Immigration policymaking has been active at the local level in the United States over the past few decades. This study examines whether the economic development-oriented immigrant-welcoming efforts that started in 2010 in Detroit have increased the local immigrant population. It uses the synthetic control method to construct a comparison region that resembles Detroit in the preintervention periods to serve as a counterfactual. Empirical results reveal a statistically significant increase in the immigrant share of the population in the metropolitan area during the postintervention period of 2011–2014. The increase is robust to various sets of specifications and placebo tests. The share of high-skilled immigrants in the local population also increased during this time, albeit with a weak statistical significance. These findings point to the potential of immigrant-welcoming programs in attracting and retaining immigrants and immigrant talent.

在过去的几十年里，美国地方层面的移民政策制定一直很活跃。本研究考察了 2010 年在底特律开始的以经济发展为导向的欢迎移民的努力是否增加了当地的移民人口。它使用综合控制方法构建一个类似于干预前时期底特律的比较区域作为反事实。实证结果显示，在 2011 年至 2014 年的干预后时期，大都市区的移民人口比例在统计上显着增加。对于各种规格和安慰剂测试，这种增加是稳健的。在此期间，当地人口中高技能移民的比例也有所增加，尽管统计显着性较弱。