A Letter from the President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

April 2025
 

In 1952, the Council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences issued a statement “Concerning Visas and Immigration.”1 Authored by protein scientist John Edsall, the statement focused on two recent pieces of federal legislation. While the bills offered modest liberalization of American immigration policy, in the Council’s opinion, they nonetheless made it too difficult for international scholars to enter the United States. The Council proposed changes to these laws, making the case for immigration as, among other things, “vital . . . to our national economy.” “We believe that immigrants, once they have been approved for admission, should be regarded as valuable members of our society, who have much to contribute to American life.”

Seven decades later, the Council’s words remain an important reminder. As of this writing in early 2025, a new presidential administration is making dramatic changes to American immigration policy in the form of deportations, turning away asylum seekers, and pausing immigration applications for certain migrants.

The United States has long benefited from its status as a desired destination for immigrants. Over the course of the nation’s history, new arrivals have shaped both the culture and economy of the nation overall and of specific communities.

This report makes the case for a new kind of immigration policy to continue the long tradition of immigration as an engine of economic revitalization: Community Partnership Visas (CPVs). The proposal originated as one of fifteen recommendations from the Academy’s Commission on Reimagining Our Economy, which argues for focusing national attention less on how the economy is doing and more on how Americans are doing. As a follow-up to the Commission, the Academy convened an ideologically diverse group of immigration policy experts to make the case for CPVs and to propose specific ideas about how the CPV program would work.

Community Partnership Visas would allow communities that meet certain criteria to apply to serve as hosts for new arrivals. Such a program would leverage America’s longtime status as an immigration hub to revitalize local economies across the country. While the Academy Council of the 1950s was concerned primarily about the entry of scholars, this program would be open to potential immigrants of varying skill levels.

In times of unproductive, polarized debate, the nation needs solutions that can cross partisan divides. CPVs are just such a program.

My gratitude goes to the members of the working group who prepared this report, in particular working group chair Cristina Rodríguez, as well as the cochairs of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy: Katherine Cramer, Ann Fudge, and Nicholas Lemann. This work would not have been possible without the generosity of the individuals and organizations that have supported the Commission: The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The C&P Buttenwieser Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, Omidyar Network, David M. Rubenstein, and Patti Saris. Finally, I would like to thank my Academy colleagues, including those who staffed the working group: Jonathan Cohen, Victor Lopez, and Betsy Super; Zach Broeren and Elaine Tang Wei for their work on the data component of the report; our publications team: Phyllis Bendell, Key Bird, Peter Walton, and Scott Raymond; as well as Kelsey Ensign, Peter Robinson, and Tony Shivers. Finally, I am deeply grateful to President Emeritus David Oxtoby for his leadership of the Academy and the CORE project, as well as his participation in this working group.

The current debate over immigration policy plays out at the national level but it has always had deep implications for the local, namely the communities where the new arrivals settle. This report offers an important reminder of this fact, providing a roadmap to a new policy that would strengthen local economic and civic life.

Sincerely, 
Laurie L. Patton 
President, American Academy of Arts and Sciences