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Immigration Laws Make Life Difficult For Tech-Savvy Workers And Entrepreneurs

April 13, 2009 RSS Feed Print

A really good story in the New York Times yesterday about how U.S. immigration laws seem to shut out (or just delay with red tape) the most productive of potential immigrants. An excerpt:

Of Google’s 20,000 workers, 2,000 were born abroad and work on temporary visas, while numerous others (the company would not disclose how many) have become American citizens or been granted permanent residency, the so-called green card status.

Read the whole thing.

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This country is built on immigration. The school and higher education systems of the United States were never able to cover the needs of U.S. corporations for highly skilled workers. With the recession, critics of the immigration system want to close the borders and keep the jobs for Americans. That would be the end of America's leading position on the global market. The only way to move forward and rebound quickly after the recession is to not only open up the borders, but also encourage highly skilled professionals from abroad to come to the U.S.
The 65,000 H-1B visa slots these years are only filled by half so far. Foreign professionals are leaving the country in a major "brain drain". Let us hope that the necessary reform of the visa system includes a higher visa cap, stronger regulation to stop company exploitation, and incentives to increase the immigration of skilled workers, and make them stay.

Thom10 of CA 10:40PM April 17, 2009

6 billion people , 8 percent in the US. Lets take Japan,Germany, Russia and UK, roughly the same population combined as that of the US.
At one point, when both Russsia and US were equally developed, they both were similar in terms of technology and it would not be wrong to say, the above countries combined are roughly technically equivalent to the US even now.
So unless you are a racist, you have to recognise the fact that countries like India and China (who have roughly 33% of the world's population) have more number of intelligent people than the US.
This did not matter as that 33% of the population did not have oppurtunities. In fact roughly 40% in Africa/middle east/south america still do not have oppurtunities.
Year 2009, China and India are slowly catching up, and the US has already lost the numbers game, the only way it can keep up is by sucking up the best of those 33% ( and possibly the best of the african and south americans as they join the party).
"In the 60's the US led practically every area of tech"
--after winning the World war and attracting the best brains of the world who had only one place where they would not be restricted ,USA. In those days they came from Europe and possibly Japan, as the rest of the world was in the dark ages.Now obviously they will come from Asia ( large educated population ). The only way USA can stay on top , is by absorbing these minds .
"US manufacturing and industry are moribund from lack of innovation"
--Infact the restrictions in immigration and possible racism since the world war( restricting non white immigrants and classifying them as stupid ) led to countries like China and India becoming super powers.
But my Xenophobe friend the worst is yet to come. India and China still have almost 50% of their human capital untapped, africa about 90%, South americas about 70%. When those people get the same oppurtunities you got, and they will in the near future, you are going to be obsolete. So instead of calling the cream of the foreign population "Cheapo Labor" , be wary and try to teach your children their values.If you do not, they will be jobless and bitching about it on some website.

RJ of OH 4:31PM April 14, 2009

Pray tell, what do a bunch of politically correct liberal reporters at the New York Times know about technology? Their expertise is in PC fantasies.
Look at the record. In the 60s the US led in practically every area of technology. The best educated generation was coming up. The talk then was of technology transfer to aid other nation.
Never change a winning game.
Then cheapo business lobbyists, Congress, and the libs got together to open the floodgates to millions of garbage engineers and scientists from the third world. While you can replace production workers with cheap immigrant labor, and probably moderately technical IT people, the idea of replacing the great R&D teams the US had with cheapo immigrant labor was ill-advised to say the least. What kind of R&D do third worlders do? That's right, third world R&D. As tough a question as who's buried in Grant's tomb. After 40 years of massive technical immigration, US manufacturing and industry are moribund from lack of innovation.
Always change a losing game.

Luther of IL 5:06PM April 13, 2009

Immigration Laws Make Life Difficult For Tech-Savvy Workers And Entrepreneurs

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