Under Trump, Skilled Immigration Is Still Working Fine
One enduring criticism of President Trump’s border and immigration policies is that by rejecting mass immigration, the United States is both abandoning its historic purpose and squandering its economic future. Even establishment outlets like The Economist see the departure, forced or not, of up to 2 million illegal immigrants as auguring a “zero migration America.”
True, some MAGA activists seem determined to reduce even legal immigration. This is both misguided and unlikely, especially given the strong possibility that Congress will be more Democratic after next year’s midterm elections. But though the surge in illegal migration has now been reversed, U.S. legal immigration remains at basically pre-Trump levels, even if naturalization requests have dropped somewhat.
Critically, the big shift of talent to the U.S.—primarily from Europe, India, and China—proceeds apace. The United States remains a top destination for STEM professionals, offering some of the highest energy salaries globally and the highest pay for independent contractors.
If anything, America’s appeal is growing. A recent study by Airswift, a company that specializes in recruiting skilled workers, found that relocation interest has increased from 16 percent in 2021 to 22 percent in 2025—this, despite growing complications in U.S. visa application processes, like the flawed H-1B program.
Such educated immigrants represent a powerful national asset. Most come from such places as India, China, and the former Soviet Union, the latter of which has sent 2.2 million people to the U.S. since 1965, including the founders of Google and WhatsApp. (By contrast, the Biden-era migration wave has come largely from south of the border, drawing disproportionately from populations in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean that, on average, have lower levels of formal education than immigrants from East and South Asia or sub-Saharan Africa.)
To some, immigrants’ differing skill levels don’t much matter. Many on the left, along with a number of libertarian conservatives, believe that mass migration of any kind is an economic boon. Many businesses, too, embrace the prospect of mass unvetted immigration, legal or illegal, as a source of cheap labor.
Some see waves of unregulated migration as critical for addressing the West’s ongoing demographic implosion and reviving its stagnating economies. More people, they argue, will boost GDP and growth.
Read the rest of this piece at City Journal.
Joel Kotkin is the author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. He is the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and and directs the Center for Demographics and Policy there. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas in Austin. Learn more at joelkotkin.com, follow him on Substack and Twitter @joelkotkin.
Photo credit: Naturalization Ceremony, U.S. Dept of Homeland Security via Flickr in Public Domain as a Government work.
