Dr. Chih Lin is Associate Professor of Public Policy in Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She was co-principal investigator on the Detroit Arab American Study, a landmark public opinion survey of Arab Americans in Detroit. She also works on immigration policy, bias reduction, and prison rehabilitation. She received her BA in history from Princeton University and her PhD in political science from the University of Chicago.

Comprehensive Immigration reform” balancing increased legal immigration with extensive border and workplace enforcement, has been a goal shared by both Democratic and Republican presidents. But Congress has been unable to pass such a bill for two decades. Instead, immigration advocates should champion reform that other countries have successfully implemented: based on state and regional economic needs, which can win support from state-level political coalitions. Such proposals would tie immigration to economic impact, eliminating a “shadow system of residency that currently exists outside the law.”

This is the fifth in a series of six weekly lectures. The subject is immigration. The next lecture will be on December 6. The title is REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT IN WASHTENAW COUNTY.