World News

32353 readers

405 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

159

Biden calls US ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with Russia and China (www.cnn.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

150 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Boasting that you have more immigration than random countries like Japan is just odd.

He's not boasting; he's saying that immigration would do a lot to solve their problems; and he's correct. I hate Biden's guts but he's correct here. For context Japan is a notoriously xenophobic country and currently sits at a 2%. They're not "a random country".

In perms of the percentage of its population tho, 15% is somewhere in the middle of the pack, well behind countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland etc.

I mean people deciding to come to your country isn't proportional to your population, or really related at all. It'd be like expecting China to have the same 15% as the US (for context that'd be about 250 million people). That's just not how that works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

There are also different immigration rates for different states, some of which are as big as major countries. There are many states in the US driving the national average down because they have such a low percentage.

Edit: added some stats.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I agree he specifically called out Japan to contrast with the US because its immigration was weaker.

people deciding to come to your country isn't proportional to your population

Are you saying fewer people decide to come to the US than to those other countries?

Seems unlikely. Pretty sure the US could let in a lot more immigrants if it wanted to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Pretty sure the US could let in a lot more immigrants if it wanted to.

I mean yes that's the case for everyone. I'm saying the number of people applying to immigration to the US isn't four times that of Germany, for example, so even if they accept people according to the exact same criteria Germany will have a bigger percentage.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Are you sure? I'd expect the number applying to the US would be hundreds of times higher than the number applying to New Zealand.

I don't especially love or hate Biden btw, I mean I can't stand US foriegn policy on the Gaza Genocide but it's not like their other mainstream politicians wouldn't have done more or less the same. It's a real pity the US hadn't been able to elect someone like Bernie Sanders.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I'd expect the number applying to the US would be hundreds of times higher than the number applying to New Zealand.

How so? Western, and especially Anglosphere, countries all get ridiculous amounts of immigrants. Also remember that New Zealand is a stone's toss away from South East Asia. It's a very attractive immigration destination for pacific islanders and Asians.