Immigration Law

WASHINGTON POST: TIME TO ACT ON H-1B CAP CRISIS

By Greg Siskind

Another major editorial, this time from the Washington Post, endorses the need for more H-1B visas:

If nothing changes, America will miss out on another crop of talent this year.

H-1B visas are reserved for the world's best and brightest, and barring their entry is economic self-sabotage. The cap keeps out doctors, engineers and other specialists -- people who save lives and often create jobs for others in America. One need only look at the national origins of founders of companies such as Google and Sun Microsystems to realize that foreign talent has helped keep the U.S. economy on the cutting edge. These are talents the United States has been struggling to grow at home, given that more than a third of all science and engineering doctorates awarded in the United States go to foreign students (for whom the number of visas is not capped), according to the National Science Foundation.

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The H-1B visa cap was set well before the tech boom and so does not reflect current needs.

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Because lawmakers lack the political will to keep the world's talent in America, companies are following it overseas, setting up shop in Canada, India, Eastern Europe and other areas where the skills they need are plentiful. As a result, investment and jobs are being shipped abroad. As Bill Gates testified this month, the jobs created by the A-earning foreign students who did not remain in the United States will now go to the "B and C students" surrounding them at home in India rather than to their American counterparts.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on March 25, 2008 (boomark / email).