Detroit, Region Based Visas, & the Politics of Immigration

+ Brandon Fuller

I recently had a chance to talk about region-based visas (an idea I've explored elsewhere with Sean Rust) with A Martínez, the co-host Take Two, a program on Southern California's NPR affiliate KPCC. We discussed the merits of allowing states like Michigan to attract immigrants and channel them to struggling regions such as Detroit. We also touched on how a more federalist approach to immigration in the United States, an approach closer to Canada’s, could alter the political dynamics of immigration.

States that want to participate would be able to do so and states that don’t wouldn’t have to. That’s one way that we might move forward and states like California who want additional immigrants can get them. But other states that, at the moment, have more of an anti-immigration sentiment wouldn’t have to participate. But my estimation here is that when states that are skeptical of immigration see the economic benefits of immigration in states that are more open, they will quickly change their tune.

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Thank you!