United States National Security Paper: Global Mobility Angle

I've seen a lot of takes on the 2025 National Security Strategy that came out earlier this week. I read most of it this morning, and I'll jump in from a global mobility angle. My overall takeaway is that this is an administration with a deep distaste for globalism, and they have no qualms about expressing it. The paper doesn't just highlight illegal immigration, it fundamentally attacks the philosophy of transnationalism.

Here are 2 things that jumped out at me:

#1: The End of the "Global Talent" Narrative

For decades, the standard immigration principle (led by the USA) has been: “If you have merit/skills we need, you are welcome.” That's given rise to fierce competition for the world's doctors, engineers, and nuclear physicists.

A section on competence challenges that principle:

"...we cannot allow meritocracy to be used as a justification to open America’s labor market to the world in the name of finding 'global talent' that undercuts American workers."

Meritocracy is not framed as an avenue for global mobility (the American Dream) here, but rather as a trap used to displace locals. I wrote about the declining positive sentiment for international students, and I think these two go hand-in-hand. The paper does say that "...[c]ompetence and merit are among our greatest civilizational advantages," but that this should be found from Americans and not from abroad.

STEM fields, historically safe havens for global mobility, have been called out as industries highly prone to foreign interference for many years now, and this document underscores them as even more vital verticals to hire from within.

#2: The "Immobility" Doctrine

The document cites "cultural subversion" alongside espionage and human trafficking as a form of "hostile foreign influence" that the country must be protected from. It argues that "transnationalism...seeks to dissolve individual state sovereignty." Stated another way, the more foreigners come in, the less American we are.

To stem the tide of migration, the authors coin a "Trump Corollary" to the original Monroe Doctrine. Instead of keeping foreign powers out of the hemisphere, the goal of this administration is to keep people in their own countries.

The strategy seeks to "enlist" Latin American governments to act as containment zones. Metrics for a good ally now include trade, shared values, and their ability to "prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States." Migration is not a flow to managed, but a culturally subversive force to be repelled.

The document uses language seen in interviews, articles, even TikTok comments, which are flooded with this sentiment: Europe should serve as a warning to the US, suffering from "civilizational erasure" as a result of open door policies there.

My $0.02

This strategy reflects years of festering anti-globalism sentiment now explicitly stated in an official document. I see it as an acceleration point of domestic policy where mobility is treated as a vector of risk rather than a source of national advantage.

However, despite the administration’s stated objectives, I don’t believe this strategy will meaningfully slow the international mobility market in the medium to long term. Labor shortages are deepening and global competition for talent is accelerating, creating direct conflict with the pillars of this document.

We'll likely see continued drops in OECD migration numbers over the next few 2-3 years if current policies persist, but this is a temporary slowdown rather than a collapse of the global mobility market. Other nations remain eager to attract talent. Countries like China and New Zealand are actively calibrating immigration and visa pathways to capture skilled workers and graduates, requiring the same level of services across the whole mobility ecosystem.

So while the U.S. strategy signals a retreat from transnationalism as a source of competitive advantage, the market for mobility will simply adjust and find new pathways in the medium term.