Renewing the Promise of America
To create new jobs and prosperity, Congress should enhance the nation’s access to the world’s top talent.
Amid the current slowdown in the U.S. economy, it’s more urgent than ever that Congress take action to strengthen America’s competitiveness by addressing immigration policy for highly skilled workers.
For generations, all Americans have benefited economically from the nation’s global leadership in innovation, which is fueled in part by our ability to attract the world’s best and brightest to study and work in this country. Today, the nation’s need for graduates in science and engineering far exceeds the supply. Many employers, including Microsoft, rely on highly skilled individuals from other countries in order to continue expanding operations and create jobs in the United States.
Unfortunately, U.S. immigration policies are increasingly driving away the world’s top talent, forcing companies to accelerate their expansion overseas. This has an adverse impact on both domestic growth in the technology industry and overall U.S. competitiveness.
The primary means for temporarily bringing in workers with scarce, advanced skills is the H-1B visa. Last month, the United States stopped accepting H-1B visa applications for 2009, six months before the new fiscal year even begins. The government was flooded with applications for many times more than the 65,000 visas allowed under current law.
Meanwhile, there is an equally dire shortage of permanent visas that employers seek for H-1B employees who wish to set down U.S. roots. Obtaining permanent residency requires a thorough background check and certification that no qualified Americans are available to do the job. But the annual cap on permanent visas has caused a seven-year backlog of applications, which leaves H-1B workers frozen in their starting positions and uncertain about their future.
The contributions of these highly skilled workers have a significant multiplier effect on growth in U.S. jobs and economic activity overall, as documented in a recent study by the National Foundation for American Policy. Widely in demand, these workers are increasingly being enticed away by career opportunities in Europe, China and other countries that are expanding their visa programs to give their economies a competitive edge.
Several bills introduced this year would go far toward easing the crisis in high-skilled immigration. Lawmakers have proposed increasing the cap on H-1B visas and providing exemptions from the cap for graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Just as important, measures now before Congress would significantly increase the number of permanent residency visas issued annually, and remove arbitrary restrictions on how many visas may be issued to immigrants from individual countries.
By acting now to ease the current shortage of highly skilled workers, Congress can remove an impediment to renewed U.S. economic growth in the months ahead, and help sustain American innovation and competitiveness for years to come.
