the child had only minor injuries. this has to be the luckiest moment of the week. despite the fact that this girl survived this crash. why is the toddler involved in a police chase. she was riding in the chase involved with teens and the girl's parents. just welcome to a gps special. global lessons, the gps road map for making generation work. immigrants founded america hundreds of years ago in search of freedom and opportunity in pursuit of the american dream. today, many americans see immigrants as a danger to that dream. they worry that immigrants are taking their jobs, changing the company's national identity.

the average american believes that 39% of the u.s. population was born abroad. the real figure is 13%. still, the highest level since 1920. immigration is divisive. a wedge issue in this election year. but most americans, 73% of americans, agree that the government is doing a poor job of managing immigration. new york city mayor michael bloomberg calls our approach suicidal. so how should we handle immigration? does anyone do it better? in this hour, and in a "time magazine" essay, we'll journey to japan, europe and canada. we felt find out what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong and what we can learn. first, let's visit a country with one of the strictest immigration policies in the world. a place that has tight control of its borders, few illegal

immigrants and a strong, coherent national identity. what are the effects of keeper foreigners out. let's get started. >> japan's economy was once the envy of the world. now, it's limping along projected to grow less than 2% a year over the next five years. here's one possible reason. the nation's population is shrinking dramatically. japan's current population is around 127 million. it's on pace to be just 90 million by 2050. a drop off of almost a third. the nation is also aging. almost 1 in 4 people are 65 or older, making japan the oldest country on earth.

>> by 2040, the median age in japan will be higher than the median age in palm springs. >> robert guest is the author of "borderless economics." a fascinating read on migration and the world economy. japan's aging, shrinking society, he says, facing an alarming labor shortage. >> it's just incredible. i mean they lit rally do not have the people to man the school. can you imagine what the dynamism of a society that is that old that has so few young, active brains coming up with new ideas? >> there's a simple solution, he says. open the borders and invite more immigrants. but japan has historically been closed off to outsiders. it has a foreign born population of less than 2%. six times smaller than america's percentage. >> they don't have the idea that you can become japanese.

and they don't have the idea that you can solve some of the country's chronic labor problems by importing foreign hands. >> in the health care sector, japan is short 900,000 workers by 2025. it's starting to invite foreign nurses. minot arrived four years ago. but before she could start practicing, she had to endure months of training with no idea she could stay. the nursing proficiency exam is notoriously difficult. >> they're expected to have very difficult to learn. >> close to 600 foreign nurse haves come to japan and only 66 have passed the test. minof was one of the lucky few.

>> translator: i'm really happy. but on the other hand, i thought that's really terrible. my friends over here, they didn't pass. even though we had studied together. >> japan's health ministry has made the test easier, adding some english translations. but critics still say it is unreasonable. >> it should be good enough that they're able to communicate verbally with people and that they're able to read the words that they need to know for the tools of their trade. it works perfectly well in other countries. >> what's more, it isn't just foreign workers who run into trouble. in some cases, it's immigrants who have been living in japan for decades. in 1990, facing a labor shortage, japan gave ethnic japanese from south america long term resident status filling

gaps in its work force. >> they said we don't really want to let foreigners in, but there's some people who are kind of japanese. so they let in some people from brazil. >> japanese brazilians filled manufacturing jobs and became the third largest minority in japan. but in 2009, with unemployment running high, japan actually offered them money to leave the country $3,000 for each worker and $2,000 for each dependent to cover travel expenses. the three daughters were all born here. >> translator: i thought from my part, they didn't need people like me here anymore. >> to add insult to injury, anyone who took the offer couldn't come back to japan with

the resident status they once had. the flight was essentially a one-way ticket. the government says it was only trying to help unemployed japanese brazilians. they stopped offering the deal and are reconsidering the resident status of those who took the money. but so far, nothing has changed. >> they've got the crazy idea that if you pay these people to go away, it will make everyone else richer. it's simply not true. >> if japan won't let in immigrants, what is it doing about its labor shortage? it's encouraging families to have more children. giving them $165 a month for each child. but that hasn't been enough to inspire a growth spurt. another solution? >> they're even going to the stage of saying well, if we can't get any actual human beings to look after our old people, we're going to have to design robots to do it. is that an adequate alternative? so far, i think not.

