United Liberty
Congress must reform high-skilled worker visa system
Fri, 02/22/2013 - 11:30am | posted by Jason Pye
The renewed debate over immigration reform has led to some very strong opinions, but one particular issue that has been lost in the mix is the need for more high-skilled workers in the United States.
The visa system for high-skilled workers — known as H-1B visas or STEM visas — is in dire need of modernization. This system allows businesses to temorarily employ foreign workers who have college degrees in various fields, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The system, however, limits the number of workers who can obtain these visas to 65,000 per year, meaning that many high-skilled workers see employment in other countries instead of waiting to come to the United States.
Along with a number of his colleagues from both sides of the aisle, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) recently introduced legislation — the Immigration Innovation Act (also known as the I-Squared Act) — that would bring a much needed overhaul to the H-1B visa system and more economic benefit to the United States.
The Immigration Innovation Act would increase the annual cap on high-skilled workers who can obtain H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000 and also provide a manner of flexibility that would allow the cap to be raised even higher to meet labor demand inside the United States. The legislation would also remove the cap for high-skilled workers with advanced degrees, which is currently limited to 20,000 per year.
A coalition of freedom-minded groups — including the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute — have endorsed the plan.
In a letter to House Judiciary Committe Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the heads of these groups explained that the Immigration Innovation Act would help our economy stay competitive.
“As nations like China and India are growing at breakneck speed, it is imperative that the American economy be allowed to innovate and grow,” the coalition’s letter states. “High-skilled immigrants play an integral role in that growth; Immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start a new business than native-born Americans, and newly formed businesses are responsible for the vast majority of new jobs created.”
They also explains the consequences of continued of not reforming H-1B visa, explaining that “[w]hen America turns away a potential investor, entrepreneur, or job creator, that person does not simply cease to exist.”
“She returns to her own country and starts a business that competes directly with American companies,” they explain. “And she hires citizens of her own country instead of Americans.”
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, has been a proponent of reforming the H-1B visa system. During his testimoney before the House Committee on Science Technology in 2008, Gates explained that the issue isn’t just about bring more high-skilled foreign wokers to the United States, but also the “four or five jobs we create around each of those engineers.” There is a much broader angle in terms of job creation, one from which Americans can benefit.
Regardless of how one may feel about the broader immigration reform debate, we need the world’s best and brightest helping business and techology firms develop their products to remain competitive in today’s economy. Doing nothing only puts our own prosperity at risk.
The H1b visa program costs Americans jobs and limits wages. It allows corporations to hire foreign engineers for less money than they would have to pay American engineers. Many engineers and other technology professionals tend to get laid off when they are in their fifties and they can’t find new jobs because it is cheaper to bring in foreign workers. It happened to me and I have seen it happen to many others
The H1b visa program costs Americans jobs and limits wages. It allows corporations to hire foreign engineers for less money than they would have to pay American engineers.
STEM jobs, especially tech jobs, already have incredibly low unemployment rates, as James Pethokoukis recently pointed out. Additionally, these are jobs that pay very well.
I agree that this has little to do with broader immigration. I will also grant that hiring is still stronger in STEM than across the US, but the very low unemployment numbers are somewhat suspect.
A field that has had a shortage for over a decade should have seen impressively growing wages over said period. Yet IT has failed to keep pace with inflation. Such wages tend to drive MORE, not LESS interest in the field.
I love this quote: “And she hires citizens of her own country instead of Americans.” And just who do offshore outsourcers hire? Done correctly, this visa can be a tool to build America, not just line C-level and investor pockets. But make no mistake, this visa as it stands is primarily about outsourcing and overlooking domestic talent.
This article is unwittingly (or more likely carelessly) calling for the destruction of STEM as a domestic career.
Free-market advocate and Nobel Economics Laureate Milton Friedman noted in a 2002 ComputerWorld article that the H-1B Visa program was a “government subsidy” program as it allowed employers to obtain higher-skilled workers for below-market wages. Kamal Nath, the Commerce Minister of India said that the H-1B Visa was the “outsourcing visa” in a 15 April 2007 New York Times article. Microsoft, by far the biggest user of the H-1B Visa program with almost 38,000 visas authorized since 2001. Microsoft has added jobs since 2001… Tens of thousands of new jobs in INDIA. Microsoft also hired Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, etc. to help them get more H-1B Visas. To learn more, search by title for the 2007 expose (in PDF form) - “The Greedy Gates Immigration Gambit.”
It was not the foreign worker who made this country great! It was the AMERICAN, homegrown and educated, that has led the world in all endeavors!
Allowing the foreigners to come into the country, most with promises of becoming American citizens at the end of their contract, is NOT the way to cleaning up our economy! Actually, there are thousands, if not millions of highly educated, skilled Americans who are unemployed, and a good number of them are out of a job because of the sneaky, greedy, ignorant bosses who only want to gain either more power for themselves, with outrageous paybacks, or a political office—most likely the latter!
Hire AMERICANS, and AMERICANS only! As for the “immigration” matter, shut down all immigration for all time—we no longer need them, we don’t want them, and they’re nothing but a drag on our economy and a slap in our faces!
Nice informative post dear. some useful stuff about H1-b Visa Guide to share
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