U.S. Immigration Policy at a Crossroads: Should the U.S. Continue Its Family-Friendly Policy?

Harriet Duleep and Mark Regets ()

International Migration Review, 2014, vol. 48, issue 3, 823-845

Abstract: type="main" xml:id="imre12122-abs-0001">

An ongoing debate is whether the U.S. should continue its family-based admission system, which favors visas for family members of U.S. citizens and residents, or adopt a more skills-based system, replacing family visas with employment-based visas. In many ways, this is a false dichotomy: family-friendly policies attract highly-skilled immigrants regardless of their own visa path, and there are not strong reasons why a loosening of restrictions on employment migrants need be accompanied by new restrictions on family-based immigration. Moreover, it is misleading to think that only employment-based immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy. Recent immigrants, who have mostly entered via kinship ties, are economically productive, a fact hidden by a flawed methodology that underlies most economic analyses of immigrant economic assimilation.

Date: 2014
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