Scott Wright is head of the immigration practice at the law firm of Faegre & Benson. He is chair of the Minnesota-Dakotas chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Here’s a government news release that would have most U.S. executives, particularly in the technology industry, cheering.
"There is an urgent need to act," a government spokesman said while announcing a plan for thousands of special visas aimed at attracting foreigners into high-tech jobs. "We cannot deal with the problem in five years, because in five years all the opportunities will have left the country."
But save your applause. The news above didn’t come from the U.S. government. It’s the latest policy proposal from German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
As the German example shows, even countries that traditionally have been wary of immigration are making extra efforts to lure skilled workers. These countries watched with envy as the technology sector drove the U.S. economy to dizzying heights in the past decade. And they know that engineers, scientists, and computer programmers are the engines that make the technology economy go. Competition for these workers is fierce.
In the United States, as elsewhere, demand for high-tech workers has outstripped the supply, forcing businesses and other employers to recruit overseas, particularly from countries such as China and India.
But outdated immigration laws and bureaucracy are tying the hands of U.S. employers and creating a backlog of thousands of visa applications for engineers, college professors, doctors, computer programmers and other professionals. It’s time to implement permanent immigration reforms that meet the needs of the New Economy.
Demand Exceeds Supply
The U.S. government set the cap on H-1B temporary visas, under which employers can bring in highly skilled foreign workers for up to six years, at a maximum of 115,000 in the federal fiscal year 2000. Employers hit the cap in March.
Without action, the problem will get worse: the H-1B cap is scheduled to drop to 107,500 next year. In 2002, the cap will be a mere 65,000.
The H-1B crisis reflects a fundamental shift in the U.S. economy, driven by several factors. Growth in technology companies has generated an increasing demand for highly skilled workers who can sustain the boom in innovations, particularly in Internet applications. The combination of low unemployment and low enrollment in advanced math and science programs has left the United States short of qualified domestic workers.
As a result, employers have been forced more than ever before to recruit technical workers from other countries. Many of these foreign workers are getting their technical education at U.S. colleges and universities. In many advanced technical degree programs, more than half of the enrolled students are foreign nationals.
These students often are selected in highly competitive processes in their home countries, meaning that our schools enroll the "best of the best." But rather than encourage these students to stay and work in the United States, our immigration laws are turning them away.
Pressure Mounting
More than 400 businesses and universities, including companies in Minnesota, recently signed a letter urging Congress to take action. Alan Greenspan has been similarly supportive, noting that the labor shortage could be the biggest threat to continuing economic growth in the United States.
With political pressure increasing, it’s likely that Congress will move soon to increase the H-1B quota. One proposal in Congress, scheduled for a vote in early July, would increase the annual H-1B cap to 200,000 and provide set-asides for advanced-degree holders and employees of colleges and universities. This is a great first step. But it likely won’t be enough to meet the growing demand.
The federal government needs to look at the big picture of business immigration and implement a comprehensive package that aligns our laws and bureaucracy with the "Internet time" under which most organizations operate today. That reform should include:
Removing The Cap On H-1B Visas Entirely, With No Strings Attached. We should let the market determine the level of H-1B workers the economy needs.
Harmonizing Temporary And Permanent Visa Programs. Although many H-1B workers ultimately return to their home countries, the Department of Labor allows some highly qualified workers to obtain a permanent visa, known as a "green card." Unfortunately, each year, thousands of H-1B workers and their families who qualify for permanent residence status are forced to leave the country, because their six-year visa expires before their green card application is approved. We should have a special extension that allows H-1B workers whose permanent visa applications have been in process for more than a year to stay until their application is resolved.
Streamlining At The Front End, Auditing At The Back End. Even though the majority of permanent visa applications are honest and appropriate, each application is treated as potentially fraudulent. This is a backward approach. Instead, we should apply strict standards to the background information required for visa applications, speed up processing of qualifying applications from legitimate organizations, and devote more resources and people to auditing and enforcement to hold down instances of fraud.
Recognizing Differences Between Countries. The two largest sources of skilled technical workers today are China and India. However, current law sets a per-country cap on allocation of green cards that ignores differences in population -- allowing China the same quota of permanent visas as Jamaica. The law should allow larger countries to take advantage of slots not used by smaller countries.
Bureaucratic Reform
The biggest frustration for companies handling immigration issues is the inconsistency of the Labor Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in processing both permanent and temporary visa applications. It’s often impossible to predict what will be approved or rejected by individual government offices and in what time frame. Many large for-profit organizations gladly would pay higher processing fees if the funds could be used to streamline application procedures.
Critics of immigration reform believe that a more liberal policy toward skilled foreign workers depresses the job market for U.S. workers. Such critics have argued for years that pro-business immigration reform would stall economic growth and lead to higher U.S. unemployment. But the economy has thrived even as the number of H-1B workers has grown.
Nor is H-1B program a vehicle to hold down wages or opportunities for U.S. workers. Companies that participate in the H-1B program are required to pay prevailing wages. Penalties for violations are steep, including large fines and a three-year ban on future participation in the visa program. And the number of H-1B participants is far too small (less than 0.1 percent of the labor force) to affect the overall market. Plus, every H-1B application includes a $500 fee to support U.S. science scholarships and technology skills training grants.
If unemployment suddenly goes up, increasing the supply of skilled workers, expect the H-1B program to decline. Similarly, if a long-term effort to educate and train more U.S. workers in scientific fields is successful, employers will face less need to recruit overseas.
We also must remember that the alternative -- doing nothing -- offers no security for U.S. wages or jobs. Failing to increase the supply of skilled workers will not change the demand. Instead, more businesses will open operations overseas, in order to have access to the same skilled workers.
A practical immigration policy would allow educated, talented workers from countries around the world to contribute to the growth of the U.S. economy both with their brainpower and their financial power as consumers and taxpayers. We should welcome them as new participants in the American dream, not close our borders.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
