Investing In Citizenship: For The Rich, A Road To The U.S.
“The immigration program for the rich was designed to provide a boost to the U.S. economy, and it costs very little to give out the visas. The program allows 10,000 people a year to immigrate using the investment method. It’s never reached that limit, but it is getting more popular every year. In 2012, about 7,600 made use of the program.
Some of those dollars are going to the Barclay’s Center, the new home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.
Bloomberg News reports that more than $200 million of the loans to build the arena came from foreigners who were using the investment to get into the U.S. The business plan predicts that in the end, it will create more than 5,000 jobs.
David North, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, says the government’s rules for these visas encourage investment in depressed areas, rural places and inner cities. These are places where private investment is scarce and often risky.
“The investments that are open to an EB-5 investor are really rock-bottom, marginal investments,” North says. “These are essentially small, usually real estate investments of some kind [and] small construction investments.”
listen to the entire report on NPR
NPR Staff. National Public Radio 26 January 2013.