Today, there are many US-dollar millionaires in China and India. But when they want to visit the US, or any developed country in Europe, they are still treated to a visa regimen that can at best be described as unwelcoming, and at worst hostile. Some nations, such as Italy and Britain, even require Chinese and Indians to obtain visas to merely transit their sacred soil.
Even Asia's developed countries, such as Japan, take the same attitude towards the people of China and India, where more than half the population still works the land. This habit of industrialised nations with stable or stagnating populations treating the masses from agrarian countries in a hostile manner can, at one level, be seen to be in their self-interest. To them, is it not better to maintain these islands of prosperity and order, and keep out the teeming masses?
But things may be about to change. The 'teeming masses' could one day become a resource to be fought over rather than a liability, if the National Foundation for American Policy, a Virginia-based non-partisan public policy group, is right. It says that, for instance, a 33 per cent increase in legal immigration would raise revenues to social security by a present value of US$169 billion over 50 years and US$216 billion over 75 years. Those opposing a more liberal US immigration policy should consider that with such an increase, an American earning US$60,000 in 2004 could have his or her social security taxes reduced by US$600 over 10 years. So, middle-class America has to decide between its distaste for foreigners and higher taxes. If recent history is any guide, Americans seem to prefer anything over higher taxes.
Certainly, the US social security system needs all the help it can get. The only difference between the US and most of western Europe and Japan is that they are still in denial about the potential problems of their pension plans.
So, at some point in the not-too-distant future, the people of Asia, rather than being a liability, might well become a valuable resource. If this happens, will we see the emergence of an Organisation of People-Exporting Countries? No prize for guessing who will be at the forefront.
Those fretting in the US and Europe over the export of manufacturing jobs to China and outsourcing jobs to India may yet see the day when their ambassadors come appealing to China and India on 'humanitarian grounds' to release more young workers to care for the old and needy.
