The Map, Redrawn
Immigrant visas to the US have collapsed almost everywhere since Trump's new policies, except for two places, per WSJ.
The change in monthly US immigrant visas, by region of origin:
Canada: +142%
Mexico: +17%
Western Europe: -16%
Southeast Asia: -17%
Central America: -30%
East Asia: -33%
Caribbean: -53%
South America: -60%
South Asia: -63%
Australia and Oceania: -73%
Middle East: -81%
Eastern Europe: -84%
Africa: -89%
Central Asia: -99%
Two Exceptions at the Border
The only increases come from the two countries that share a land border with the United States. Canada's flow has more than doubled, and Mexico's is up by a sixth, while every other region in the world is down, most of them by half or more.
The steepest drops read as a map of the administration's restrictions: Central Asia at nearly zero, Africa down almost nine-tenths, and the Middle East and Eastern Europe down more than four-fifths. Legal immigration, the channel the visa numbers measure, is being re-sorted by geography as much as it is being reduced overall.
Options and Market Impact
Sustained changes in legal immigration flows reach listed companies through labor supply, remittances and travel. The travel names most exposed to inbound visitor and migrant flows include the airlines United and Delta and hotel groups like Marriott, while the Canada increase is a two-way flow that also touches cross-border commerce.
Watch the State Department's monthly visa statistics for whether the regional pattern hardens. A permanent re-sorting of legal immigration by origin is a multi-year input into workforce and consumer numbers, not a one-quarter story.
Bottom Line
Per WSJ, monthly US immigrant visas are up 142 percent from Canada and 17 percent from Mexico, and down everywhere else, by as much as 99 percent from Central Asia. The new immigration system is smaller for most of the world and bigger for the neighbors.
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