[_andromeda_]

>Are you aware of how large America's population is, and how small 50,000 people is relative to the U.S. and to the size of normal annual immigration?

That is not the point. I'm simply stating that lately America has been less strict with the caliber of immigrants allowed in and the DV program best exemplifies it.

[danso]

Yes, it is the point. You're claiming that America's DV program is emblematic of how standards have fallen, as if there were a golden age in American immigration. You talk about how America was built by intelligent hard-working immigrants. Yes, it was, but those immigrants wouldn't have been let in with your mentality. How many of the millions of Italian and Irish immigrants during the late 19th century were college graduates? My understanding is that most of them arrived on American shores as extremely poor. Same with the Chinese during that time. Since you aren't American, maybe you weren't aware that one of America's golden ages was in the 1940s and 1950s, and those late 19th century immigrants would have played a large part in that.

Similarly, war refugees from the 1970s through the 1980s were not particularly high "caliber", and certainly not self-sufficient enough to survive without hundreds of millions in American government aid, nevermind the generosity of American families and churches in providing sponsorship.

Again, you're not from America, so maybe it's hard to understand that America is lucky enough to have the resources and geographical placement so that immigration can be a net benefit rather than a zero-sum drag on society. You seem to think that there is no regulation of immigration at all, when in fact, it has been the subject of several laws that specify the annual composition and allowance, and these are things based on the study of history and economic realities. And also, observations that American families are happier when they've been reunited, which is why family-based visas are a large part of the annual allocation [0]

[0] https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/family/f...