> There's no reason to immigrate to Western Europe
This was your initial argument and I'm trying to tell you that there are many reasons by pointing out to some examples. Why is it so hard to understand?
Yes, and I stand by it because this is an extremely common conversation in every single diaspora and I have family and friends who have made this very same decision.
There will ofc be people immigrating to Western Europe, and ofc a decent number are skilled, yet at the end of the day, in absolute numbers immigrants trend towards North America over Western Europe, inspite of the difficulty [0].
Immigration, like every product or service follows the law of supply and demand. It is miles easier to immigrate to much of Western Europe simply because the demand, while significant, is not as close to that for North America
If Western European countries wish to attract skilled immigration, they need to understand what truly makes the North American system click.
Australia followed a similar policy after ending the White Australia program in the 1970s and transformed into a truly multicultural country, and that was due to following a program similar to that in North America.
2. I have literally provided a peer reviewed paper proving my point, and I can provide a second one as well [0].
It's a well documented trend, and I myself can confirm this within my family, and multiple others in a similar boat.
I'm not saying Western Europe is bad, but the kind of pipeline that exists in much of North America isn't as robust in Western Europe.
Plus the absolute number in the trade paper you provided is ~10k arrivals and ~6k departures from Europe, which is a drop in the bucket in absolute terms compared to North America. Just with EB-2s alone (one of the multiple types of visas for STEM talent) you are seeing 90k approvals a year.
I really like to read my provided source instead complaining about the tone. Your first provided source is outdated (ca. 2016), your personal view has a bias and selection effect ("US is the best country in the world", you are surrounded by people preferring US and money), I couldnt find the data, you argue for, in the second source (you can give a page number), and my thesis was: It is not only about money. If so, Europe would have an outflow to US. It does not despite lower income. So other factors in migration matter. What is your problem about this statement?
There will ofc be people immigrating to Western Europe, and ofc a decent number are skilled, yet at the end of the day, in absolute numbers immigrants trend towards North America over Western Europe, inspite of the difficulty [0].
Immigration, like every product or service follows the law of supply and demand. It is miles easier to immigrate to much of Western Europe simply because the demand, while significant, is not as close to that for North America
If Western European countries wish to attract skilled immigration, they need to understand what truly makes the North American system click.
Australia followed a similar policy after ending the White Australia program in the 1970s and transformed into a truly multicultural country, and that was due to following a program similar to that in North America.
[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_...