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Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

economist.com

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Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#81

Post by carapace »

jseliger wrote: post #49
Tiktaalik wrote: post #4

> But Canada closed its federal programme in 2014 (some provincial schemes, such as Quebec’s, continue). Only mentioned as an aside, but for Vancouverites, this has been very painful. Uniquely Quebec manages its own immigration (let's not get into it) and they have an investor immigration scheme that essentially sells citizenship for a pittance. Of course since persons have freedom of movement there's nothing stoppin…

If we only had a technology that could be used to build more housing units on a given plot of land, we could probably build as many housing units as people want to buy. Until such technologies emerge from the land of science fiction, we'll be stuck with shortages, because the problems are really technical, not legal. https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/urban-sprawl-housin...

Bucky fuller, Dymaxion House, circa 1930:

> The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques. Fuller designed several versions of the house at different times — all of them factory manufactured kits, assembled on site, intended to be suitable for any site or environment and to use resources efficiently. A key design consideration of the design was ease of shipment and assembly.

~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_house

Nearly a century later... "Prefab housing complex for UC Berkeley students goes up in four days" Aug., 2018 ~ https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/08/02/prefab-housing-compl...

An interesting detail: "Kennedy notes that the cost of trucking to Berkeley from the port of Oakland was more expensive than the cost of shipping from Hong Kong."

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#82

Post by munk-a »

theflyinghorse wrote: post #24
rootsudo wrote: post #2

This has always been a common theme in Asia/South East Asia and is nothing new. The biggest barriers are: 1. Money/Income 2. Language. 3. Education. You can't fit in if you don't know the language, or literate. That's what makes Student visas so valuable, because it can give an anchor to an family to move abroad. Education, you can't survive abroad w/o income and this is usually hand in hand w/ a degree. Money, well,…

> You can't fit in if you don't know the language or literature I would invite you to visit Richmond BC which happens to be majority Asian (on top of my head 72% +) and majority of that Chinese. A Chinese national moving to Richmond would not struggle too much without English language. Why did you mention literature at all?

A lot of metro-area services that extend into Richmond don't have chinese language support, and moving to a neighboring city will present a number of issues as signage very quickly drops off to english only once you cross the Fraser. Additionally interactions with officials are likely quite stressful if you're very weak in english - the local Services BC almost certainly has quite good language coverage, but law enforcement would be hit or miss - ditto with emergency services (Ambulance, Hospital, Fire).

Lastly, if you're going for residency or citizenship then you'll need solid english or french comprehension, and you'll likely be going through the downtown vancouver citizenship office.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#83

Post by dmurray »

CharlesColeman wrote: post #45
f00_ wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US doesn't allow dual-citizenship either right? My girlfriend and her family have Taiwanese, Chinese and US citizenship/passports though. Wonder how that works

> The US doesn't allow dual-citizenship either right? The US allows dual citizenship: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/dual-citizenship-all... > The United States will not ask naturalizing citizens to take any steps to formally renounce the citizenship of their home country. Nor will it stop U.S. citizens from later adopting citizenship in another country – though if their intention is to give up U.S. citizens…

There's a bit of doublespeak going on here. What could they mean by "take any steps to formally renounce their citizenship" that doesn't include (from the naturalization oath):

> I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;...

They won't require you to formally tell the other country you are renouncing it, which is good enough for practical purposes, since most other countries don't allow you to renounce your citizenship simply by telling some US bureaucrat you renounce and abjure it.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#84

Post by damnyou »

filoleg wrote: post #73
damnyou wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they are legally married then how is it fraud? The entire idea of marriage fraud is bogus — it's just another invention used to justify state violence against a disfavored group. Marriages exist in all shapes and forms, many more than the state can think of. For example USCIS apparently puts some people through interviews where they ask for intimate personal details of the spouse, like what side of the bed they sl…

>For example USCIS apparently puts some people through interviews where they ask for intimate personal details of the spouse, like what side of the bed they sleep on or the color of the toothbrush they use. This implies a particular definition of marriage — one where you sleep on the same bed and use the same bathroom. They aren’t looking for a “particular definition of marriage.” They are looking for inconsistencies…

I've heard very different things, sorry. Folks getting harassed and their marriages questioned for not fitting into white, monogamous, cisheteronormative definitions.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#85

Post by emanuensis »

akavi wrote: post #71
vkou wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver, SF, Seattle are all going through unprecedented construction booms. There are more active cranes in Seattle at the moment then there are anywhere in North America. This has not stopped housing costs from going through-the-roof. People are buying houses to speculate, new residents (foreign rich, or migrating techies) are buying houses with staggering amounts of money - amounts that existing residents could…

Except everything I can find says that Seattle real estate prices are in fact falling. [0] https://komonews.com/news/local/home-prices-dropping-in-the-... [1] https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-ar... [2] https://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Seattle-Washington/

...only at the high end. There is still a rapid shrinkage of space for ordinary folk...

