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Economist Calls For Complete Reform Of US Immigration System
Thu, 11/01/2012 - 14:00 — adminWorkpermit.com
November 1, 2012
An economist has advised the United States government to increase immigration quotas in order to revive the economy.
Charles Kenny, a fellow at the Center for Global Development and the New America Foundation, says that the US needs more unskilled migrants to work in agriculture and other sectors. It also needs more skilled immigrants to work in high tech industries. It should also encourage foreign investors to immigrate to the US and encourage students who graduate from US universities to stay in the country.
However, he states that current US policies on immigration are unwelcoming and are hampering economic recovery. Policies designed to counter illegal immigration pursued by several US states have already damaged the agricultural sector by scaring away lowly-paid illegal immigrants who worked in the fields. Limits on the numbers of H-1B visas are adversely affecting industry, particularly the high-tech sector. At the same time, the US is making it difficult for students graduating from US universities to stay in the country.
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Why My Colleagues In Congress Shouldn’t Wait On Immigration Reform
Thu, 11/01/2012 - 14:00 — adminTechCrunch
October 31, 2012
In Washington, D.C., conventional wisdom says nothing gets done during an election year – and thus far Congress and the President have proven that wisdom correct. With more than 23 million Americans unemployed, elected officials have been more concerned with keeping their own jobs than with getting Americans back to work.
But, in the waning days of a campaign season ripe with partisan division, there is a glimmer of hope. During the second Presidential Debate at Hofstra University, Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama found common ground – agreeing that highly skilled, entrepreneurial immigrants create jobs for Americans.
“We should give visas to people… who graduate with skills that we need. People around the world with accredited degrees in science and math, [should] get a green card stapled to their diploma,” Gov. Romney said.
“They provide us innovation, and they start companies like Intel and Google, and we want to encourage that,” President Obama added.
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DREAM Act Youths Might Be Worth Billions To Texas
Wed, 10/31/2012 - 09:31 — adminSan Antonio Express-News
October 30, 2012
The hundreds of thousands of illegal U.S. immigrants who would be eligible for the DREAM Act could generate billions of dollars.
A study this month by the Center for American Progress and the Partnership for a New American Economy — a bipartisan group of U.S. mayors and business leaders — estimates the passage of the DREAM Act would generate $329 billion nationally through 2030. That's an average of more than $18 billion per year — about 0.5 percent of what the federal government spent during the 2012 fiscal year
That's just a drop in the bucket, but the Center for American Progress, a group critical of conservative policy, says some economic growth is better than none.“These are big numbers, but they are big numbers in a universe of really big budgets,” said Marshall Fitz, director of Immigration Reform at the Center for American Progress. Despite the relatively small amount, he said $329 billion on its own is a significant economic effect.
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Pentagon Advised To Overhaul Science And Tech Hiring
Fri, 10/26/2012 - 15:47 — adminNextgov
October 25, 2012
The Defense Department must overhaul its recruiting and hiring practices and reassess its requirements for security clearances if it expects to effectively compete for critical workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, according to a report released Thursday by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council.
Defense’s management of its STEM workforce has been ineffective, according to the report, which concludes an 18-month study to assess the capabilities Defense will need to meet its mission. Limited opportunity for career growth, underutilization of employee skills, and a slow and impersonal hiring process also make it difficult for the department to recruit and retain skilled employees, particularly in STEM fields.
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Immigration Policy Should Strive For The "City On The Hill," Not The "Deserted Town"
Fri, 10/26/2012 - 15:38 — adminOpen Market
October 25, 2012
Opponents of human movement, also known as “immigration,” argue that if the U.S. government stops forcibly preventing foreign-born people from relocating to the United States, the wages of American workers will suffer dramatically. By appealing to economic terms — prices, wages, supply and demand — this argument maintains the illusion of intellectual credibility that merely shouting “they’re-taking-our-jobs” lacks.
The reality is the restrictionist argument — that more workers will mean lower wages — never makes it past Econ 101, class 1. This is because the argument ignores the “ceteris paribus” disclaimer, which says if all other things were held constant, wages should fall. But things are never held constant in real life, least of all when dealing with people. The economy is more dynamic than that — people create, innovate, buy and sell.
