HB 26.10 Immigration Reform Act

[Dr. MB]

SENATE BILL

To reform the immigration system into Atlasia

Be it enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Section 1: Name
1. This bill may be referred to as the "Immigration Reform Act of 2020"

Section 2: Categories of legal immigration to Atlasia
1. The following categories of legal permanent immigration to the Republic of Atlasia are hereby established:
a) Family Reunification
b) Job based immigration
c) Other immigration
2. This act shall not alter the composition or requirements for non-immigrant visas or for visas intended for temporary workers or students

Section 3: Family Reunification immigration
1. Family reunification visas may only be issued to the unmarried children, parents above the age of 65, unmarried siblings or to the spouse of an Atlasian citizen or permanent resident who has been living in the Republic of Atlasia for no less than 5 years.
2. During the application process for family reunification, priority shall be given to the foreign relatives of Atlasian citizens that have had no criminal records in the Republic of Atlasia for the past 10 years

Section 4: Job immigration
1a. Job immigration into the Republic of Atlasia shall be based on a points based system. All applicants who score 67 or more points shall be awarded a job immigration visa.
1b. Immigrants receiving a job visa may be able to bring with them to Atlasia as permanent residents their spouse as well as any children below 18 years of age.
1c. Job immigration visas may be revoked in the event of a failure to meet any continuing requirements as described in this Section for longer than 6 months consecutively.

2a. Up to 24 points may be awarded for proficiency in the English language; 6 each for Reading comprehension, Writing, Listening and Speaking.
2b. Immigrants scoring below an IELTS level of 5.5 (or equivalent) many not apply for a job immigration visa.
2c. Points shall be awarded for scoring 5.5 or above in each of the 4 categories described in section 3a; with 2 points for scoring between 5.5 and 5.99; 4 points for scoring between 6 and 6.99, 5 points for scoring between 7 and 7.99 and 6 points for scoring 8 or more points.

3. Up to 25 points may be awarded for education proficiency, according to the following equivalency list:
a) High School diploma: 5 points
b) 2 year apprenticeship after high school: 10 points
c) 3 year college degree after high school: 15 points
d) 4 year Bachelor's degree: 20 points
e) Double Bachelor: 22 points
f) Master's degree: 25 points
g) PHD: 28 points

4a. Up to 15 points may be awarded for prior job experience on an skilled job:
a) Less than 1 year of job experience: 0 points
b) Between 1 and 2 years of job experience: 9 points
c) Between 2 and 3 years of job experience: 11 points
d) Between 3 and 6 years of job experience: 13 points
e) 6 or more years of job experience: 15 points
4b. Skilled job shall be defined as a management job; a professional job that usually calls for a college degree (for example doctors or architects) or a technical job that usually calls for a college diploma or apprenticeship (for example plumbers or electricians)
4c. Part time jobs, defined as jobs comprising less than 30 hours per week of work; shall count as half for the purposes of counting the years from sections 4a.(a-e).
4d. a) Medical doctors who intend to work in an area, as determined by the Atlasian Census Bureau, to be rural or impoverished, shall be awarded an additional 7 points.
b) Any person who is awarded a job visa because of meeting the requirement in 5d. a) shall have 90 days to gain employment, or to regain employment after a job loss, in such area, or the job visa shall be revoked.

5a. Up to 12 points may be awarded for an applicant's age. Applicants between the ages of 18 and 35 shall be awarded the full 12 points. For each year after that, the number of points awarded shall be reduced by 1 per year, until reaching 0 at age 47.
5b. No persons under the age of 18 may apply for a job immigration visa to the Republic of Atlasia

6. Up to 25 extra points shall be awarded to any workers who attempt to immigrate to the Republic of Atlasia with a job offer for a job that is full time and skilled. These immigrants shall receive the full 25 points, everyone else shall receive 0 points

7. Up to 15 points may be awarded for extra requirements:
-The applicant having completed high school or a college degree in Atlasia shall award 5 points in this section
-Having any sort of legal job experience in Atlasia for at least one year shall award 10 points in this section
-10 points shall be awarded for having a relative living legally in the Republic of Atlasia. Relative shall be defined as the applicant's sibling, parent, grandparent, child or grandchild.