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#86

Post by damnyou »

munk-a wrote: post #79
damnyou wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another frame: your acquaintances were frustrated at how hard it is to immigrate and figured out a workaround. I strongly believe in freedom of movement so any legal or extra-legal means to do so are all right in my book. Rules are meant to be bent. Laws are meant to be broken.

I strongly believe in freedom of movement - but any time laws are bent or broken they open the door to selective enforcement - and selective enforcement can be undetectably discriminatory. If a law is silly and we all agree it is then we should get rid of that law. If it's legal in your jurisdiction to be held in holding for going 3 MPH over the speed limit then the only just course of action is to either repeal the…

Yes, there's the important axis of legibility to consider. But laws are often just a legible way to commit violence against marginalized groups — legible harm vs illegible harm needs to be looked at on the merits.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#87

Post by techsupporter »

dmurray wrote: post #83
CharlesColeman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US doesn't allow dual-citizenship either right? The US allows dual citizenship: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/dual-citizenship-all... > The United States will not ask naturalizing citizens to take any steps to formally renounce the citizenship of their home country. Nor will it stop U.S. citizens from later adopting citizenship in another country – though if their intention is to give up U.S. citizens…

There's a bit of doublespeak going on here. What could they mean by "take any steps to formally renounce their citizenship" that doesn't include (from the naturalization oath): > I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;... They won't require you to formally tell the ot…

What the State Department (probably, I don't work for them) means is that naturalizing as a United States citizen may be done with no input from a person's other country of citizenship. Contrast with, for example, Germany, wherein a naturalization certificate may not be delivered to an applicant before the applicant shows that he or she affirmatively renounced any other citizenships or received permission from the German government to proceed with naturalization absent that step being taken.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#88

Post by eps »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #12
rapind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My belief has always been foreign capital (speculation) is bad, but immigration is good. So if you want to move here and bring all that foreign capital great! If you want to speculate or park money in Canadian real estate (empty houses and condos) that's really bad for the locals. It never should have been allowed.

The reason why the Feds ended their version of an investor immigration scheme is because a study found that refugees ended up paying more in income taxes than investor immigrants lmao. So yeah immigrants are great, but it has been abundantly clear that the rich persons buying citizenship are doing so just to have a passport of convenience and buy land as a safe investment and the gains for the rest of Canadian societ…

Canadian investor immigration scheme required purchasing government bonds and holding them, but only for certain amount of time. After that time they could sell bonds and get their money back.

It was more of visa-for-a-loan program than anything else. Complete bullshit.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#89

Post by mistermann »

jseliger wrote: post #49
Tiktaalik wrote: post #4

> But Canada closed its federal programme in 2014 (some provincial schemes, such as Quebec’s, continue). Only mentioned as an aside, but for Vancouverites, this has been very painful. Uniquely Quebec manages its own immigration (let's not get into it) and they have an investor immigration scheme that essentially sells citizenship for a pittance. Of course since persons have freedom of movement there's nothing stoppin…

If we only had a technology that could be used to build more housing units on a given plot of land, we could probably build as many housing units as people want to buy. Until such technologies emerge from the land of science fiction, we'll be stuck with shortages, because the problems are really technical, not legal. https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/urban-sprawl-housin...

A housing bubble based on domestic demand is dangerous enough, adding in who knows how much foreign demand on top of that, if it was to pop it could be more than doubly impactful.

Before we go on a building spree, I say we should get a decent handle on the total amount of foreign money in play.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#90

Post by walshemj »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #4

> But Canada closed its federal programme in 2014 (some provincial schemes, such as Quebec’s, continue). Only mentioned as an aside, but for Vancouverites, this has been very painful. Uniquely Quebec manages its own immigration (let's not get into it) and they have an investor immigration scheme that essentially sells citizenship for a pittance. Of course since persons have freedom of movement there's nothing stoppin…

I got pitched at silicon milkabout in the UK about moving to Quebec as a developer.
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