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Protecting Our Foreign-Born Talent: Looking To STEM And Beyond To Boost Our Economy

Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
June 19, 2012

Among the few agreements on Capitol Hill concerning immigration reform, legislators from both sides of the aisle agree on America’s need for talent, particularly in advanced fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). American businesses, in addition to legislators, are seeking to attract and retain foreign talent within high- innovation fields to the U.S. to create new jobs and jumpstart our lagging economy. It is easy to see why we need to encourage and retain these highly skilled individuals in the U.S. – nearly half of U.S. master’s and Ph.D. degree recipients in STEM-related fields are foreign born, and many of these graduates leave the U.S. after experiencing frustrating setbacks in converting to valid worker status. The White House has even expressed concern over the continuous exodus of highly trained and competitive pre-professionals and entrepreneurs in the STEM field.

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Policy Gives Hope to Young Illegal Immigrants

Syracuse.com
June 19, 2012

Last week was an interesting week for those who practice immigration law. The week started out with the unfortunate, but expected news that the ''cap'' of 65,000 visas had been reached for the H-1B program. H-1B visas are temporary working visas given to those who have at least a four-year bachelor's degree or the equivalent. These are given for work in ''specialty occupations'' that require someone with those credentials.

Even though every H-1B employee is responsible for the creation of an average of five new jobs for American workers, our immigration system only allows for 65,000 H-1B visas each fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. The earliest application date for this program is six months prior to the start of the next fiscal year, so this means that an employer now has to wait until April 1, 2013, to apply for the H-1B worker, who cannot even start employment until Oct. 1, 2013.

For our U.S. businesses and industries who need these employees, that is unacceptable. For the foreign national employees, many of whom were educated in the United States, it is unfair. Add to this the backlog of employment-based green card applications, and well, it will just be easier for these educated, skilled workers to take their talent, creativity and energy elsewhere, like Canada, Australia or a host of other countries that are openly seeking such valued employees.

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With Illegal Immigration Slowing, Asians Migrants to US Now Surpass Newly Arrived Hispanics

Washington Post
June 19, 2012

For the first time, the influx of Asians moving to the U.S. has surpassed that of Hispanics, reflecting a slowdown in illegal immigration while American employers increase their demand for high-skilled workers.

An expansive study by the Pew Research Center details what it describes as “the rise of Asian-Americans,” a highly diverse and fast-growing group making up nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population. Mostly foreign-born and naturalized citizens, their numbers have been boosted by increases in visas granted to specialized workers and to wealthy investors as the U.S. economy becomes driven less by manufacturing and more by technology.

“Too often the policy debates on immigration fixate on just one part — illegal immigration,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California-Riverside and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “U.S. immigration is more diverse and broader than that, with policy that needs to focus also on high-skilled workers.”

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Job-Stealing Immigrants?

Wall Street Journal
June 18, 2012

Thanks to the endless television replays this weekend, just about everyone now knows that a reporter interrupted President Obama's Rose Garden remarks Friday on his new immigration policy. Less discussed has been what the reporter said.

Why do you favor foreigners over American workers?'' shouted Neil Munro of the Daily Caller website a few minutes into the president's statement. Under the new policy, some undocumented immigrants under 30 who were brought to the U.S. as children will be allowed to work legally in the U.S.

Misperceptions of how immigrants impact U.S. labor markets are nothing new, and a national unemployment rate above 8% doesn't help matters. Mr. Munro's question suggested that immigrant labor harms the job prospects of Americans.

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Business Forum: How Immigration Can Create Jobs

Star Tribune
June 17, 2012

Many of our state's largest companies were founded by immigrants. So why aren't we more welcoming?

What has made this country great is its rich heritage of people coming together from all nations. Even though the country faces high unemployment, now is not the time to adopt a protectionist immigration strategy. We should use immigration to accelerate job creation, by attracting the best talent in the world, and making it easier for our companies to compete and grow.

The influx of individuals from around the world has provided the engine for our economic development. This is what has made us the most innovative, most prosperous nation on earth. As an illustration, a recent report from the Partnership for a New American Economy has found that more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children.

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H1-B Visa Quotas Greatly Restrain Small Business Expansion

Forbes
June 17, 2012

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) announced this week that it had filled its annual H-1B visa quota for foreign high-skilled workers. The announcement comes about five months earlier than last year, signaling that U.S. businesses are expanding again. But many companies must now wait until next year to attempt to hire needed talent. This constraint is slowing their renewed growth, while unfairly disadvantaging small businesses that lack the resources necessary to navigate America’s complex immigration code.

