The Best Way to Help Haitians

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/01/the-best-way-to-help-haitians

At the AidWatch blog overseen by NYU's William Easterly, a guest post today by Michael Clemens picks up on the connection between the situation in Haiti and America's immigration rules, a point made here at FutureOfCapitalism.com in the post of January 15 headlined "Haiti and the Banks." Mr. Clemens writes: "the U.S. has forcibly stopped and repatriated about 5,000 Haitians per year for the past 20 years—people who never made it to the U.S. And this policy surely deterred thousands more each year from even trying. When Gallup asked people in Haiti last year if they would leave permanently if given the opportunity, 52 percent said yes. The U.S. is actively blocking the most effective poverty reduction strategy for Haitians...The best thing the United States could do for Haitians would be to let them in, either temporarily or permanently. We are now accepting about 21,000 permanent Haitian immigrants per year, and just a few hundred temporary workers per year. If we really wanted to raise Haitians out of destitution, we could absorb many times more than this."

I found out about Clemens's post because I follow William Easterly on Twitter.

by Editor  |  Jan 25, 2010 at 1:32 pm Related Topics:  Immigration receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list