Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Oldest Established Permanent Floating Pass Mark   [Stanley Kurtz]

As far as I can tell, absolutely critical details of the merit-based immigration "point system" have not yet been set. In particular, we need to know if there is going to be a "pass mark," a minimum grade under the point system that must be attained before an applicant can immigrate. We also need to know if the "pass mark" will "float" based on the scores of applicants.

These seemingly abstruse questions are actually of huge importance. A low pass mark could effectively obviate the purpose of the shift from family reunification to a merit system, allowing the same people who would have gotten in under family unification to come in under "merit." In other words, a low "pass mark" could turn the so-called shift to a merit system into pure window dressing. On the other hand, if the pass mark "floats" based on applicant quality, low skilled immigrants with little education and poor English skills would get a substantially reduced share of visas.

Seemingly small details in how this and other matters are resolved can have big implications. But as far as I can tell, we still know nothing about a possible pass mark, floating, or related issues. In a sense, the whole question is silly, since the family reunification policy supposedly being replaced by a merit system is actually going to be accelerated for eight years, by which time a merit system will likely have been gutted. And even if we get information on a pass mark, floating, etc., the likelihood that any merit in the "merit system" will eventually be gutted is high. Still, it would be interesting to know if there’s a pass mark, whether it will float, and how it will work. It is truly incredible that we are debating this bill without these critical issues having been resolved. If anyone has information on the pass mark and how it will operate, let me know.

05/23 09:54 AMShare