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Commentary By Allison Schrager

Who Gets Visas to America?

Economics Immigration

The President's executive order is pausing H1-B visas for the rest of 2020. These are temporary visas but many H1-B holders eventually become permanent residents. Yet, employment based migration, immigration based on skills or employer needs, remains a small fraction of permanent immigration. An overwhelming majority is family reunification. 

immigration-executive-orderSkilled migration has historically been an important source of entrepreneurship. The trends in the last few years suggest it may be time to rethink our priorities and how to best attract the most skilled migrants. 

immigration-executive-order

Allison Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow her on Twitter here.

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