Our current system of allocating green cards, or visas for permanent residency, stipulates that no country may have more than 7 percent of the total each year. With an annual ceiling of 366,000 family and employer-sponsored visas, the per-country limit is 25,620. The United States has followed this one-size-fits-all rule since 1965.
This means it is easy to immigrate here from Belgium or New Zealand, but there are long waits — decades — for applicants from China, India, Mexico and the Philippines. These four max out on the limit every year. Admonishing prospective immigrants to “go to the back of the line,” is a joke.
A new a system might give 20% to refugees; 32% to countries in proportion to their populations and 48% to countries in proportion to their emigration in past years.