As improved communications and transportation erode the walls that once defined national labor markets, countries around the world are competing not just to attract needed workers, but also choose migrants likely to integrate successfully. Canada and Australia try to select for integration, using point systems to choose migrants likely to do well economically and make good citizens. But after several decades of trial and error, the results are mixed: a system such as Canada’s designed to assess “human capital” is a poor tool for predicting professional and economic success. In recent years, Canada, Australia and the United States have been moving toward an alternate approach: giving short-term visa holders who have already had some success, whether at university or in the workplace, the option of settling permanently.

A further refinement of this approach would use a point system to assess short-term visa holders after some years in the country, assessing not just attributes like skill and education, but also accomplishments—career advancement and rootedness. Instead of trying to anticipate which migrants are likely to integrate successfully— an all but impossible task—the new scale would measure outcomes and reward them, allowing migrants who are already succeeding to take up permanent residence.