations prohibit us from returning them to danger. I worked with “these lying scum” for years. Sort of like the people Emma Lazarus spoke about.

But really, do you think that people running say, from drug gangs connected to the government are like Bolshoi ballet dancers from Russia, sophisticated enough to know that all they have to do is apply for asylum and get it. Get real. They’ve paid money to a smuggler who can’t be counted on to tell them the truth. How do you know that they know that they are safe in Mexico? How do you know that that are safe in Mexico? Do you specialize in “blaming the victim” politics?

 

[DataPoint]

I prefer they come from New Scandanavia in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas.

 

[Ren]

I care more that they came through the legal immigration process than which country they came from.

Great answer.

 

[HangLow]

I would prefer new immigrants to the US to be:

"your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,"​

Because, as per American values:

"Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."​

-----Statue of Liberty.
Why do conservatives hate uniquely American values?