'Bad US'? No... bad leadership. If you think that's what I'm implying, think again. I love the US, and most of the Americans I've met; it's the only country I've chosen holidays in, every year since '94. It doesn't mean I necessarily have respect for the 'diplomacy' of its current leadership, however.
And I doubt that Bush is exactly the key attraction for many immigrants <g>
Incidentally, on immigration, the UK is usually more restrictive than the US (as I believe are most European countries, with some specific exceptions such as German right-of-return, etc). This is mainly due to the fact that we're smaller and much more crowded: Britain has ~53 million people in ~89000 sq miles - that's about the same size as Utah, with 30x the people. (England alone has a population density of ~980 people/sq mile). In other words, we haven't the room...
Of course, the mindset - never exactly welcoming of immigrants as the US historically was, the perception that it's easier for immigrants to get rich (which I would think is true, although I suspect that it's also easier to be very poor...) and the fact that by PPP, we're far more expensive are probably further factors.
But if you want to find somewhere really hard to get into, try emigrating to the US if you're a white Briton... LOL. |
