Small Business Labs:
Foreign Policy Magazine has a list of the best places in the world to be an immigrant. Their list is:
* Ireland, where 14% of population are immigrants (meaning foreign born)
* Spain, where 11% of the population are immigrants
* Canada, where 19% of the the population are immigrants
* Israel, where 40% of the population are immigrants
* New Zealand, where 16% of the population are immigrants
The U.S. is not on the list, but about 12% of the U.S. population is foreign born.
A primary reason these countries are attractive to immigrants is economic opportunity and/or the need for for labor. Canada’s finance minister, for example, says that ‘population and labor shortages are Canada’s most pressing economic challenges.’ And New Zealand uses a point system to encourage immigrants with in-demand job skills.
Ireland is quite interesting given its history as a source of immigrants for other countries. The ‘celtic tiger‘ economy of the last two decades has made Ireland very attractive to immigrants.
Our most recent forecast report has a section on the role immigrant entrepreneurs play in increasing cross border trade. Not surprisingly, all the coutries listed in this article are strong in cross border trade.
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True, there are a number of immigrants in New Zealand but there are times when they start verbally attacking immigrants even in parliament. Asians have borne the brunt of it through the years and at the moment they are back in the lime light. Some ministers are going on about how this place will soon be full of Asians as a result of the Free Trade Agreement that NZ is about to sign with China. The minister of foreign affairs is known for his dislike of immigrants and blames a lot of the social problems here on us. But I guess such is life. Funny thing is, NZ really needs them at the moment (that’s my point of view) because Kiwi’s are crossing the ditch to Aussie by the plane load for a better life (financially).