Turning away from fascism
January 26th, 2007Visa Denied: How Anti-Arab Visa Policies Destroy US Exports, Jobs and Higher Education In the aftermath of 9/11 US visa processing in the Arab world has ground to a halt. US consulates formerly striving to outsource key visa processes to travel agencies before the terror attacks are now paralyzed and fearful. Under funded and insufficient security review processes leave Arab executives, prospective students, and vacation travelers in limbo for years or looking for alternative destinations. Shabby treatment of those who successfully run the visa gauntlet leaves many vowing never to return to the US. How much has it cost? The damage assessment is now in:
- Total US manufacturing jobs sustained by Arab market demand reached 215,000 in the year 2005, but could have been 420,000 with more effective and non-discriminatory US visa policies.
- Arab business and tourist travelers remained at half their 2001 levels, creating five year travel related service losses of $1.775 billion and 4,126 potential service jobs.
- In 2005
Arab student enrollment in the US higher education system reached only 66% of the 2001 level. The US higher education system lost $1.989 billion in revenue and 9,000 education and support service jobs.The 200 page Visa Denied report quantifies the damage done to US exporters, travel related service industries and the higher education system. Visa Denied recommends steps to correct and realign a severely degraded system to the true opportunity cost of flawed and sometimes discriminatory policies. Visa Denied traces a path from freewheeling days of outsourced national security of the State Department “Visa Express” system exploited by 9/11 hijackers toward the secure, efficient, and color blind visa policy American stakeholders expect and deserve.
Table of Contents and Free Chapters
(All 11.3 MB PDF)1.0 Executive Summary (.1 MB PDF)
2.0 Free Travel and Free Trade: The US National Interest (1.4 MB PDF)
3.0 The Trade Consequences of US Visa Barriers (6.4 MB PDF)
Affected Industries
Key US State Stakeholders
4.0 Turning Away the World’s Highest-Spending Tourists (.4 MB PDF)5.0 Cutting America’s Link to Tomorrow’s Leaders (1.3 MB PDF)
Fixing the Fulbright
6.0 Country-Level Damage Assessment
United Arab Emirates
The Dubai Ports World Debacle
Politics vs. National Security Concerns
DPW Analysis and Lessons Learned
Saudi Arabia
2005: A Year of Missed Opportunities
Egypt
Kuwait
Algeria
Qatar
Iraq 7.0 Conclusions: Restoring Visitors and Trade
Appendix – Opportunity Cost Methodology
Travel and Tourism
Arab Students
Arab Market Imports from the US
[…]
And there you have it.
What this report had better say, is that this 100,000,000,000 dollars is just the beginning and that all of that money was spent in other countries. This money is not sitting in the pockets of people waiting to spend it on america and its products and services, it is GONE, and will continue to evaporate, and the effects of this will last generations; more than the number of generations that The Lord Of Darkness predicts the bogus war on turrr is set to last.
What this article also doesn’t go into is the effect of the loss of influence on the world caused by people never getting to see the inside of the USA, and of course, the rise in influence of other countries as students come back thinking like Germans, Russians, Chinese etc etc.
It’s a new category don’t cha know!
…and that link should point to one of the articles predicting people abandoning the good ‘ol usa as a place to visit, and of course, my google fu is fucked up today and i cant find one….bleh!