Someday I am going to sue the Stranger for allowing pollutants like comment 1 to run downstream into my eyes.

China will pass the US in absolute GDP in the coming years. the best way to retain our military buying power advantages is to liberalize housing in coastal states and import many, many immigrants, especially talented ones

I'll take old sad Europe over young pestilential immiserated Africa100% of the time, as will you, Charles, and as will every other open borders hypocrite.

Hopefully, by 2033 and I pray by 2050, their won't be a country on the planet that still clings to the outdated 20th Century belief that any country only has to worry about itself, everything is way too interconnected and the every country for itself viewpoint is going to lead to transition problems that are going to occur within the next 75 years.

If we aren't careful, some of those transitions are going to be industry collapses, which are completely unnecessary and destructive.

So how many years do you guys think we will be able to pull barrels of oil out of the ground anywhere near today's rate of extraction?

Kind of pathetic the way the american political system's been arguing over whether or not climate change is human caused and real, when the actual and factual dilemma is something has to change in consumption so that we don't have devastatingly devastating industry collapses within the next 30 years.

At which point, those who are struggling will realize just how insanely ignorant governments today are, for choosing to spend any money, waste any fuel, on the destruction of ourselves with military spending.

but what do I know?

The so called Dream Act would have passed if backdoor amnesty was not in it.

Problem is kids should not be able to then apply for citizenship for their parents who came here illegally. There are millions of people waiting to come to the US.

Also he wants to stay in America because he thinks it has better opportunity (which it clearly has given him) yet he will not even talk to his own mother who sent him here hoping for a better life for her son? He wants sympathy yet will not give it to his own mother?!

@3 how is Charles a hypocrite? Charles wants Europe and the US to welcome immigrants because Europe and the US r way better places to live than r 3rd world countries, and because imported youngsters will b required so oldsters can receive transfer payments. he prefers Europe/US to Africa, from what I gather - he's a Marxist, he prizes development. so do the migrants: they're moving on purpose

governments r not foolish for spending money to defend themselves from other governments.

lots of immigration (preferably from various populations without contiguous homelands, and preferably well-dispersed) will b necessary so we can b big and strong enough to guarantee our security.

Mya Angelou is dead. "Amnesty" is a bad word in the English-speaking imperial center of the world.

In a lot of ways the ultimate neoliberals at the Economist r the guys whose crowding of global news onto pages really convinced me that human beings everywhere r my moral equivalents

The remaining areas of the world who have not achieved civilized birth rates of replacement or below replacement, need to do so now.

Right now these countries are simply exporting surplus males and throwing their people onto our doorstep to be cared for by a social system and infrastructure to which they did not contribute.

By using the advanced countries as a population pressure relief valve, there is no feedback. They can keep doing this until they exhaust both our resources and theirs.

I saw the movie and I have just one question: With Mr. Vargas's education, resume, and connections, I imagine that he could move back to the Phillipines and do very well for himself indeed. What is keeping him from moving back, do you think?

I saw the movie and I have just one question: With Mr. Vargas's education, resume, and connections, I imagine that he could move back to the Phillipines and do very well for his family and himself indeed. What is keeping him from moving back, do you think?

Plenty of people make political hay over immigration here in Europe, but the immigration systems of most European countries work well and their policies are humane compared to the US INS/DHS/CBP/whatever the hell it's called this week.

Italy does not attract immigrants because Italy, frankly, sucks. I mean, it's beautiful and all but the government at every level is deeply corrupt and makes Louisiana look functional. English and French competency is mostly poor (not many people arrive speaking Italian, but it's the only language most Italians speak) and the economy is in the toilet. There's not much in the way of work for such young Italians as do exist, much less for prospective immigrants who do not speak the language. So, yeah, Italy's got a geriatric bulge to rival Japan. The factors that make Italy unwelcoming to immigrants go way beyond jingo politics.

John Bailo is the dumbest motherfucker on the planet.

@8: He has lived in America longer than he lived in the Phillipines at his point. America is his home. Also, I imagine the market and pay for a Pulitzer prizer winning author is a bit better in America than in the Phillipines.

@11) This wasn't addressed in the movie, but I heard an interview with Mr. Vargas on the BBC and Mr. Vargas said that he is not getting the reporting jobs he used to before his immigration status came out because employers don't see him as a "journalist" anymore but rather as an "advocate." Bummer.