To Become an American
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12114153/site/newsweek/
Guest workers, penalties and deportation are all a part of Europe's
method of dealing with immigrants-which has failed.
By Fareed Zakaria
Newsweek
Updated: 3:34 a.m. ET April 2, 2006
April 10, 2006 - Seven years ago, when I was visiting Germany, I met
with an official who explained to me that the country had a fool-proof
solution to its economic woes. Watching the U.S. economy soar during
the'90s, the Germans had decided that they, too, needed to go the
high-technology route. But how? In the late'90s, the answer seemed
obvious: Indians. After all, Indian entrepreneurs accounted for one of
every three Silicon Valley start-ups. So the German government decided
that it would lure Indians to Germany just as America does: by offering
green cards. Officials created something called the German Green Card
and announced that they would issue 20,000 in the first year.
Naturally, the Germans expected that tens of thousands more Indians
would soon be begging to come, and perhaps the quotas would have to be
increased. But the program was a flop. A year later barely half of the
20,000 cards had been issued. After a few extensions, the program was
abolished.
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