Citizen Exchange Program

Citizen Exchange Program

I have long floated the idea of a "Citizen Exchange Program" for the Bahamas.

In this, we would agree with various countries that, on passing tourist visit requirements, citizens from differing, participating countries can trade places.

Want to move to Canada to live and work? Simple, just find a Canadian who wants to live and work here. Go down and make your exchange intentions known and away you go. The only time this could be blocked is if one of the people could not visit the other country as a tourist for criminal or similar reasons.

This should eliminate the "letting people in to take our jobs" objection to a large extent. This should also make it easier for people to try living in various countries without the current levels of red tape.

Thoughts?

Edit: I have always before thought of this in light of people wanting to exchange on a long term or permanent basis. Just after initially posting this here this morning though, I wondered if it might also work on a much shorter term basis. Say you were a US band and wanted to play a gig in the Bahamas. Just hook up with a Bahamian band wanting to play a gig in the US and away you go with nothing more than tourist visiting ability and notification of intent needed because of the reciprocal nature of the situation.

drew