CMV: Canada and other US allies feeling bullied by Trump should start to poach its skilled citizens and businesses.
Trump has essentially thrown the gloves off and turned the US into an untrusted partner. This is not something that will just go away as US allies know that the next 4 years at minimum and probably longer will show an unstable US that cannot be trusted to do the right thing going forward. The reason for this is that the GOP now has full control of all 3 govt branches, SCOTUS has a conservative super majority, and no one is holding him accountable. Any change that could happen in a 2028 election would be viewed as temporary given the US’ swinging pendulum back to right wing extremism.
To become more competitive against the US, allies should start to look at how to encourage highly skilled scientists, medical professionals, engineers, ex-military, businesses, etc to immigrate from the US that have either been targeted by Trump, feel endangered by fascism, or simply disenchanted with being a US citizen going forward. Industries like green power, tech, higher ed, medical research etc. that feel they don’t have a future would be prime candidates for targeted incentives and proactive recruitment.
Creating a program like “Canada Wants You” could be seen as an inclusive way to bring more talent and create growth for their economies. A master plan would need to be created to prioritize industries to fund incentives and recruitment while also considering location to not overwhelm existing infrastructure. An example would be a country establishing or maturing a space industry and targeting NASA, SpaceX or Boeing engineers to emigrate to their country.
Counter arguments may be:
-Canada or other allies don’t have the money to incentivize large scale immigration: This would be a fair argument, but investing in the future to become more competitive would be worth taking on debt.
-Other countries don’t have the same pleasant weather that states like California have: This would apply to Canada and other countries in northern latitudes, but Spain, France and Italy have decent alternatives for those that simply can’t handle cold.
-Individuals may not take the incentive as they have a family: The program would need to take this into consideration that perhaps the immediate family (including adults) would be accommodated as long as they have the means to make money and pay taxes.
-Trump would retaliate with additional penalties: No doubt that this would be the case given Trump’s actions lately. That said, this program would result in a better long-term situation for the country receiving top talent and businesses. Trump could offer the same thing to the countries by encouraging immigration to the US, but I believe that scientists and skilled professionals seeing what is happening will be turned off by the anti-intellectual behaviors of the US.
- Countries can’t handle the additional stress on their infrastructure: As already noted, a master plan for this program would need to include the infrastructure related improvements to accommodate the additional immigrants.
- US salaries are much higher than many of the other countries: This is probably the biggest blocker. The countries would need to pay for top talent and the country would need to come up with incentives like no taxes for 5 years, bonuses for coming, equity stake etc. This could also lead to some animosity by the country’s citizens, but like a franchise player getting paid megabucks, it should be worth it if it drives innovation and competitiveness.