The United States closed the door on almost all incoming foreign workers last year. The causes were the Covid-19 restrictions that blocked global borders and the Trump administration’s policies that drastically reduced work visas, with the exception of agricultural workers. The effect was an unexpected experiment in one of the most debated topics in the country: the relationship between the labor market and immigration.
The preliminary finding: Even with unemployment soaring in the United States, companies that relied on foreign workers and were able to remain open during the pandemic struggled to find jobs, employers said.
Unemployed American workers were not interested in jobs that normally occupy foreign contracts at the bottom and seasonal part of the labor market, and the visa ban did not help those who did not qualify for skilled jobs at the top, according to Alex Nowrasteh, director of immigration studies at the Cato Libertarian Institute.
In April, when the pandemic set in, the Trump administration temporarily banned potential green card holders from moving to the U.S. to get jobs and permanent residency. In June, Trump extended the ban to include most temporary work visas, except for farm workers, citing health risks and a rising unemployment rate in the United States. President Biden has not announced his plans for a work visa ban, which will run until March.
These visa programs are part of the overall immigration landscape: they do not include the wider migration of people to the United States for reasons such as fleeing violence or poverty or joining family members. Work visa programs are targeted at specific categories, even niche ones; they include temporary visas for foreign nannies and students working as lifeguards, and long-term visas for skilled and foreign high-tech workers starting their own businesses here.