Resurrecting Democracy

High-Tech Immigrants Needed, but Immigrants Need Not Apply

                        Robert A. Levine    5-25-12

Engineers and scientists are desperately needed by many high-tech firms. However, positions are going unfilled because there are not enough trained Americans to fill them and immigration policy doesn’t allow enough visas to be granted to qualified immigrants who would be happy to take these jobs. And it’s not only in established businesses where immigrants bolster the economy. One study showed that foreign-born entrepreneurs started more than 25% of the technology and engineering firms in the U.S. between 1995 and 2005. Businesses created by immigrants generated $52 billion in sales and had 450,000 employees in 2005.

Foreign nationals now comprise the majority of scientists and engineers being trained in the U.S. for advanced degrees. For example, they account for 50% of master’s degrees and 70% of Ph.d degrees in electrical engineering. On an undergraduate level, foreign born residents earn 33% of all degrees in engineering, 27% of those in computer science, math and statistics, and 24% of those in the physical sciences. Each year vast numbers of students from abroad come to study in our universities, because the education they receive is superior to what they can get at home. Last year, 160,000 Chinese men and women were enrolled in American universities, about 60% of them pursuing engineering or science degrees. Yet our poorly conceived laws limit thousands of these scientists and engineers from obtaining jobs in our country after they graduate, even though they would prefer to stay and our high-tech firms would love to have them. We should be trying to lure these foreign graduates to work in America, rather than making it difficult for them to gain employment.

A Harvard Business School study found that almost half of the scientists and engineers with doctorates currently working in the U.S. were immigrants, and they accounted for 67% of the increase in American scientists and engineers between 1995 and 2006. The need for these educated foreign born workers will only grow as the Baby Boomers age and retire in the years ahead.

At the same time that immigration laws block many foreign-born scientists and engineers from working in America, China and India are actively recruiting those that are here, providing outsized bonuses and other inducements. As a case in point, according to the New York Times, China has been offering experienced professors and researchers bonuses of approximately $158, 000 to come back home.

The flow of these university graduates to their native countries from the U.S. can be considered a reverse brain drain, inverting the expected pattern of immigration. Federal funds subsidize the education of these scientists and engineers with grants to the universities they attend, aiding the economies of other nations and helping them to compete against us. America also loses the tens of thousands of patents and new technology these foreign scientists and engineers would have developed in our country, which would have created more jobs. These go instead to the nations to which they’ve returned.

Opposition to allowing more foreign scientists and engineers to work in America has come from some unions who claim that they drive down wages for American workers. Since there are jobs going unfilled in the high-tech fields because there are not enough scientists and engineers, the charge appears ludicrous. And foreign workers in these firms receive salaries that for the most part are comparable to American workers. In addition, bureaucrats in the Immigration and Naturalization Service have complicated the processes that foreign-born scientists and engineers must go through to work in the United States, making it more difficult for them to obtain jobs. But the real problem lies with the politicians hostile to immigration who have been against increasing the visas for educated workers.

Given the paucity of American students seeking advanced degrees in science and engineering, we should be handing out green cards and welcoming any potential workers or entrepreneurs in the high tech sector. We should also provide them with easier paths to citizenship so they will be more likely to remain. It will only benefit our economy in the long run.

Resurrecting Democracy

www.robertlevinebooks.com

                               

A Holiday Wish List for Washington

A Holiday Wish List for Washington

                                    Robert A. Levine  12-6-11

 The season is fast approaching when all the naughty and nice children provide Santa with wish lists for gifts they’d like to receive. Adults also make lists of the resolutions they hope to follow in the New Year, wanting to change some of their bad habits.  As this year comes to a close and we look back on what the political parties have NOT accomplished, it is instructive compiling a list of some of the legislation that naughty members of Congress have NOT enacted, or even introduced, and the concerns we wish they might deal with in the near future. Perhaps then, they might be considered nice. 

Because it is mind-boggling how many important measures this Congress has not been able to pass, we must restrict the list to those of particular significance to the nation.

 1)      Santa, please persuade Congress to enact legislation to reduce the budget deficits and national debt. Even the “super-committee” of Republicans and Democrats was unable to reach a consensus this year on a long range plan to control the budget deficits and national debt. The hang up was how to combine a decrease in federal spending with an increase in revenue. While the Democrats were unhappy about curbing entitlement programs, they were willing to do so if some revenue enhancement was part of the package. Republicans, however, refused to consider any plan that raised taxes, even if it were limited to the most affluent Americans. Thus, nothing happened.

2)      Have members of Congress and Senators act to cushion the effects of the recession and unemployment. With the economy still in tatters and millions out of work, Washington has still not found a way to alleviate people’s pain. The problem here is the focus on the budget deficits and the unwillingness of Republicans to increase spending on a temporary basis. While unemployment compensation may yet be extended and Social Security taxes lowered for another year to put more money into workers’ pockets, there is no agreement on more aggressive intervention to help the economy.

3)      Do something about the mortgage mess. While troubled banks that were too big to fail were bailed out by the government in their hour of need, little has been offered to troubled homeowners who have mortgages that are under water or who have already defaulted. While various plans have been suggested to address this problem, no accord has been reached about what should be done. But until the housing market is righted, the economy will remain precarious.

4)      Repair and enhance America’s crumbling infrastructure. The nation’s infrastructure was once the envy of the world with a network of railroads, modern interstate highways, bridges, tunnels, ports and airports, levees and dams, electrical plants and transmission lines, pipelines and refineries. Many of these are slowly disintegrating though they are vital to America’s economy. Broadband access in this day and age is also critical and America lags many other nations in connectivity. With the construction industry now in the doldrums, this is the time to rebuild and expand America’s infrastructure as the businesses and labor to do the job are available and the price should be right.

5)      Address the morass over illegal immigration. Federal action is needed rather than diverse measures from the states. While securing the nation’s borders is essential, Congress should be realistic about how to handle the 12 million or so undocumented immigrants already here. Deporting all of them would be a legal and logistical nightmare of great expense, as well as devastating to our farmers and various industries dependent on immigrant labor.

6)      Make it easier for foreign scientists, engineers and those with special skills to work in America so that we can benefit from their expertise.

7)      Create a more comprehensive and innovative education program. This should have national standards that improves proficiency in students and produces more of our own scientists, engineers and mathematicians.

 

Santa, these are just a few of the measures that Congress needs to address. I don’t know if you have the power to change the mindset of America’s politicians and make them willing to compromise, but it would sure help the country if you could.

(P.S. I checked the list twice.)

Resurrecting Democracy

www.robertlevinebooks.com