How ‘Heartland Visas’ Could Reduce Geographic Inequality

America is growing more divided, not just by economic class, but by geographic region. We’ve seen mounting geographic inequality—something I’ve dubbed “winner-take-all urbanism”—as the divide has widened between coastal superstar cities (like New York and Los Angeles) or leading tech hubs (such as San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.) and the rest of the country.

A new report by economist Adam Ozimek of Moody’s Analytics and Kenan Fikri and John Lettieri of the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) takes a closer look at the extent of America’s geographic divide and the factors that are driving it. But instead of stopping there, it also suggests a strategy for addressing it. To bolster the economies of struggling cities and regions, the authors’ proposed solution is placed-based visas (or “heartland visas”), which would effectively channel immigrants to the left-behind places that opt into the program.