8. If the number of applicants surpasses the maximum amount of people who may apply for an immigrant visa, priority shall be given to the highest scoring applicants. In the case of a score tie; the applicants with job offers shall be admitted first.

Section 5. Other immigration
1. The following extra categories of permanent immigration to the Republic of Atlasia are hereby retained, with their current requirements:
a) Outstandingly skilled people, as currently immigrating through the EB1 visa program
b) Certain special categories of immigrants, as currently immigrating through the EB4 visa program
c) Investors, as currently immigrating through the EB5 visa program
2. A new immigration visa shall be created, targeted at retirees who desire to move to the Republic of Atlasia. People immigrating through this visa shall prove that they are financially independent, able to afford their retirement in Atlasia and may not be allowed to take any job offers in Atlasia. The details of this visa shall be devised by the department in charge of internal policy in Atlasia.

Section 6: Miscellaneous repeals
1. The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is hereby repealed.

Section 7: Numbers of visas
1. Family reunification visas shall be capped at no more than 300 000 per year.
2. The total number of immigrant visas issued per year by the Atlasian government may not be more than 1/500th of the Atlasian population, as established in the last decennial census  available. This section shall refer to the census of NPCs made by the Atlasian Census bureau; and not to the census of active players in Atlasia done by the Registrar General.
3. At the discretion of the department responsible for internal policy, the total number of visas available may be reduced by 10% for every year the unemployment rate stays above 5%. Any reduction in the total number of visas shall be accompanied by a proportional reduction in the number of family reunification visas.
4. If the unemployment rate has stayed below 5% for at least 3 consecutive years, and wage growth has matched or surpassed the rate of inflation for the past 4 years; the Atlasian department for internal policy may increase the numbers in sections 7.1 and 7.2 by up to 30%, after a recommendation from the Immigration Analysis board
5. An Immigration Analysis board shall be established. This board shall have representatives from labor unions and small business associations and be in charge of making recommendations to the Atlasian department responsible for internal policy and to the Atlasian Congress with regards to the number of immigrants that should be allowed into Atlasia, as well as the requirements for said immigrants to fulfill.

Section 8: Enactment
1. This bill shall become enacted 90 days after the passage of this Act

People's Regional Senate
Passed 4-0-1 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,

sponsor needed

[Rep Jessica]

I said I'd sponsor.

[Dr. MB]

24 hours to object to Jessica sponsoring

[Joseph Cao]

Jessica is recognized as sponsor.

[Rep Jessica]

Thank you Mr.Speaker

I am honored to sponsor this bill that will promote merit based immigration that will put Atlasia first! What this bill does is aim for economic  based immigration, while phasing out welfare immigration that has destroyed wages in our nation for too long and harmed our workers. This bill is good but I'll likely amend a few sections of it to make it even better and with the help of my fellow representatives we will put the Atlasian worker and Atlasa first for the first time in years when it comes to immigration. 

I yield

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I will be voting against this bill because merit-based immigration betrays the foundations of this country. If this bill had been law in the 1960s, I would not exist today. This is not immigration reform, it's immigration regress. I encourage my colleagues to vote against this bill.

[Senator Spark]

I support a holistic approach to immigration based on merit.

[Former President tack50]

I will be voting against this bill because merit-based immigration betrays the foundations of this country. If this bill had been law in the 1960s, I would not exist today. This is not immigration reform, it's immigration regress. I encourage my colleagues to vote against this bill.

How is this regression and betraying the foundations of the country?

This is literally the same system that Atlasia's neighbours to the north (Canada) use; almost verbatim (in fact it might be slightly more permissive than Canada in terms of the points). Skills based immigration is also successfully used in many other countries like Australia or New Zealand; using similar systems to the one in this bill.

Finally the bill does keep a path to citizenship via family reunification.

I guess if you want to specify the situation of say, refugees; it is fine; I thought if anything the bill would keep the status quo in that area as of currently written.

[SevenEleven]

I will be voting against this bill because merit-based immigration betrays the foundations of this country. If this bill had been law in the 1960s, I would not exist today. This is not immigration reform, it's immigration regress. I encourage my colleagues to vote against this bill.

How is this regression and betraying the foundations of the country?

