To ensure email delivery directly to your inbox, please add
@migrationpolicy.org to your address book.
MPI Coronavirus Update
June 3, 2020
Dear John,
All countries across the globe have imposed travel or immigration restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States in April became the first -- and so far only -- country to explicitly justify mobility limitations not on grounds of health risk, but to protect the jobs of U.S. workers.
Adding to a suite of earlier coronavirus-related restrictions, President Trump on April 22 issued a proclamation suspending the grant of visas to certain categories of permanent immigrants who "present a risk to the U.S. labor market during the economic recovery following the COVID-19 outbreak."
If the administration's mission is to reduce immigration, the proclamation may be having limited results -- at least initially, as Muzaffar Chishti and Sarah Pierce explain in a new article in MPI's online journal, the Migration Information Source. A rumored follow-on ban on nonimmigrants could have a more significant impact, they write, examining possible restrictions to Optional Practical Training (OPT) for international students, the H-1B skilled visa program, and the H-2B temporary nonagricultural visa program.
In basing its new restrictions on economic, not public health-related concerns, the administration "may have guaranteed the longevity of this policy long past the health crisis," they conclude.
Read the article here: www.migrationpolicy.org/article/us-alone-basing-immigration-restrictions-economic-concerns-not-public-health.
_________________________________________
RESEARCH: COVID-19 and Unemployment: Assessing the Early Fallout for Immigrants and Other U.S. Workers
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/covid-19-unemployment-immigrants-other-us-workers
Even as the pandemic-induced loss of tens of millions of jobs over a period of weeks dealt a devastating blow across the United States, its effects were most pronounced on certain demographic groups: Immigrant women and, regardless whether they were born in or outside the United States, Latinos and workers with less than a high school degree or under age 25.
_________________________________________
DATA TOOLS: Mapping U.S. Unemployment Trends Pre-Pandemic and Now
www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/migration-data-hub/us-unemployment-trends-during-pandemic
Track trends in unemployment since January 2019 and through the coronavirus pandemic for U.S.-born and immigrant workers by gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and industry with MPI's latest interactive data tools. The tools allow users to compare unemployment rates by nativity and gender across a number of other variables.
_________________________________________
PODCAST: Meeting Seasonal Labor Needs in the Age of COVID-19
www.migrationpolicy.org/multimedia/expert-podcast-meeting-seasonal-labor-needs-age-covid-19
Governments are facing urgent pandemic-related questions. One of the more pressing ones: Who is going to harvest crops in countries that rely heavily on seasonal foreign workers? In this podcast, MPI experts examine ways in which countries could address labor shortages in agriculture, including recruiting native-born workers and letting already present seasonal workers stay longer.
_________________________________________
Explore all our Coronavirus resources: www.migrationpolicy.org/topics/coronavirus
Sign up for COVID-19 updates: www.migrationpolicy.org/content/sign-covid19-resources
_________________________________________
The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org.
Click here to unsubscribe [ [link removed] ]
