[joe_mamba]

> companies to just use Canada as of sort of waiting room or fallback option for folks who are ultimately dreaming of moving to the US to make those higher salaries.

Nobody would mind the lower Canadian salaries if they also came with a matched lower CoL, but that's not what's happening IRL. Similar issues across the EU where some very expensive to live areas don't pay proportionally high so the issue isn't necessarily pay but CoL. However as a worker your only option is demanding more money from your employer as you can't lower the CoL of the area. So there we are.

>The European Union does not have a points and lottery based system as it's sole mechanism of entry the way Canada does.

That's not a pro for the EU citizens as they get lower quality immigrants than Canada or anglophone countries with a stricter points system.

>I think a heuristic like that beats a point system which simply encourages gaming behavior anyway.

Blue card system is also heavily gamed thanks to unscrupulous EU employers wanting to wage dump the local workforce, and much more easily because there's no multiple points criteria.