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Bloomberg View: America's Real Immigration Crisis
Fri, 10/26/2012 - 15:27 — adminBloomberg Businessweek
October 25, 2012
Immigration policy has barely surfaced in the U.S. general election. The larger picture remains contentious—and unavoidably so.How to deal with 12 million illegal immigrants, most of them productive and otherwise law-abiding residents of long standing? How to make the border more secure and how much weight to give that imperfectly attainable goal?
Yet on one critical component of policy—the treatment of highly skilled workers—a strong consensus exists that a more liberal regime is crucial for U.S. economic prospects. President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney agree. Almost everyone who has given the matter a moment of intelligent thought agrees. Yet nothing happens.
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More Than $775 Billion Generated by Immigrant-Owned Business Activity
Thu, 10/25/2012 - 11:23 — adminDigital Journal
October 25, 2012
A recent report from the Partnership for a New American Economy, a bipartisan group of mayors and business leaders that promotes the economic benefits of sensible immigration reform, details the extensive benefits that the U.S. economy gains from businesses owned by immigrants. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who co-founded the group, has called for extensions of visa laws to minimize obstacles for everyone from highly educated medical and technical workers to low-wage and seasonal farm laborers and allow them to more easily participate in the U.S. economy.
The report, "Open for Business: How Immigrants Are Driving Business Creation in the United States," provides several key estimates of the beneficial effects of immigrant entrepreneurship on the health of the American economy:
- One of every ten privately employed American workers is employed by an immigrant-owned business
- Businesses owned by immigrants generate nearly $800 billion in revenue for the U.S. economy
- That revenue figure includes approximately $125 billion in payroll
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On Immigration, Don’t Hold Economy Hostage to Politics
Thu, 10/25/2012 - 11:03 — adminBloomberg
October 24, 2012
The third presidential debate, concerned mainly with foreign policy, was frustrating for many commentators because it gave them little to chew on. What’s to debate when there’s so much agreement -- or the semblance of it, at least?
Our frustration is quite the opposite: There is genuine agreement between Democrats and Republicans on some issues and yet that consensus fails to drive action. We see this playing out especially on immigration.
The larger immigration picture certainly remains contentious, and unavoidably so. How to deal with 12 million illegal immigrants, most of them productive and otherwise law- abiding citizens of long standing? How to make the border more secure, and how much weight to give that imperfectly attainable goal?
Yet in one important area -- the treatment of highly skilled workers -- a strong consensus exists that a more liberal policy is crucial for U.S. economic prospects. President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney agree. Almost everyone who has given the matter a moment of intelligent thought agrees. Yet nothing happens.
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Immigration, Science and Technology
Thu, 10/25/2012 - 10:48 — adminHuffington Post
October 24, 2012
Immigration has been key to America's preeminence in science and technology, and yet we're losing our competitive advantage. The loss of highly skilled immigrants is a serious threat to our global economic leadership -- and the jobs that flow from it -- and eliminating government obstacles in the way of that talent should be a top priority for bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill once elections are over.
n a recent report titled "Not Coming to America: Why the U.S.
is Falling Behind in the Global Race for Talent," the Partnership for a New American Economy and the Partnership for New York City wrote:
More than 40 percent of America's Fortune 500 companies were founded by an immigrant or a child of an immigrant. In recent years, however, U.S. immigration laws have failed to keep pace with the country's changing economic needs. Artificially low limits on the number of visas and serious bureaucratic obstacles prevent employers from hiring the people they need -- and drive entrepreneurs to other countries, who are quick to welcome them.
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America Is Innovation
Thu, 10/25/2012 - 10:38 — adminForbes
October 24, 2012
Our nation is better because we create better. We innovate. We try new things. We risk failure. But when we fail, we pick ourselves up and we try again. We create new business models and they succeed. And then newer models come along and destroy them.
One example is television broadcasting, which blossomed for years until cable TV came in and quickly took market share. Then satellite was launched, and it stole some of cable’s share. Now fiber and wireless networks are delivering broadband entertainment to millions of Americans.
The same happened for retailers. Walmart, Target, Best Buy and RadioShack became destinations for Americans wanting a great deal. But then Amazon and eBay created new business models and enticed many of those same Americans away from the shelves to their computers.
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