Rural Americans benefit the most from immigration

This is a near-perfect policy experiment showing us, once again, that immigration is not only a net gain for all, but an absolute gain in the rural communities that have become the most politically resistant to immigration.

🗣️ Published today in @aeajournals.bsky.social. Ethan Lewis and I use a visa lottery, as a nationwide randomized experiment, to test the effects of foreign labor on US firms and workers. doi.org/10.1257/app….A concise summary from @nber.org —> http://www.nber.org/digest/20221…

Michael Clemens (@mclem.org) 2026-06-26T16:49:16.587Z

Further summary: