FortySouth

Vivek Wadhwa of Businessweek notes a fact that many have already suspected – many highly skilled immigrants are leaving the US in large numbers to return to their home countries  for a better life and be close to family.

Why should Americans care?

Because immigrants are critical to the country’s long-term economic health. Despite the fact that they constitute only 12% of the U.S. population, immigrants have started 52% of Silicon Valley’s technology companies and contributed to more than 25% of our global patents. They make up 24% of the U.S. science and engineering workforce holding bachelor’s degrees and 47% of science and engineering workers who have PhDs. Immigrants have co-founded firms such as Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), eBay (EBAY), and Yahoo! (YHOO).

I think this is one of those issues that’s always going to have an argument on both sides of the same coin – protectionism versus comprehensive immigration reform. Temporary reprieve was offered to those pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) degrees, allowing them to work an additional 17 months on their F-1 visas before having to apply for the H-1B. The catch to this is that the employer must already be participating in the USCIS E-Verify program; some of the larger companies in the tech industry are still not enrolled.

So many questions arise: should the US be actively seeking to retain skilled immigrants that are trained in their schools and other institutions of higher learning? Should there be an explicit rule employers are obliged to follow regarding hiring US citizens versus applicants, or is it purely on merit?

The trend now shows that it is getting increasingly difficult for immigrants to remain to work in the country, with the limit on H-1B visas and the multi-year wait for those seeking permanent residency. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 a.k.a the Stimuls Bill specifically limits the number of H-1Bs that a financial institution receiving stimulus funds can hire.

FTA:

We may not need all these workers in the U.S. during the deepening recession. But we will need them to help us recover from it. Right now, they are taking their skills and ideas back to their home countries and are unlikely to return, barring an extraordinary recruitment effort and major changes to immigration policy. That hardly seems likely given the current political climate. The policy focus now seems to be on doing whatever it takes to retain existing American jobs—even if it comes at the cost of building a workforce for the future of America.

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See Also:

• Startup Visa Bill Introduced in U.S. Senate
• Working while on an F-1 Student Visa