Let Immigrants Save America’s Struggling Cities
U.S. companies can sponsor foreign workers. Why not down-and-out cities and towns?
That was then.
Photographer: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis Historical/Getty ImagesImmigrants who want to work in the U.S. can be sponsored either by individuals — usually family members — or companies. Regional immigration is a proposed variation on this system, in which a region — probably a city, but perhaps a county or state — sponsors an immigrant for a green card or work visa. It’s an idea that’s been tossed around in policy circles as a way to revive “old industrial cities that have been hollowed out.”
I used to be against regional immigration. The reason is that if regions sponsored foreign workers for H-1B or other work visas — or if regional green-card sponsorship was made conditional on not moving out of the sponsoring region for a certain period of time — it would prevent those immigrants from moving to other places in the U.S. That also feels like a restriction on the basic human freedom of movement. I was worried as well that forcing immigrant workers to stay in one area, thus preventing them from moving for better pay, would put pressure on the wages of nearby native-born workers.