>> if japan suffers a cost for not taking in immigrants, the next place we'll visit carried out one of the most dramatic migration experiments in history. how is it doing? find out next. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement.

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japan's closed off approach to immigrants is a losing strategy. and their economy is suffering for it. europe faces a similar demographic crisis. but it is trying a more open approach to immigration. how is that going? it's easy to forget that the european union itself is one of the most ambitious migration experiments in history. half a billion people are allowed to roam freely within the eu's borders. many predicted that swarms of people from poorer nations like

poland and romania would move to rich countries like germany and france. that never happened. only 3% of working-age eu citizens live in an eu country. >> there's been a nasty political backlash. with anti-immigrant parties thriving in greece, the netherlands and france. europe's mainstream politicians have pandered to them. former french president, british prime minister have all declared that multiculturalism in their countries is a failure. >> they all agree, multiculturalism is dead. it's amazing that they agree on that, but they do not agree when it comes to euro and other issues.

>> chairman born in germany to turkish migrant workers. >> we're not a multicultural society, it automatically forces me to ask what are we then? are we a one-color society? certainly not. i don't think anybody really wants to go back to the '50s. >> one person who does? telo. a former board member of germany's central bank. in 2010, we've released an anti-immigration rant called germany does away with itself. i don't want the country of my grandchildren and great grandchildren to be largely muslim, he wrote. if i want to experience that, i can just take a vacation to the orient. >> the book was a run away best seller. >> and that, i think, was a clear warning to the political class, to the elite of this

country that's out there. something is growing. it's not very nice. >> it's not just words violence against immigrants is a big concern in germany. one particularly horrible act inspired estemer to run for office. a turkish woman's home was fire bombed, killing five of her family members. >> i met her. and i promised myself in the next german parliament which w elected 1994. >> he was the first member of parliament at age 28. now he helps his nation to answer a very basic question. what does it mean to be german? >> can you be a german and have a head scarf at the same time? can you be a german and practice islam at the same time? and after 9/11, they became more

different. >> germany's government became an effort to better integrate muslims meeting with leaders at an annual germany conference since 2006. and there's an intriguing effort in one of the nation's universities to reach out to germany's imams. >> the imam role has change nd germany. >> a professor of religious studies interviewed hundreds of imams and found that the vast majority of them are immigrants and don't speak german. but the radicals often do speak the language like the ultraconservatives. >> fundamentalist groups were very, very attractive for your people. they can't speak german. now the reality of muslim teenagers. >> so jaylon started a program for modern imams to help them better understand germany.

an imam from lubec is learning about germany's education and health care systems. he hopes to apply that knowledge to help the people in his mosque. >> translator: we have to explain that life here in germany is different from the life in their home country. >> other imams in the program have taken field trips to the legislature for a civics lesson and visited a synagogue to learn about judaism. >> it's a learning process for both sides. for muslim community and for the government and for the german society, of course. >> germany is certainly making strides. but throughout europe, immigrants feel alienated and the native-born population feels overwhelmed by foreign influences.

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if japan's strict immigration policy serves as a

cautionary tale and europe's experiment is still a work in progress, then perhaps the next country on this gps road trip is a place that's getting it right. i'm talking about canada. a nation with more foreign-born per capita than america. a nation that now has the most successful set of immigration policies in the world. if you have never been to calgary, you might know it for its annual stampede. 10 days of cowboys, rodeos. last year, the royals and, of course, its muslim cowboy-hat wearing mare. what? who? >> the great thing about calgary is nobody thinks it's funny that a guy that looks like me in a cowboy hat is sometimes the image of this city. people just accept that. >> when nahad became the first muslim mayor of a major canadian city in 2010, he shattered calgary's red neck stereotype. >> when i was running for office, it was only people who

