Immigrants who earn permanent residency via family sponsorship are the same as legacy admissions. And that’s fine but it doesn’t mean they’re more deserving to be in a country than others

Talking about the USA. An estimated 50-70% of new green card recipients in the USA applied for a family-based sponsorships aka legacy admissions. Quite similar to how preference in a college works if your parents or siblings attended.

IMO that’s not inherently an issue because wanting to keep families together is positive overall. But I do think that there’s a misconception in the USA, even among many legal immigrants themselves, that arriving to the USA somehow means they worked harder, have more merit and/or are more deserving to be here than others.

Certainly that may be true for visas that are more merit based, like those who came in via a work visa or a school visa, but family sponsorship? No. For the most part, there is no proof of merit necessary besides a clean record and having your papers in tow. There’s millions of people who applied to immigrate on the same exact stats & circumstances as each other, and the difference is that those who are related to a U.S resident get preferential treatment.

To be clear, my opinion is not to completely discount immigration; all legal immigrants had to go through the system which can be lengthy, expensive and difficult, and it’s certainly hard work. Just that a lot of people think one group is MORE deserving over another based on something that is determined by absolute luck.