I am extremely grateful, that the issue of ''brain drain'' is a part of this desperately needed conversation and discussion on immigration. We need this holistic approach and perspective, to fully understand the negative global effects, especially high-skill emigration/drain has on the political and economic stability and success of developing nations.

My sincere thanks to Professors Shiller and Sachs.

In the United States, the politically most contentious issue around both legal and illegal immigration I see, is the ''birthright citizenship'' aka ''anchor baby'' issue, which is exploited equally by both poor and wealthy legal and illegal immigrants and visitors to the United States. Unless this loophole is closed, I see much reluctance and animosity by natives and long-time U.S. legal immigrants/residents alike, towards ''foreigners'' and refugees in general, because ''birthright citizenship'' fundamentally undermines the understanding and concept of fairness and hard work to earn and deserve U.S. citizenship. It cannot be that every child born to a young Syrian refugee family on U.S. soil, who are already generously receiving asylum here in the USA, also automatically receives U.S. citizenship. This is a problem unique to the USA, and not an issue in Germany or Sweden for example with refugees, as far as I know.

Also it is a major security liability/risk for the United States, as ''birthright citizen'' Anwar al-Awlaki proved: ''In 2010, "there were 4.5 million U.S.-born children whose parents were unauthorized [illegal]," according to the Pew Hispanic Center (Pew Hispanic Research Trends Project, "A Nation of Immigrants: A Portion of the 40 Million, Including 11 Million Unauthorized," Pew Hispanic Center, Jan. 29, 2013.) The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has estimated that nearly 200,000 children are born annually "to foreign women admitted as visitors, that is, tourists, students, guest workers, and other non-immigrant categories."'' - https://www.numbersusa.com/solutions/reform-birthright-citizenship

All U.S. citizens under the age of 30, born to non-U.S. citizens or non-U.S. permanent residents on U.S. soil/territory, should have their U.S. citizenship retroactively revoked, and just given temporary resident rights or temporary visa privileges.

Ending ''birthright citizenship'' will restore confidence in the fairness and merit of the U.S. immigration system and process, and make immigration a politically less controversial issue.



Further, importantly to consider is the following data for Europe: ''Data from numerous studies show that the more ethnically diverse a society the greater the risk of conflict and, conversely, the more difficult it is to forge unity. Civil conflict is less likely in more homogeneous societies. Academic researchers have attempted to quantify the risk.



In the 1990s a global study by Rudolf Rummel at the University of Hawaii measured how 109 variables contributed to collective violence of the extreme variety – guerrilla and civil war – between 1932 and 1982; that’s a 50 year period. He found that one fifth of the variation in collective violence was caused by just one variable, the number of ethnic groups within the society. Conflict was made more intense when the antagonistic parties had different religions. [ii] That finding is obviously relevant to the present situation where Muslims are flooding into a largely Christian and secular Europe.'' - http://socialtechnologies.com.au/germanys-jeopardy-could-the-immigrant-influx-end-european-civilization/