were not from here who said whoa? is calgary ready for a mayor like that? the people from calgary said it's a kid from the east end. we know him. >> and calgary is getting ready to see new faces. erica had 7 years of work experience in her native, columbia. >> i was looking for opportunities for my career. >> she lives in calgary now and is a project engineer for a consulting firm in the oil and gas business. an industry that's booming throughout western canada. >> i was looking for a better quality of life. different quality of life and being born in a multicultural society with equal opportunities

for everybody. >> canada may not have the cachet the u.s. does, but the economist business editor robert guest says it holds great appeal for would-be immigrants. >> canada offers many of the same things that america does. very high standard of living. the root of law, peace, safety. >> canada is even more appealing to immigrants with something to offer. a hard-to-find skill or advanced degree. >> and they decided to cherry pick. you know, we're a rich country. we can attract the best and the brightest from the rest of the world. >> to determine who it should let in to live and work, canada uses a point system. you don't need a job or an employer, just skills. applicants are awards points for proficiency in education, languages and job experience. just why is canada so ready to accept immigrants with open

arms? because it has to be. the nation is sparsely populated, has a low birthrate and needs immigrants for population growth and economic growth. >> we have to build something here in the canadian prairie. >> in canada, almost two-thirds of permanent visas last year were given for economics needs. canada's economic needs, that is. the country brings in the majority of foreigners to fillet boar holes. only 22% of its immigration was for family needs. reuniting mothers with children, brothers with sisters, grandparents with grandchildren. in the united states, the opposite is true. only 13% of green cards last year were dolled out for economic reasons while two-thirds were for family reunions. >> grandparents are important. you need them. but also having skilled trades

people and people who are skilled in more professions where we have labor demand. >> but of course booming industries can go bust. who gets hired and who gets fired can be unpredictable. the canadian government funds programs like this one at bow valley college. >> it's nose other skill that is we know are different from one country to another. >> erica rodriguez is a recent graduate. >> i came here with the same hopes you have. >> she now works at a consulting firm in the oil and gas industry and looks forward to officially becoming canadian. canada's real challenge, says the mayor, is ensuring the economic and social integration of immigrants once they're living in the country. >> it's not about birth as care pads. it's about an engineering working as an engineer instead of a janitor as quickly as possible. these are very serious challenges. and we haven't gotten it right. but i would much prefer we focus our energies there rather than

on these meaningless culture discussions that crop up because those don't make a difference in people's lives. >> the public and parliament in canada generally support immigration. >> immigration is unambiguously good for the economy. they invest here, they create jobs, they work here. there's not much of a policy debate on that in canada. >> while the prime minister of great britain, the former prime minister of france, multiculturalism has failed, that is not so in canada. >> i'm not here to question their reality. it's their reality. but i think it's important for us canadians, and particularly for calgary to really tell a story loudly and proudly about a place where it works. where diversity works. where multiculturalism works. >> even when canadians misunderstand immigrants, they can laugh about it. as captured in the hit sitcom, little mosque on the prairie.

>> it's not utopia. everyone doesn't automatically understand everyone and live together. but the best thing about that show is that in the best canadian tradition, it shows that when you screw it up and you misinterpret somebody, you get to laugh about it. >> that's it. >> i think that that is a great, great metaphor for how this country works. >> canada's economy is thriving because it actively seeks immigrants to fillet boar gaps and then branch those immigrants to full advancements and opportunities of being canadian. while new york city mayor michael bloomberg thinks our national policy is national suicide. i'm one of six children that my mother raised by herself, and so college was a dream when i was a kid. i didn't know how i was gonna to do it, but i knew i was gonna get that opportunity one day, and that's what happened with university of phoenix. nothing can stop me now. i feel like the sky's the limit with what i can do and what i can accomplish.

