Trump’s New Immigration Plan’s Threats to Armenia

• 05.30.2019, 20:57
• Arpine Melikyan
•  America,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  Armenia

cnn.com

US President Donald Trump introduced a new immigration plan, which first of all suggests a change in the Green Card issuance procedure.

The new immigration system, Build America, aims to increase the number of highly qualified professionals from 12% to 57% among immigrant workers arriving in the country. That is, the preference will now be given to young professionals who have the skills they need or plans to create their own business.

Currently, only 12% of immigrants come to the United States due to their skills and qualifications, while 66% of legal immigrants are settled due to family reunification principle.  The new immigration plan is supposed to change these numbers by making 57 and 33 percent respectively.

It is also envisaged to raise the annual income of highly qualified immigrants. Currently, the average annual salary of immigrants in the United States is about $ 43,000. With the new plan immigrants entering the country with highly professional skills will have a $ 126,000 average annual income. In this case, the average annual salary of legal immigrants will increase to about 96 thousand dollars.

In fact, the "Build America" ​​plan aims to attract highly qualified professionals to the US. Tramp’s immigration policy aims to choose only those who the United States needs and not  those who find themselves in the country as a result of the lottery. In other words, Trump aims to boost "brain inflow" from many countries. And "brain drain" is more problematic for developing countries, such as Armenia.

According to the RA National Statistical Service, the number of researchers in the Armenian research and development institutions has declined in recent years. Due to the economic situation in the country and low wages, people the country needs more and people who possess great potential leave. In case trends prevail, the "brain drain" may gradually increase in Armenia.