Why Trump’s “Merit-Based” Immigration Policy Will Hurt Women

As immigration raids continue to occur across the nation, the Trump administration has announced several new policies which would shift our immigration system to be increasingly merit-based.

Aside from his usual calls to criminalize undocumented immigrants, during his speech to Congress he proposed an approach that would prioritize highly skilled and educated workers. While this proposal is overtly classist, Colorlines writer Deepa Iyer explains how it is also sexist and would predominantly benefit young men who typically make up the majority of skilled workers coming into the country, while penalizing women for engaging in “lower skilled” work.

“According to the We Belong Together campaign of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, almost 70 percent of women immigrants obtain their legal status via sponsorship by immediate family members. Their chances to enter the United States would be diminished under a merit-based system. In addition, women who labor in the informal economy as domestic workers or caregivers would also be disadvantaged by an approach that favors immigrants with particular job skills.”

Check out the full piece here.

Image Credit: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images via Colorlines