How much should the US copy Western Europe in regards to immigration?

Not sure if the US should copy anything. Americans should come up with their own sensible and humane ways to deal with immigration.

We shouldn’t copy anyone.

I wouldn’t get tripped up on the word “copy.” I don’t see how it is a bad idea to look at what works well or not well around the world to help shape policy. America isn’t so unique at this point in history. At our founding we were an innovative idea, but now many countries have adopted many things that we had set some precedent on.

I have had the opportunity to travel abroad enough to notice that about every place is generally to a great or small extent less desirable than the US.

Most places in Europe are nice to visit but…

Therefore, if the US copied just about anything about their way of doing things it would be a a combination of regression and decadence.

Like I said – Europe is fun to visit, and then come home

I’m going to have to reword this question I can tell.

I’m betting at least one of you above would prefer to get rid of automatic citizenship just because your born in America.

@JLeslie I’m really not an expert in European immigration law. It is my understanding that they take in many more asylum-seekers per capita than the US and many of those countries manage to have better economies with a much more robust middle class, higher-paid, better-educated, less indebted, more paid time off, healthier and happier workers that live longer than us. I think there are plenty of things we can learn from studying their approach. Most importantly, it’s easier to rise from the bottom to the top through hard work in many European countries. I think that is the most important metric for a society to optimize for. You want your best rising to the top, not your mediocre who happen to have rich parents.

^^Per capita they probably do take in more asylum seekers, but I don’t know the number. I think both per capita and actual total numbers both matter.

I’ve heard that in some countries they support the new immigrants, provide language lessons, etc, but the immigrants or people under asylum can’t work.

Most of Europe does not give automatic citizenship to people born there, that is a thing of the Americas, the new world.

I think I really might need to ask a more specific question with more information provided.

I don’t think Western Europe is “doing better”. There are areas where they surpass the U.S. and areas where they fall behind. All the recent terror attacks in the UK and France, not to mention issues with separatists in Spain, will show you that Europe has plenty of problems. Europe is not the progressive socialist paradise than many left-wing Americans picture it as.

@Demosthenes Are you arguing that Western Europe falls behind the US in terms of preventing terrorism? I’m certainly not claiming that Western Europe is a “paradise,” I don’t know anyone who holds that position. I think many of us pushing for Democratic Socialist policies would argue that they’re doing much better overall than we are. No system will ever be perfect, but as the US has marched further and further to the Right, our middle class is collapsing.

You will be hard pressed to get an American to follow the advice or actions of any other country. We are convinced that we are the be all and end all and that other should do what we say and do, not the other way around.

Just about every country has their own immigration issues. Until the US identifies what is working well and where the challenges are, the problems cannot be resolved.

There may be certain aspects of another country’s policies that might fit the US’s needs, and those should be considered.