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Immigration

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Resources

International Mobility of Scientists and Engineers to the US. Brain Drain or Brain Circulation? NSF Issue Brief 98-316. "This Issue Brief highlights the role of U.S. universities in acquiring, supporting and retaining foreign S&E talent, and the proportion of foreign doctoral recipients who remain in the United States for postdoctoral study as well as long-term employment."
Uncontrolled Experiment by Scott Stossel, The New Republic, March 29, 1999. An interesting and balanced article about the rise in scientific immigration and its consequences.
Statistical Profiles of Foreign Doctoral Recipients in Science and Engineering: Plans to Stay in the United States "The majority of foreign students who earned S&E doctorates from U.S. institutions during 1988-96 planned to locate in the United States, and almost 40 percent reported firm plans for further study or employment. Most of those with firm plans had offers of postdoctoral appointments."
H-1B visas going fast This year's cap of 65,000 H-1B guest-worker visas is already close to being reached, as employers snap up the controversial visas. CNET News.com, January 2004.
How and Why Government, Universities, and Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists and High-Tech Workers by Eric Weinstein, Project on the Economics of Advanced Training, Harvard University / National Bureau for Economic Research. Working Draft.
If We Need Immigrant PhDs, Why Are American PhDs Poor And Unemployed? "There they go again. Another report on the (allegedly) vital role of immigrants in the U.S. science and engineering workforce—implicitly bemoaning the competence of native-born Americans."
Senate weighs H-1B visa changes September 27, 2004. "There's a push in Congress to change guest visa programs, including a proposal to create a new exemption to the annual cap of 65,000 new H-1B visas."
Why Americans Don't Study Science: It Doesn't Pay "There they go again. Claiming they can’t find enough skilled Americans, the high-tech industry has browbeaten Congress into allowing them to bring in another 20,000 foreign workers. The little-noticed legislation, inserted into an appropriations bill required for the government to continue normal operations, expands the number of foreign workers eligible for H-1b visas from 65,000 to 85,000 in 2005."
Outward bound: Do developing countries gain or lose when their brightest talents go abroad? The Economist, September 26, 2002.
Drop in foreign grad students raises alarm CNN, November 5, 2004. "A new survey indicates the number of foreign graduate students enrolling for the first time at American universities is down 6 percent this year -- the third straight decline after a decade of growth. Educators worry the trend is eroding America's position as the world's leader in higher education."
How Much Does the U.S. Rely on Immigrant Engineers? NSF Issue Brief 99-327. "This issue brief analyzes data on country-of-birth of U.S. engineers to explore differences and similarities between immigrant and U.S.-born engineers. Sectoral differences in employment, educational level, and socio-economic background are topics examined in the Brief."
foreignborn.com "Our website includes a variety of useful information, from tax issues and medical briefings to overviews of banking and credit in the U.S. We have a popular guide that helps students who desire to 'Study in the U.S.', and we have extensive U.S. visa information that was developed with the assistance of a former official from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service."
Huddled Masses Yearning to Write Java By Karl Schoenberger, The Industry Standard, May 1, 2000. "With unusual bipartisan consensus, Congress and Clinton are expected this month to approve a bill that would ease limits on the immigration of high-tech workers. But many charge that the U.S. labor shortage is a fiction exploited by business to the detriment of American programmers."
The New Face of the Silicon Age How India became the capital of the computing revolution. By Daniel H. Pink, Wired, February 2004.
Are Graduate Admissions Fair? An analysis of admissions and GRE scores suggesting that universities are running an affirmative action program for US citizens with preferences for citizenship that are an order of magnitude larger than those for gender or ethnicity.
Does Globalization of the Scientific/Engineering Workforce Threaten U.S. Economic Leadership? by Richard Freeman Richard Freeman, NBER Working Paper, 2005. "This paper develops four propositions that show that changes in the global job market for science and engineering (S&E) workers are eroding US dominance in S&E, which diminishes comparative advantage in high tech production and creates problems for American industry and workers"
Bush immigration plan could affect techies "Details of President Bush's plan to tackle illegal immigration remain fuzzy, but the program could create a new way for technology employers to bring in foreign workers." CNET News.com, Jan 20, 2004.
Compete America - The Alliance for a Competitive Workforce A lobbying group that seeks to ease restrictions on H1-B visas for foreign nationals with a Masters or PhD. "In a number of key technical fields, the total number of graduates with advanced degrees has not kept pace with demand. In addition, a rising percentage of the advanced degrees awarded by U.S. universities in areas of study like engineering, mathematics and computer sciences are to foreign nationals. Under current immigration law, however, many of these graduates are not available for hire by U.S. firms without H-1B visas. They are, however, available to overseas competitors."
U.S. to sharply cut number of H-1B visas September 22, 2003. "The United States is about to cut the number of employment visas it offers to highly qualified foreign workers from 195,000 to 65,000, immigration experts said Monday."
American Engineering Association Link includes information on immigration, trade and a few other items with several related links listed.
More H1-B visas on the way? CNET News.com, November 3, 2005. "A provision in a budget measure approved by a late 52 to 47 vote in the U.S. Senate on Thursday would bump up the number of guest-worker visas, known as H-1Bs, from 65,000 to 95,000 for next year."
INS Sees Big Drop in High-Tech Visas Washington Post, August 16, 2002. "The fallout from a slowing economy and the technology bust has shown up in yet another place: the decreasing number of so-called high-tech visas awarded to foreign workers."
AFL-CIO, CWA propose H-1B reforms A set of reforms to the H1-B program proposed by the AFL-CIO.
US biotechs and foreign nationals: the changing dynamics... ...of access to H-1B visas - Nature Biotechnology. Recent changes in the H-1B visa program have left biotech employers shorthanded and confused.

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