Immigration to the US could be set to rise following the recent devastating hurricanes, new University of Michigan research claims. The study says there are many reasons why immigration is likely to increase in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, including potential immigrants possibly finding it easier to escape to the US from the troubles in their own nations.
University economists, Parag Mahajan, and Dean Yang, also believe that immigrants will be able to secure permanent residency or green cards via family members who already have legal status in the US. Yang says that the bigger the number of immigrants already in the US, the greater hurricanes impact on immigration, as they are more likely to have a connection to a potential immigrant.
The study looked at the severity of hurricanes in certain countries, with damage estimated by data from meteorological reports, and then examined census data from as many as 159 counties in the US to see if there was a correlation between massive storms in other nations and a rise in immigration in America. The biggest effect came from the Caribbean and Central America.
In 1996, Nicaragua was hit by Hurricane Caesar, resulting in massive damage, and in 1996 and 1997 there was an increase of as much as 50 percent in the number of immigrants from Nicaragua gaining legal permanent residency. Mahajan says that this is just one example of a trend where family members are helped to escape serious weather events by their networks in the US.