Skilled Immigrants at Last? by Steven Malanga

re: "The compromise immigration legislation that the Bush administration and Senate have hammered out represents an historic shift in emphasis that could transform immigration in the U.S. by moving us to a skills-based entry system. Such a change could make immigration a bigger benefit for our economy while also ameliorating some problems with the rest of the legislation, specifically its plan to grant amnesty to many of those already here illegally. But the devil will be in the details that not only the Senate, but also the House of Representatives, still have to work out and agree to. /America’s legal immigration system is largely based on family relations, which means that you can get into this country based on whom you know, rather than what you know...[snip]...Other countries that are also immigrant magnets, like Australia, have moved to systems based on economic merit, with startlingly different results..."...