The debate about immigration typically centers on the millions of people who enter the country illegally each year looking for work. But now tens of thousands of skilled workers are getting turned away as well.
Through the H-1B visa category, companies can employ skilled foreign workers who have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent on a temporary basis. These workers specialize in areas such as engineering, science, medicine, law, computer programming and accounting. They are hired specifically by companies, who pay them the prevailing wage for their particular industry.
The program seems great ““ allow skilled workers to come to the U.S. to contribute their specialized knowledge ““ the company wants them here, they want to be here, and the country can benefit from their expertise.
But there’s a catch: Only 65,000 of these people are granted H-1B visas. To put that number in context, more than 150,000 H-1B petitions were submitted to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on the first day companies could turn them in, according to the Los Angeles Times.
That means that nearly 100,000 applicants who submitted their petitions immediately will be rejected.
Over the last few years, the number of applications received ““ and potential workers rejected ““ has increased dramatically: In 2006, the maximum number was reached in May and in 2005 it was reached in August.
The presence of these workers in the U.S. is an advantage not only for the employees but for the country as well, especially as the government is working to keep this country competitive in the science and technology sector. As so much is being outsourced and the U.S. is concerned about falling behind, it seems counterintuitive to turn away thousands of skilled people who want to come here and share their skills.
And capping the number of skilled foreigners who can come the country to work could have long-term effects on the United States’ competitiveness as it could turn people away from coming to work and studying here.
One group of people affected by this cap is foreign students graduating from American colleges. These people have studied here and may wish to work here, but they are often barred from the job market. By preventing foreign students from working in the country, we may also be discouraging them from coming to study in the U.S. to begin with, and with increasing competition from abroad, this is something we cannot afford.
The debate about other areas of immigration is much dicier ““ with concerns on the one hand about whether undocumented immigrants are getting paid a living wage and are receiving fair treatment in the work place, and complaints on the other hand that these immigrants are using services such as hospitals and schools which they do not pay for.
But this question is much simpler: Workers living here with H-1B visas pay taxes and receive adequate wages, negating the argument that these immigrants might be a drain on our social services.
There is no reason these people should not be here, and many, many reasons that they should. Instead of sticking to an arbitrary cap set by Congress years ago, the cap should be reviewed and increased to accommodate the demand on the part of the workers and the need on the part of the country.