Just-in-time immigration reform: the case for a sustained but selective immigration policy.

• Author: Ochoa-Brillembourg, Hilda

One of the more effective tools developed to enhance global productivity is a business inventory management method called "just in time." Just-in-time management reduces manufacturing and distribution costs caused by large inventories of merchandise waiting to be sold. The method matches the supply and demand for goods, promptly reducing imbalances and wasteful costs.

It is a logic that cries out to be applied to American immigration policy. We have the technology and the data to do it: All we need is the will. There should not be production bottlenecks created by poor matches between domestic and foreign supply and demand for human capital.

American exceptionalism has in large part been built on the drive and productivity of its immigrants. Insularity can hamstring even the most industrious of nations, as these last two decades in Japan have evidenced. But the diversity and drive that entrepreneurial immigrants bring to America's life are now jeopardized when we need them the most, as we grapple with the real challenges that uncontrolled and illegal immigration pose to the fabric of our welfare state.

There is appropriately intense discussion on the paths to legalization of the millions of immigrants already in the United States, but in my view additional attention needs to be placed on creating just-in-time dynamic immigration policies for new immigrants going forward. Globalization has thrived on free capital and trade flows, while human capital flows are obstructed by political gridlock on our own shores. This is a threat to the essence of American success. We have to continue to attract the best and brightest of human capital, as well as those immigrants meeting the employment needs of all sectors of the economy, including farmers and households. Time is of the essence.

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AFTER THE BOOMERS, WHAT?

The generation that has exemplified the extraordinary societal achievements in American life since the 1950s has almost run its course. The Boomers are graying, retiring, and increasingly demanding social welfare for which they contributed--but not enough for their longer life expectancy. In a blink of an eye, it seems, they have gone from the locomotive to the caboose. This demographic challenge is patently not just an American challenge, but I would argue that we are in the best position to tackle it, and immigration policy is the key. How well we do the job will determine how well we do economically and socially.

The...