As America’s technology and service-based economy has expanded over the last decade, its demand for high-skilled labor has increased greatly. Global competition requires access to the world’s best talent. Yet during this same period, Congress has allowed the H-1B quota for high-skilled workers to drop in half—from 195,000 in 2001 to 85,000 today. In 2006, the quota was tapped in less than two months. In 2008, it vanished in less than a day—nearly 125,000 applications were received in just two days.

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New Immigration Policy May Help Arizona Economy

The Examiner
June 16, 2012

On June 15, CNN’s John King mentioned Arizona when discussing impacts of President Obama’s policy change, which stops deportation of immigrants younger than 30, who meet certain criteria. There are the usual controversies over Presidential authority and election year tactics; but what should be important is the economic impact on Phoenix and Arizona.

Under the new policy, if these immigrants have lived in the US five years, have no criminal record, have been successful students or served in the military, they can apply for work visas. Opposition arguments include this constitutes amnesty; the Administration is lax on law enforcement; this usurps Congressional authority, and jobs are being taken from Americans.

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Murdoch, Bloomberg Applaud Obama Immigration Order

Los Angeles Times
June 15, 2012

President Obama’s decision to allow some young illegal immigrants to work legally in the United States drew applause from business leaders across the political spectrum.

Business leaders have long argued that the United States’ current immigration policy makes the country less competitive.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp., joined Alcoa Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld and Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman in issuing a full-throated endorsement of the president’s new policy.

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Green Card Problems Growing Worse for Skilled Immigrants

Forbes
June 15, 2012

Immigrating legally to the United States is not easy. “Over the past several months, skilled foreign nationals have seen no improvement in their prospects for obtaining green cards and, in fact, wait times are likely to increase in employment-based immigration categories,” according to a new report released by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), an Arlington, Va.-based policy research group.

An October 2011 analysis found the wait times for skilled immigrants, particularly those from India and China, could last 5 to 8 years, or potentially even decades in some cases. The State Department has reported in the latest Visa Bulletin that wait times could be imposed on individuals from countries other than India and China in the employment-based second preference (EB-2), for persons of “exceptional ability” and “advanced degree” holders, with the employment-based first preference (EB-1) category (outstanding researchers and professors, aliens of extraordinary ability) also possibly becoming backlogged as well.

Unlike the long-term problems in entitlement programs such as Social Security, the solutions to reducing the long wait times for employment-based green cards are easy to implement and have received bipartisan support. These solutions center around two areas: eliminating the per country limit and providing more green cards.

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Congress AWOL in the Global Competition for Talent

The Daily Caller
June 15, 2012

Nero at least fiddled while Rome burned. The U.S. Congress is doing almost nothing while American companies struggle in the global competition for talent. Americans companies’ inability to hire talented foreigners makes it hard for them to grow, invest and innovate inside this country and encourages them to expand outside of the U.S.

Two recent developments illustrate the problem. First, this month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it had reached the statutory limit of 85,000 on H-1B visas (20,000 reserved for advanced degree holders from U.S. universities). That means, with the exception of employment at universities or nonprofit research institutes, no foreign national can start working in the U.S. on a new H-1B visa until October 1, 2013, more than 15 months from now. While it’s possible for graduates of U.S. universities to be eligible to work on Optional Practical Training (OPT), that option is not available for many potential hires and in any case, given the difficulty of obtaining either H-1B temporary status or permanent residence, the OPT program leaves participants uncertain about their long-term future in the United States.

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Partnership for a New American Economy

Media Center

Protecting Our Foreign-Born Talent: Looking To STEM And Beyond To Boost Our Economy

Policy Gives Hope to Young Illegal Immigrants

With Illegal Immigration Slowing, Asians Migrants to US Now Surpass Newly Arrived Hispanics

Job-Stealing Immigrants?

Business Forum: How Immigration Can Create Jobs

H1-B Visa Quotas Greatly Restrain Small Business Expansion

New Immigration Policy May Help Arizona Economy

Murdoch, Bloomberg Applaud Obama Immigration Order

Green Card Problems Growing Worse for Skilled Immigrants

Congress AWOL in the Global Competition for Talent