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what would america look like today if we had told immigrants like sergei brim or albert einstein no get lost? every year, the u.s. turns down educated, entrepreneurial immigrants. one man says that's national suicide. >> let's just suck it up and deal with the issue rather than sit there and point fingers. michael bloomberg, the mayor of new york and a billionaire businessman has made immigration one of its signature issues. >> you've made the danger as

quite substantial economically. >> it's the biggest economic issue facing this country. >> i pledge allegiance, to the flag. >> bloomberg points out that immigrants have always been prolific job creators in america. just look at the nation's fortune 500 companies. more than 200 of them were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants including google, yahoo and intel. >> it was always an influx of new immigrants to push. and now we're trying to stop it. >> for example, the cap on applications for an h1-b application was 195,000 in 2003. since 2005, it's been only 85,000 per year. in 2008, the cap was filled in just one day.

>> my fellow graduates. >> what's more, we're not only rejecting entrepreneurs, we're turning away tomorrow's scientists. we let in lots of people from all over the world to study at american universities. >> yes. >> particularly in science and engineering. and then we throw them out. >> we don't give them a green card and they have to leave. and so they take all of the benefits from the greatest university and graduate school education any place in the world. >> foreign students at american universities received over half of all doctorates in math, engineering and economics. we desperately need their skills. american companies are struggling to fill over 3.5 million job openings, many of which are in science and technology. >> we are deliberately driving away people that are starting new businesses and these new businesses are starting elsewheres and you will never

get those back. >> case in point, meet cornell. a 28-year-old entrepreneur from india. his dream was to start a tech company in silicon valley. he got an engineering degree and a business degree from the university of pennsylvania. and a job at microsoft in seattle. >> my plan was work with microsoft for about two to three years, gain a bunch of experience and then move to silicon valley, work with a start up there for maybe 2, 3 years and start my own company. >> he says microsoft applied for a work visa on his behalf so he could stay on there after his student visa ran out. but bal was rejected, despite his ivy league degrees. >> if they want me here, i would love to be here. but if it's going to be that hard for me, i'm better off going back to india and starting a career now than waiting five year ins the u.s. >> so bal went back to new deli and started a website out of his

bed room. snapdeal.com. two years after its launch, the site is expected to generrate a hundred million dollars in revenue. >> they said you built one of the largest in the country. >> he's estimated around 1500 jobs and counting. and the future looks bright. bal expects to go public in a couple of years in the united states. but the jobs he would create will all be in india. of course, you don't have to go half way around the world to see america's brain drain. >> you'll find big branches of all of the west coast companies canada. why? because the engineers can't get in to america to work at their west coast facilities. >> so these guys go to, say, the university of california, berkley in engineering. they can't stay to america, so they go to canada?

>> that's correct. and work for companies in canada. >> under the present bloomberg administration -- >> there's not going to be a president bloomberg administration. but the correct way is to bring in entrepreneurial immigrants who have skills and those who come here for immigration who have skills and make sure they stay. >> mayor bloomberg has created a rare bipartisan coalition. an impressive list of public officials and business leaders including jeff bucas, the ceo of cnn's parent company, time warner. >> how would you fix the visa system? >> well, the first thing is you attach a green card to the diploma for any graduate stunt that gets a master's or a phd in

any of stem areas, science and technology. if somebody is willing to start a business and can get financing, you certainly want to give them a visa because they will go and start businesses for americans. and, lastly, when you have jobs that we need to get done but americans won't take, like working in the fields letting the crops rot and letting the farms move south of the border is just insanity. >> but when it comes to inviting low-skilled workers to america, consensus is a lot harder to find. when we come back, we'll tackle the biggest stumbling block to immigration reform. illegal immigration. ♪

