The White House Travel Ban

The White House has issued a travel ban that stops all immigrant visa issuance and many (for a partial ban) or all (full ban) nonimmigrant visas for 19 countries. The good news is that this is a shorter list of countries than an initial list leaked to the press in March, which included 43 countries. Nonetheless, the effects of the ban are likely to be considerable. Travel and migration to the US is a powerful force for building trade and investment links, accessing education, and generating remittances, with knock-on effects including encouraging investment in skills and education in sending countries.

The travel bans in the first Trump administration were associated with a drop in overall foreign enrollment in US universities as well as concerns that the bans would be associated with medical professional shortages especially in rural areas. But cutting links will have outsize effects on excluded countries. Not least, Haiti receives remittances from the United States worth nearly ten percent of its GNI, and ending visa issuance will restrict that flow over time. And (even the partial) bans cover student visas. That will surely reduce the current population of over 3,000 Burmese students and 12,000 Iranian students in the US, for example.

On top of the ongoing trade restrictions, the taxes on remittances, and the reductions in foreign assistance, the ban is another blow to US global standing, the US economy, and global development prospects.