For many rural communities, the immigration debate is not only about the border. It is also about workers, students, caregivers and population.
After a decade of population loss, nonmetropolitan America began growing again after 2020. Migration drove that rebound, offsetting population losses as deaths continued to outnumber births, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
International migration has become an increasingly important part of that growth. From 2020 through 2024, migration added about 974,000 people to nonmetro counties, including roughly 300,000 from international migration. In 2023–24 alone, international migration accounted for 48% of net migration gains in those counties.
But that flow is slowing. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 90% of U.S. counties experienced lower net international migration between 2024 and 2025. Every state still recorded positive international migration, meaning more people arrived from abroad than left, but at lower levels than the previous year.
During a recent American Community Media briefing examining immigration’s impact on small-town America, Louisiana State University sociology professor Tim Slack described immigration as a “population lifeline” for many rural communities.
The stakes extend beyond population counts. As younger residents leave and older residents age in place, communities can face worker shortages, declining tax bases and school closures.
Asked what could happen to communities already struggling with those trends if substantial numbers of immigrants were no longer there, Slack put it plainly:
“What happens to the towns is they age and shrink and die.”
The impact can already be seen in communities across the country.
Former Storm Lake, Iowa, police chief Mark Prosser described immigration as part of a decades-long transformation of his community, bringing workers and families into an area that had been losing population. He said some Iowa communities attracting immigrant families have seen schools grow while others facing declining enrollment have consolidated school systems.
In Springfield, Ohio, the Rev. Carl Ruby said Haitian immigrants have opened businesses, helped employers fill jobs and worked in retirement homes where workers had been difficult to find.
Those experiences are not universal. USDA data show 51% of nonmetro counties still lost population between 2020 and 2024. But in some small-city and remote-rural counties, international migration has helped offset domestic population losses.
That makes immigration more than a national policy debate for parts of rural America.
It is also about who will work, attend school, care for an aging population — and help keep communities going.
