FORTUNE -- If you're an immigration lawyer, this is a busy time of year. Each April the U.S. begins to accept new applications for H-1B work visas -- the sort reserved for the highly skilled foreigners coveted by U.S. firms. This year 65,000 H-1B visas are available.
Things are off to a plodding start thus far: As of May 6, only 18,000 applications had been filed for regular H-1Bs, a slower pace than in the past, and evidence -- were any more needed -- that the economic recovery has not so far led to a wave of hiring.
But with immigration reform a hot topic in Washington, you can bet that the old arguments about H-1Bs will soon be trotted out: Labor groups will claim that they depress wages and take jobs from Americans, a point with obvious relevance given today's unemployment rates. Businesses, especially the high-tech sector, will assert that each H-1B visa holder creates another four jobs and that securing the best talent from around the world is vital to our competitiveness.
I had better declare an interest. I was born in England, and I was lucky enough to receive an H-1B myself, the first step on a journey that ended with U.S. citizenship. That notwithstanding, I admit to a sneaking sympathy with the scheme's critics, if only because anytime I hear a policy justified by the use of the word "competitiveness," I reach for my BS detector. If a nation cannot be competitive when it accounts for nearly a quarter of world output, sits on abundant natural resources, has most of the world's best universities, and has had a stable constitutional system for some 200 years, a supposed shortage of computer scientists is the least of our worries.
The immigration brain drain - Jun. 14, 2010
Things are off to a plodding start thus far: As of May 6, only 18,000 applications had been filed for regular H-1Bs, a slower pace than in the past, and evidence -- were any more needed -- that the economic recovery has not so far led to a wave of hiring.
But with immigration reform a hot topic in Washington, you can bet that the old arguments about H-1Bs will soon be trotted out: Labor groups will claim that they depress wages and take jobs from Americans, a point with obvious relevance given today's unemployment rates. Businesses, especially the high-tech sector, will assert that each H-1B visa holder creates another four jobs and that securing the best talent from around the world is vital to our competitiveness.
I had better declare an interest. I was born in England, and I was lucky enough to receive an H-1B myself, the first step on a journey that ended with U.S. citizenship. That notwithstanding, I admit to a sneaking sympathy with the scheme's critics, if only because anytime I hear a policy justified by the use of the word "competitiveness," I reach for my BS detector. If a nation cannot be competitive when it accounts for nearly a quarter of world output, sits on abundant natural resources, has most of the world's best universities, and has had a stable constitutional system for some 200 years, a supposed shortage of computer scientists is the least of our worries.
The immigration brain drain - Jun. 14, 2010