• Hello Members, This forums is for DV lottery visas only. For other immigration related questions, please go to our forums home page, find the related forum and post it there.

Does the DV lottery really guarantee a diversity?

C

creature

Registered Users (C)
Hi folks,

My wife and I've been playing the DV lottery since DV-1998 (so for the last 14 years? if I count correctly) and I remember the days when there was no online application or online status check and everything was sent out by a regular mail. After more than a decade of playing we haven't been selected even once. In this forum I like to read about folks who are determined to continue playing until they win and I'm one of them. Even more than a decade of no luck won't stop me from applying for DV-2012. As probably many of you guys out there, I've been thinking a lot of times about fairness of the DV lottery.

I don' think there is a way to increase chances of winning. Applying in early October or the last day in November doesn't make any difference. However, I started to question if the DV lottery really servers its purpose as making the American society more diverse. Looking at the results of DV-2010, more than 52% selectees are from the Africa region. If every second new permanent resident is African, doesn't it mean that instead of making America diverse, it makes it more "African"?

In DV-2010 and I believe the figures are very similar to the upcoming results for DV-2011, European applicants received 29% of all visas, 14% for Asia and 52%percent for Africa. Chances of winning were a bit higher in Europe (2.15%) because of a lower number of applicants if compared to Africa or Asia, but the total number of issued visas definitely favors Africa.

And look at this year’s results for DV-2011. Nigeria (6000 selected), Ethiopia (5200), Ghana (6002), and I could go on and on. But if you look at Europe – Germany (1895), Czech Republic (111), Belgium (94), and France (767) - I would need to count together almost all 27 EU countries before I would reach a number at least close to the number of selected applicants in the top 4 African countries.

If I got my numbers and logic wrong, please let me know as I'm very open to discussion.

So the question for you folks out there is - do you think the DV lottery servers to its purpose and guarantees diversification of the American society?
 
It is hard to say....As far as am concerned lottery is purely based on luck because one of my friend got selected 6 th time. He is from Asia. What would you like to say about it?
 
The diversity as I understand is based on countries that have a low number of immigrants to the US. You will see that some countries are not eligible to participate because they already have a high number of natives migrating to the states legally. As I understand it the African countries that are eligible don't have that much (relatively of course) natives migrating to the US legally. This coupled with the fact that a lot of people enter the lottery they will have a higher number of winners but what percentage of winners will go on to actually get the GC, not many I think.

The numbers for Europe (and elsewhere of course) really say nothing until we can know how many applied. For example maybe the 111 winners from Czech Republic came from a pool of 1000 applicants and in which case that's some very good odds. It is expected that persons from Europe and other first world countries would not apply in the same numbers like persons from Africa, Asia and South America and this is why year after year these European countries will be eligible and the applicants would have better odds than applicants elsewhere. Look at my region South America, we only get about 2000 winners each year and I believe most of these winners will get the GC but look at how many countries from this region are not eligible, that is because South and Central America have a very very high rate of migration to the US, so there's no need to encourage more from this region if diversity is the goal. I believe from the looks of it the lottery is serving its purpose.
 
American society is diversified, but the DV is not the sole reason for that. Historically, over the 200 plus years of America as a nation, constant immigration and the mixing of cultures has served to diversify American society. Alot of that immigration came from Europe, which would probably explain that 75% of the population today is White. Blacks make up about 12%. We all know too well that almost 100 % of the first blacks to arrive in America didnt arrive as immigrants. Since immigration in this day and time isnt an open-door as it was say about 200 years ago, Europeans have generally found it alot easier to immigrate here in comparison to Africans. Likewise even for non-immigrant visitors to America, overwhelmingly fewer come from Africa in comparison to Europe. I think its from this background that the DV tries to offer more spots to countries that have fewer immigrants.

That said though, it'll take a lot more than offering Africa more spots to make America "more African". And despite America being 75 % White, it is also a rather diverse society. Take a walk around Los Angeles, or in Manhattan and that diversity is very evident all around you.

Good luck though. I hope that you do win it.
 
sonibago said:
The diversity as I understand is based on countries that have a low number of immigrants to the US. You will see that some countries are not eligible to participate because they already have a high number of natives migrating to the states legally. As I understand it the African countries that are eligible don't have that much (relatively of course) natives migrating to the US legally. This coupled with the fact that a lot of people enter the lottery they will have a higher number of winners but what percentage of winners will go on to actually get the GC, not many I think.

The numbers for Europe (and elsewhere of course) really say nothing until we can know how many applied. For example maybe the 111 winners from Czech Republic came from a pool of 1000 applicants and in which case that's some very good odds. It is expected that persons from Europe and other first world countries would not apply in the same numbers like persons from Africa, Asia and South America and this is why year after year these European countries will be eligible and the applicants would have better odds than applicants elsewhere. Look at my region South America, we only get about 2000 winners each year and I believe most of these winners will get the GC but look at how many countries from this region are not eligible, that is because South and Central America have a very very high rate of migration to the US, so there's no need to encourage more from this region if diversity is the goal. I believe from the looks of it the lottery is serving its purpose.
Click to expand...

It just couldn't be better than Sonibago and Wendogg's statements.
 
Thank you guys for your comments.

Looking at the statistics, more than 52% actually issued DV visas are for the Africa region. That seems to me like the DV lottery favors those immigrating from Africa. I looked at the statistics of all immigrant visas (not just DV, but all categories) issued between 1999-2009 and for example Nigeria or Ghana had in the past 10 years issued such amount of visas as the Western Europe altogether. From the wendogg's comment I understand he thinks that is a correct approach because America with its 75% of white skinned population needs more immigrants of black color to support diversity. But same as white people don't leave only in Europe, there are many black folks living in other regions - for example - France or United Kingdom. Therefore, I assume that the lottery favors Africa in front of other countries with major black population and the color of skin is irrelevant.
Well, as a closing statement for this topic - I have had a feeling that the DV lottery favors African applicants (for whatever reasons) and by reading your comments I understood that it isn't just my feeling but a real fact. I am a bit disappointed by these findings because I do live in a European country and have played the lottery for the past 14 years with no success.

However, there are no bad feelings and I honestly wish you all good luck!!!
 
as far as I understand, DIVERSITY stands for "Multi-ethnic diversity", whcih is a symbol of american indentity. You may question the authenticity of the process of DV winner selection, and yes it gives more "chances" to countries like Ukraine, Turkey and lately Uzbekistan and few other countries more visas per capita than other ones, but it does indeed represent a DIVERSITY afterall... IMHO... if you didnt win this time, be patient sand LUCKY to get selected in the next one :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top