Crediting Migrants

Abstract

Credit facilitates migration, and it may also provide a theoretical framework to understand it. This Essay examines the role of credit and financing in migration by focusing on changes to the “public charge” ground of inadmissibility—American immigration law’s nearly 150-year-old test for prohibiting migration by those financially dependent on governmental assistance. In October 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would change how the agency will determine an immigrant’s likelihood of becoming a public charge and the consequences flowing from that determination.

This Essay proceeds in four Parts to consider how the proposed public charge rule connects migration to credit.

Keywords: immigration, public charge, credit, credit reporting