In 2015, the world witnessed mass migration of refugees from Syria, the Middle East and North Africa into Europe. The generosity of the Germans and other countries is only now beginning to show political and security costs which were ill considered during the humane response to the crisis. In the US, the issue is now front and center in the presidential campaigns. Obscured by all the noise is the fact that the US needs highly skilled people from overseas and the red tape and the cost of bringing those people here has just gone up.

A Strange Sort of Welcoming, The Economist

Governments are deterring business travellers and tourists with cumbersome visa requirements that do little to make their countries more secure.

The rise of big emerging economies like China and India, and they steady march of globalisation, have led to a surge in the numbers of people wanting to travel abroad for business or tourism. As a result, demand for visas is at unprecedented levels. In the fiscal year to end of September 2014 the United States granted just under 10m visas–up from around 6m in 1997, despite blips in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 and the global financial crisis of 2007-08 (see chart 1).

Read the full article at: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21684791-governments-are-deterring-business-travellers-and-tourists-cumbersome-visa-requirements

The Latest Tax on Business Hits Visas for High-Skill Workers, Robert Hoffman, Wall Street Journal

Making Companies Pay $4,000-$4,500 More For Every Specialized Professional From Overseas.

The massive budget deal that Congress passed last month is something of a grab bag. But something few have noticed is that buried in the bill are fee increases for two kinds of temporary visas for high-skill workers–in effect, discriminatory taxes on productivity that will harm job growth and strike at America’s dynamic economic relationship with India.

Read the full article at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-latest-tax-on-business-hits-visas-for-high-skill-workers-1452124706
Photo Credit: Owen Franken/Corbis, Wall Street Journal