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we've heard the economic argument, but the u.s. has a thorny charge. illegal immigration, mostly from mexico. the average american makes three times as much as the average mexican. it is the greatest such gap between neighbors that share such a long border. and we won't fix the problem

until we come up with a practical solution for dealing with the immigrants that are here. >> when you look at new york city's undocumented immigrants, what lessons have you drawn? >> well, undocumented have very low crime rate. why? because they're scared to death they're going to get arrested and deported. >> new york city mayor michael bloomberg has a unique disposition. an estimated half million undocumented residents. >> undocumented are not unemployed. they take jobs. they may be kicking the cash

economy off the books, but they work. america is not a place to come, put your feet up and just take welfare. it's a very competitive place. if that's what you want to do, you should stay home. where ever "home" is. >> bloomberg says the undocumented don't use public schools because they usually leave their kids in their home country and they don't use health care much because they tend to be young and healthy. he notes about 75% of new york city's undocumented immigrants pay taxes. employer's withhold. and then the government says this guy didn't earn enough, we have to send a refund. to where? the documentation doesn't exist. >> that certainly defies conventional wisdom. >> well, listen to this idea from the heart land. >> 80% hispanic in our high school now. >> an alliance of 25 agricultural and trade groups has an interesting proposal for jobs that are hard to fill. >> he needs to do something. >> use illegal immigrants. a powerful republican and a former agricultural secretary runs the business coalition. >> whether you're republican or democrats at some point, we have an obligation to address this as a nation. >> the coalition came up with house bill 2712.

it would allow illegal immigrants to work in industries with labor industries if they have no felonies and commit to learning english. divine, a life-long republican who worked in the first bush administration says the proposal has divided her party. >> one of the statements is what don't you get about illegal? >> and then there are those republicans that acknowledge that immigration policy is broken and that it should be reevaluated in the context of communities and in there. >>. >> people like bill boarden, the owner of signature landscape. he says he finds it hard to get people to come to work for him. >> they don't want to come work for a place like this that's so seasonal. aside from the hard work, it's just not the kind of work that seems like our younger generations want to be doing. >> gordon says he paid $1,500 fur help wanted ads in a

newspaper to fill 70 positions for the 2011 season. the starting wage was $8.68 per hour. he says 7 people applied, 3 showed up for an interview and just one actually showed up for work. >> it's just crazy. everybody thinks that we're trying to get cheap labor and we should be hiring americans. i wish i could hire americans. >> so gordon needs a way to legally hire illegals. people on the other side of the fence, people like this woman, let's call her mia. she crossed the border in arizona. she's been in the country illegally for over a decade. >> every day, we don't know what can happen. we just try to do the best.

>> mia says 65 members of her family are in the united states illegally. the bill deals with people like her who have spent years living and working in kansas. but, at this point, the bill's efforts is unlikely to take root in kansas. especially if another kansas republican has its way. >> the bill has no hope of passing in the kansas legislature. i think it was there to plant a flag than to actually become law. >> chris is the kansas secretary of state and he also happens to be a co-architect of the staunch immigration law. he thinks this bill is just a nice wrapping on amnesty for people who have come here illegally. >> the employer gets the benefit by exploiting illegal aliens and we the taxpayers are left holding the bill. >> what whole industries like

california agriculture and parts of the southwest that do we lie on these workers and don't find it easy to replace them. it hasn't been easy to find american citizens who are willing to pick fruit in 110 degree weather. >> replace them at what cost? the employers will never say well, we tried raising wages by $5 an hour and then we found american. they don't do that. >> wouldn't that make those businesses uncompetitive? >> no, not if all businesses are in that industry are facing an equal increase in the cost of labor, no. not so much in agriculture. i think it's less of a factor. >> it's fair to say that americans would do virtually any job. you'll always find somebody. unfortunately, the customers who are going to pay for those workers aren't going to pay

those prices. so it's a ridiculous argument to make. you cannot pay somebody to pick peaches so much that the peaches cost $10 a piece. >> are you americans lisle immigrants. >> according to mayor bloomberg, laws like the harsh immigration law are a reaction to the lack of intelligent legislation from washington. >> i'm not sympathetic to somebody that's broken the law. on the other hand, the practical reality is whatever the number is, 11 million, we're not going to deport them. so we have to find someway to turn them into more productive members of society. now, you can say they broke the law. they did. but we were all complacent then. >> it's time to start focusing on fixing our broken immigration system. you can always rely on america to do the right thing after all of the possibilities are exhausted. in the end, congress will do the right thing, but only after

they've tried every other crazy idea that kicks the can down to road. >> when we come back, my thoughts on the immigration debate. stay with us. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ and the next great idea could be yours. you know what's exciting? graduation.