This is literally the same system that Atlasia's neighbours to the north (Canada) use; almost verbatim (in fact it might be slightly more permissive than Canada in terms of the points). Skills based immigration is also successfully used in many other countries like Australia or New Zealand; using similar systems to the one in this bill.

Finally the bill does keep a path to citizenship via family reunification.

I guess if you want to specify the situation of say, refugees; it is fine; I thought if anything the bill would keep the status quo in that area as of currently written.

Those countries have different histories and priorities than we do. Our entire history is enriched by waves of immigrants coming from various countries and continents. Our status as a global super power standing for democracy and individual rights necessitates we maintain an ability to compete with China economically and geopolitically. Limiting immigration threatens this nation in many ways. People who lack the skills outlined in this bill are still valuable contributing members of society and artificial boundaries limiting their opportunity isn't fair or beneficial.

Keep in mind, what this bill says is "you are lucky you were born here because if you weren't, we wouldn't want you". That's a horrible message to send.

[Former President tack50]

I will be voting against this bill because merit-based immigration betrays the foundations of this country. If this bill had been law in the 1960s, I would not exist today. This is not immigration reform, it's immigration regress. I encourage my colleagues to vote against this bill.

How is this regression and betraying the foundations of the country?

This is literally the same system that Atlasia's neighbours to the north (Canada) use; almost verbatim (in fact it might be slightly more permissive than Canada in terms of the points). Skills based immigration is also successfully used in many other countries like Australia or New Zealand; using similar systems to the one in this bill.

Finally the bill does keep a path to citizenship via family reunification.

I guess if you want to specify the situation of say, refugees; it is fine; I thought if anything the bill would keep the status quo in that area as of currently written.

Those countries have different histories and priorities than we do. Our entire history is enriched by waves of immigrants coming from various countries and continents. Our status as a global super power standing for democracy and individual rights necessitates we maintain an ability to compete with China economically and geopolitically. Limiting immigration threatens this nation in many ways. People who lack the skills outlined in this bill are still valuable contributing members of society and artificial boundaries limiting their opportunity isn't fair or beneficial.

Keep in mind, what this bill says is "you are lucky you were born here because if you weren't, we wouldn't want you". That's a horrible message to send.

I never thought I'd see an appeal to "Atlasian exceptionalism" when debating this bill Anyways while Canada is a different country, its history is very similar to Atlasia, especially with regards to immigration, so I don't see why such a policy that works for Canadians would not work for Atlasia.

In terms of the actual number of immigrants coming in, the number is barely changed compared to the status quo (it's a very, very minor reduction and if you want it can be changed to the actual current number).

As for unskilled immigrants coming in, I think you vastly overestimate how easy it is for them to move to Atlasia. Here is a flowchart that partially inspired me to create this bill actually, and which I used for reference when writing it (alongside Canada's actual laws)



As you can see, an unskilled immigrant without family does not have any reasonable chance of coming in, and family reunification is kept.

Really the only ways for an unskilled immigrant to come to Atlasia is either being a refugee (which could be clarified in this bill, or treated as a separate category in a separate bill; or even just add that the status quo for them will hold); or though the immigrant diversity lottery.

You can argue that the lottery has symbolic value; but it most certainly is a very small part of Atlasia's immigration system on the greater scheme of things.

In fact, this bill actually makes it easier for the best and brightest around the world to come to Atlasia; as the job offer requirement would get lifted; making immigration for the kinds of immigrant the nation needs actually easier, not harder.

[SevenEleven]

Let's move to a final vote.

[Rep Jessica]

Let's move to a final vote.

Agreed.

[Joseph Cao]

Representatives have 24 hours to object to the motion.

[Joseph Cao]

Oh well then.

A final vote is now open on this bill. Representatives, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

[Senator Spark]

Aye

[SevenEleven]

Nay.

[Left Wing]

Nay

[Rep Jessica]

Aye

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Nay

[Adam Griffin]

Nay

[Gracile]

Nay

[Joseph Cao]

Abstain.

[Tamika Jackson]

Nay

[Joseph Cao]

Belatedly closing the vote.

By a vote of 2-5-1-1 (Jackson voted too late), this bill fails to pass.

[Former President tack50]

Well I guess this was bipartisan after all, just with bipartisan opposition instead of support in the lower chamber

Oh well, I tried