The Issue: Due to increased restrictions on immigration and travel, which began with the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020, the net inflow of immigrants into the United States has essentially halted for almost 2 years. By the end of 2021 there were about 2 million fewer working-age immigrants living in the United […]
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Article discusses the fading appeal of the U.S. as a destination for international students
This article explores the history of international education in the US and its potential future prospects here and globally. Colleges and universities in the United States typically attract more than a million international students annually, with Asian countries sending the most students. A strategy that began in the nineteenth century with missionary goals and evolved […]
(OPINION) Why Rural America Needs Immigrants
KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Rural America has a growth problem. Business and industry desperately need workers, but the domestic labor pool is shallow, and the nation’s birthrate is slowing. There’s no better place to help expand our economy than in rural communities like ours. We need smart public policy for sustained growth — and immigration reform […]
(OPINION) Can two former presidents unravel the immigration knot?
Comprehensive immigration reform — perhaps America’s most pressing domestic need — should not be as difficult as the parties’ two extremes make it out to be. The interests of ultra-crunchy progressives on the left and nativists on the right are both served by a false choice between “comprehensive immigration reform” and a small, targeted bill, […]
(OPINION) Immigration is Not a “Crisis”
The border is not in crisis. The current increase in unaccompanied children and asylum-seekers on the Southern border, rather, is a continuation of a trend that has gone on for more than half a decade, worsened in this case by a range of factors, most significantly two devastating hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic. This has […]
(OPINION) Our Future With Fewer Births
The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the country into an economic recession and an unprecedented restructuring of our work and social lives. Early on, some likened the public health crisis to a blizzard, imagining that people would stay home, cozy up with their romantic partners and make babies. These playful visions have given way to a more […]
(OPINION) Two Solutions in One: Addressing Refugee Brain Waste While Solving the U.S. Healthcare Worker Shortage
Brain waste — the problem of being underemployed relative to one’s skills and knowledge — is a challenge facing many people, but especially refugees, in the United States. Refugee health professionals, in particular, often face difficulties in re-credentialing their foreign professional qualifications, but the impacts now are especially problematic. More than half of the states […]