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take a look at this picture. it's meant to be a floating silicon valley, sort of. in the words of its ceo, it is a vote for entrepreneurs around the world who want to start companies in silicon valley but are currently unable to do so because of our antiquated visa system. even though it will be just half an hour from half-moon bay, california, which is half an hour from silicon valley, blue seed, the name of the project, will be in international waters. so you wouldn't need an american visa to work on it. who knows if this will ever come to fruition.

but what it does demonstrate is how frustrated american entrepreneurs are with our immigration system. >> the u.s. is projected to have 2.8 million job openings by 2018. nearly 800,000 of them will require a master's degree or higher. but only 550,000 american born graduates will have the training to fill those jobs. now, we can't even talk about our legal immigration system. because any reform has been held up by those who first insist we must solve the illegal immigration problem. but a funny thing has happened on the way to the immigration crisis. immigrants have stopped coming here. well, that's an exaggeration. but the hispanic center recently issued a report saying it may have reversed. in other words, more people may be going back to mexico than are coming to the u.s. so for all the money we spend on

fences and drones at the border, we may be fighting the last war. the one we need to tackle is the skills war with the rest of the world. and it's one we're losing. a large part of the problem is that we have an immigration system that is broken. it does too many of the wrong things and not enough of the right ones. and the rest of the world is catching up. canada and australia now have smart immigration policies that take talented foreigners that have the skills the countries need and the determination and drive to succeed. as a result, they've transformed themselves into immigrant societies with a foreign-born population that is higher than the united states. australia, which only 15 years ago had strong strings of nativism dominating its political culture now has over a quarter of its population foreign-born. double americas share. and it is thriving.

canada foreign-born population is 20%. higher than great britains. we are not the world's only nor even the largest immigrants anymore. so what to do? well, most experts will agree with the following approach. we shall craft legislation that deals once and for all with the problem of existing illegal immigrant. their path to citizenship, however, should be long. behind regular applicants, probably a process that would take 15 years during which they would have to pay taxes and stay crime-free. then, we would reduce the number, currently 75% of all immigrants who come in because they have been sponsored by an legal immigrant. we would increase with skills we need.

we would also make some orderly provision for temporary workers who pick crops or fruit in california during the harvesting season but then should go back to mexico or central america when the season is over. ideally, such a bill would be bipartisan, sponsored by a prominent republican and democrat and, of course, it would need democratic sponsorship to get off the ground. we had such a bill. it was sponsored by john mccain and ted kennedy. it was strongly supported by george w. bush and it couldn't even come to a vote. the far right hated the provisions that provided a legal path for the undocumented workers, the left opposed the shift to skills-based immigration and the unions opposed the temporary worker provisions. that fact that the extremes hated it would have been evidence that it was broad and bipartisan and in an earlier time, that would have helped, at best. today, power has shifted to the wings ofhe party and the lead

sponsor of the bill, john mccain, now denounces his own handy work. the failure of immigration reform is a break down for the process. we have to compromise. but that isn't going to happen any time soon. it's sad because america remains the place that the world looks to as the global melting pot. the place where a universal nation is being created. we may not do immigration that well anymore, but we do assimilation better than anyone. people from all over the world come to this country and almost magically become americans. they, i should say we, come to this country with drive and determination and we develop over time a fierce love for america. and this infusion of talent, diversity, hard work and patriotism is what has kept america vital for these last two centuries. if we can renew it, it will keep america vital for the next century, as well.