In recent years, immigration has gradually become a hot topic in Chinese society, sparking much discussion. Furthermore, the immigration trends of China's wealthy class often attract global attention.
Chinese Citizens Dominate U.S. Immigration
In February of this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that "wealthy Chinese are lining up to immigrate overseas on a staggering scale." This August, a U.S. Department of State official, while introducing the EB-5 investment immigration program, stated that the 10,000 investment visa quota for the 2014 fiscal year (October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2014) had been exhausted.
It is worth noting that this is the first time in the 24 years since the launch of this program, which requires a minimum investment of $500,000 to obtain a U.S. Green Card, that the annual quota of 10,000 has been fully utilized.
In the first half of this year, a Hurun Report survey found that 64% of Chinese high-net-worth individuals (with assets of over 10 million RMB) are considering, applying for, or have already immigrated overseas, with the United States being their preferred destination.
According to reports, in the 2014 fiscal year, the U.S. government issued 10,692 EB-5 investment visas, with mainland Chinese receiving 9,128, accounting for 85.4%. In 2006, only 63 Chinese citizens applied for this program.
Reasons Behind the U.S. Immigration Boom
Why is U.S. investment immigration so popular? In just a few years, U.S. investment immigration has spread rapidly across the country, and Chinese investment immigration to the U.S. now dominates the majority of the U.S. global immigration business.
According to surveys, U.S. investment immigrants are primarily concerned with air quality, living environment, food safety, and the quality of education in the United States. Additionally, a national preference for Asians may be another reason for the high success rate of U.S. investment immigration.
Recently, U.S. President Barack Obama released an immigration reform bill, triggering another wave of discussion on U.S. immigration in public opinion. Relevant foreign immigration research reports state that it is easier for Asian immigrants to successfully obtain U.S. Green Cards than for those of Latin American descent.
According to a report by The Fiscal Times, a study conducted jointly by two scholars from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University shows that Latinos often encounter systemic bias when applying for legal permanent resident status, commonly known as a "Green Card." This report will be published in the next issue of the American Sociological Review journal.
Asians More Likely to Obtain Green Cards Than Latinos
Brown University professor Ben A. Rissing and MIT Sloan School of Management professor Emilio J. Castilla conducted research on labor certification applications, which is an important first step in obtaining a Green Card. The researchers analyzed all labor certification applications approved or denied over the past 40 months. After controlling for variables including salary, industry, occupation, location, and visa history, the researchers found that applicants from Asian countries were more likely to obtain Green Cards compared to applicants from Latin America.
Rissing noted that 90.5% of applications describing Asian immigrants were approved, while only 66.8% of applications describing Latinos were approved. Overall, compared to Canadian immigrants, applications describing Asians were 13.3% more likely to be approved, while applications describing Latino immigrants were 23% more likely to be rejected.
Rissing believes that when applications are reviewed, details related to employment are generally evaluated with emphasis. "In the application documents, we did not observe significant differences in the descriptions of immigrant workers from different regions," he said.
Generally speaking, differences in Green Card approval assessments may be based on unconscious bias. The researchers cited existing surveys showing that Americans tend to perceive Asians as more competent, while Latinos are perceived slightly less favorably.
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