[hot_gril]

Are you saying it's harder to get Canadian citizenship, and that's the only reason people go to the US instead? A lot of my college friends were Chinese-Canadian-Americans alleging that Canada was just their stepping stone to the US, but that's only my experience.

[TMWNN]

> A lot of my college friends where Chinese-Canadian-Americans alleging that Canada was just their stepping stone to the US.

Basically, yes. According to the Canadian government <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2010002/article/11287-...> (table 1), for every two Canadian-born people moving to the US, one person born outside the US or Canada moves from Canada to the US. Given that during 2001-2006 20% or less of Canada were immigrants <https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/g-a00...>, that implies that a Canadian resident born outside the US or Canada is about 50% more likely to move to the US than a Canadian native.

I've heard that New Zealand is similarly used by those seeking to move to Australia.

[amrocha]

No, that's what the guy I'm replying to is saying. I disagree, plenty of people go to Canada as a first choice and love it there.

The Chinese Canadian thing does happen. It's usually 1st generation immigrants with very few ties to Canada and highly competitive families. They're parents usually barely speak English, and their entire families are still in China. Canada let a lot of Chinese immigrants come in during the 80s, and did very little to integrate them, and this is the result I guess.

[hot_gril]

I'm just wondering which country is harder to get into, not trying to establish which is the better nation.

[amrocha]

Depends on where you're from then, but citizens poorer countries might have an easier time going to Canada.

[kafkaesque]

I'm Canadian and every single Canadian with a computer science degree I know either has moved to the US or is actively trying to. We are essentially trading in highly skilled developers with low skilled ones, with some exceptions, of course

[amrocha]

Well, I'm Canadian and I wouldn't move to the US over Canada so you can add me to the list! Now you know someone!

Also, most highly skilled Canadian devs I know just negotiate remote positions with US based companies. That's what I used to do: US salary living in Vancouver

[TMWNN]

> We are essentially trading in highly skilled developers with low skilled ones, with some exceptions, of course

The exact same thing happens across the board, as I cite elsewhere <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36512411>: The best Canadian scientists move to the US, while an equal number in absolute terms of (presumably not the top) American scientists move to Canada.