Bi-Partisan Immigration Reform?

     Immigration policy – and the process by which it is to created – is of course a huge flash point as the lame duck session begins and a new Congress awaits in January.  If professions of willingness to reach bipartisan agreement have any integrity, there is one simple place to start. The H1-B visa permits American employers to employ foreigners in a “specialty occupation” if, for most purposes, they possess at least a bachelor’s degree.  The term “specialty occupation” is broad but focuses on STEM disciplines, though it does include theology, the arts, law, education, social sciences, and other non-STEM disciplines.  However, about 90% of the applications for H1-B visas are for employment in STEM occupations, fields in which there exists a labor shortage in the United States.  What’s the problem?  Only 85,000 H1-B visas may be issued in any one year, and those visas are assigned by a random lottery.  But there over 172,000 qualified applicants for these visas.  Every year we deny entrance and employment to over 85,000 skilled, promising, and productive would-be immigrants.  Why would we wish to deny ourselves the cultural and economic benefit of these young aspiring scientists, engineers, mathematicians, physicians, chemists, biologists, and physicists?  Without even venturing into the seemingly intractable problem of how to secure our borders from unlawful entrants while regularizing the status of those who have become ingrained in our society, however unlawful their arrival may have been, we should be willing to increase the H1-B visa limits to let in every qualified skilled worker who wishes to make his or her life in America.  If there is any real intent to start on bi-partisan immigration reform, here is a simple step on that road.  We’ll see.

Update:  A commentator requests a cite for the proposition that 90% of the H1-B applicants are STEM discipline applicants.  Here it is, a May 2013 research paper from the Brookings Institute

Comments

[anon123]

Do you have a cite for 90% of H-1Bs holders are from STEM fields. Because I know plenty of accountants, general business majors and lawyers with H-1Bs. Before any immigration reform is passed, the US government should first provide a data base that shows the college attended, degree and employer of each current H-1B Holder. The largest employers of H-1Bs are NOT Apple, Microsoft or Goggle, but rather the Indian outsourcing companies of Infosys, Wipro and Satyam, who use their pedestrian people to work with American companies to outsource more data processing to India. Many are not the highly qualified people many of us have been lead to believe. The government might be able to re-order who gets H-1Bs, rather than allowing more.

[anon123]

Thank you for the link. I notice that the most frequent occupation listed is "computer occupation." That covers a wide range of people and does not necessarily require a STEM degree. People could claim that occupation with a general business degree. Again, I would like to know the degree and college of these people. I do note that engineers are listed separately. Even Bernie Saunders is against this provision. It would behoove the Democrats to listen to their core constituency, which has seen wages decline. For the truly unique people, the MIT grad for example, of course we should find a spot. I do not think the H-1B program is doing that, but at a minimum would like more proof than the statement that most of them are in "computer operations."

[Barry]

Calvin: "If professions of willingness to reach bipartisan agreement have any integrity,..."

That made me laugh, which is worth something on a grey, rainy day.

BTW, how about we start with hiring H1-B's as law professors? The first reform passed would be to allow law schools to outsource law professor jobs - hire an H1-B person, fire one tenured person.

[Anon123]

I am having trouble posting links, but you might want to read "The Myth of the Science and Engineering Shortage" by Teitelbaum in the March 2014 Atlantic.

Its only natural for employers to want to pay less but that does not mean there is a shortage of qualified employees. The qualification for an H-1B is generally a Bachelors in a field "related" to the job. I can only guess how many degrees are related to "computer occupation." By the way, the Times Square Bomber received an H-1B visa for a Bachelors from the University of Bridgeport (a 4th tier school) in computer applications and information systems. This is NOT a computer science or computer engineering major. I am not criticizing ICE for giving him the visa, just making the point that the standards are low. We only know about his degree as he made the news. I find it difficult to believe that there were not many citizens or permanent residents who would be available for his job. Heck, it might have even been a JD advantaged job.