Argentina officially has near-open borders. At least on paper, you only need an employer or family member to sponsor you. The country isn’t as quite First World, but with per-capita GDP around $15,000, Argentina would be a huge step up for most of the workers of the world.
Question: How hard would it be to set up a cost-effective charity to help sponsor the global poor for immigration to Argentina? Responses from GiveWell, the broader Effective Altruism community, and Argentina experts are especially welcome.
Inspired in part by Sebastian Nickel’s new Libertarian Effective Altruists Facebook group.
P.S. Check out Vipul Naik’s post on the prospects for immigration charity.
READER COMMENTS
Christopher Chang
Nov 25 2014 at 9:11pm
This would represent a huge step in a better direction for open borders advocacy.
I would consider donating to a charity of this sort.
Duncan Earley
Nov 25 2014 at 9:48pm
“At least on paper, you only need an employer”
The same is effectively true in Australia. If you have an employer sponsor you can get a visa. You are supposed to be “skilled” but when the list includes thinks like “Mixed Crop Farmer”, “Pig Farmer”, “Baker” and “ICT Customer Support Officer” you can basically get in as long as someone is willing to employ you.
Link: http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/186.aspx
Martin Krause
Nov 26 2014 at 7:37am
Bryan,
Setting up a charity in Argentina is not hard, though it will bureaucratic and you will have to submit forms, certificates and personal information of the founders and board members. There are also different procedures to get a donation in, due to money laundering controls.
I would suggest to have a lawyer helping on this process.
Another option is to base the program in an already existing NGO.
Regards
Martin Krause
Professor of Economics
University of Buenos Aires
robert
Nov 26 2014 at 10:13am
If Argentina is so terrific, why aren’t there more people moving there?
Are they in default?
Don’t they have a negative GDP growth rate with 10% inflation?
Would you consider Argentina well governed?
Is there a correlation between between good government and open borders?
What is the correlation between the people in a country, i.e. their culture, education, values, etc., the quality of their government? Are there any causal elements? What is the relationship to between good government and economic growth?
Would you advocate charities that teach economics? Do you feel that Latin America has a different understanding of economics that citizens of the United States? If you would, what type of economics would teach?
Flávio
Nov 26 2014 at 1:37pm
Argentina would very quickly make immigration more stringent if that idea were implemented.
Mr. Econotarian
Nov 26 2014 at 2:19pm
So Argentina has some differences in opinion with their bondholders 😉
Argentina’s recent GDP growth rate & unemployment rate has been:
2009: -0.7%, 8.7%
2010: 9.4%, 7.8%
2011: 8.6%, 7.2%
2012: 1.0%, 7.2%
2013: 3.0%, 7.1%
That beats France, and compares with many EU counties and even the US.
Yet the Index of Economic Freedom says:
Chris Kerr
Nov 27 2014 at 11:23am
This wouldn’t even necessarily need to be a charity. If people from the developing world are willing to pay several thousand dollars to try to immigrate to the US or Europe, with the risks of being deported or even dying en route, it should be possible to charge a cheaper price to get people to Argentina and still turn a profit.
If I had better qualifications than my one year of high school Spanish with an Argentinian teacher, I would try to start such a business myself.
Comments are closed.