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Comment by makeitdouble | Hacker News Reader

Medical record is out of question in most countries.

The UK one for instance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

Australia routinely rejects people if it's thought they'll be a burden on the medical system.

Depression… mental health… Australia requires you to report if you ever saw a shrink. I think it was 10 years of medical records. What really sucks too, is that you tend to apply through your company, so you’re sending your company’s lawyer all these documents to submit on your behalf. And you know full well the company is probably getting a summary report. I found it so cruel that they make it harder to get a visa if you have a history of depression. Like plenty of people get depressed but don’t have a ton of visible symptoms… soldier on. But it’s fine if you just drink, but if you tried to get help they penalize you for speaking with a therapist.

My father in law applied for a visa to come to Australia about a decade ago. As part of this he had to do a medical checkup, and this caught some cancer that he didn’t know he had. Luckily this was early on, and after a few rounds of surgery he was in remission.

If he hadn’t applied for the visa at that time, it’s almost certain he wouldn’t have caught it and wouldn’t be alive today.

He had no trouble getting approved for the visa - we were sponsoring him so we had already signed an agreement saying that we would pay for any government benefits he might receive over the next 10 years. So I don’t think people in this particular visa situation can be a burden on the system.

But this might not be how every visa in Australia works, I’ve got no experience beyond that.

When a relative of mine did a “tour of Europe” in the 1960s, they faced invasive questions about their health. Immigration straight up said, “We think you’re trying to mooch off the NHS.”

Okay, but America accepts more immigrants than any other country by orders of magnitude. That’s always forgotten whenever this discussion is brought up.

Yes, but by immigrants as a fraction of population, the US doesn't score especially high. Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Israel, Canada, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Belgium and Norway all have a higher fraction of the population being immigrants, amongst many more.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigrati...

I'm not really interested in total number of immigrants currently in place, rather, the immigration by year (particularly the current year). Examining that required that we analyze the choices of past administrations and pore through historical events that may have affected immigration. It's much more useful, in my opinion, to look at how the choices governments are making today are affecting their immigration numbers today.

You're not wrong that the numbers on immigration percentages are a bit skewed but that's not a debate that I find worthwhile.

Why do people repeat this canard? I saw it on HN yesterday.

Meanwhile, after ignoring very small countries, countries like Australia and Switzerland have twice the percentage (about 30%) of immigrant residents than the USA, (about 15% — even Germany has more).

The US is a large country so the absolute number is higher than, say, Switzerland, but not by orders of magnitude.

France isn't far in line in regards of immigrant proportions, and they also don't request health records for vetting purposes.

https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F34708/...

America isn't in some super exceptional situation where human rights need to be routinely trampled to preserve the nation.

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