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Michigan's Governor Snyder wants
to bring 50,000 high-skilled immigrants to the state
over the next 5 years.
It's a way to double-down on the success
of the university research corridor, on the rebirth
of the auto industry, and the growth
of life sciences in western Michigan.
Governor Snyder's numbers however seem to be unrealistic.
He suggested bringing 10,000 investors to Michigan a year,
but the U.S. only allows 10,000 new immigrant investors
to the whole country a year.
Michigan's not going to get all of those investors for itself.
I'd rather see Governor Snyder work with his fellow governors
to promote a plan like Canada or Australia have,
in which provinces and states actually get
to set their own priorities and select their own immigrants
with approval from the federal government.
In those cases, immigrants get permanent residence visas,
but they make an agreement with the province or state
that selects them to settle in that state
for a certain number of years.
That way, states actually have an investment in the success
of the immigrant system, and immigrants have a stake
in the success of the state or province that brings them in.
A state-centered approach
to immigration really has the potential
to break the logjam that's prevented immigration
legislation from passing in Congress for all of these years.
In Michigan, we need immigrants, both on our farms
and in our laboratories.
A state like Michigan would want
to create a state-sponsored immigration program,
would want to be able to recruit the kinds of immigrants we need
to help our economy grow.
We should be able to put together a program
to recruit the best people to Michigan,
and the federal government should be able
to help us do that.