Give me your huddled masses… of engineers, computer scientists, and neurobiologists! This week, the US House of Representatives voted almost unanimously to approve “The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011”.
The act eliminates green card caps under the current laws, which bar immigrants from any particular country to claim any more that 7 percent of the 140 thousand employment green cards issued every year in the USA. The problem with what outwardly looks like a fair division of green cards is that such laws apply equally to each country, despite national population size and amount of skilled workers applying for visas.
The new Act will prioritize applications from highly skilled workers without increasing the number of green cards issued annually; this means that technically skilled workers from such countries as China, India, and South Korea will soon make up an increased percentage of employment green card applicants every year.
While the Act is certainly represents the first step towards taking full advantage of the masses of highly skilled immigrants clamoring to add their talents to the struggling US economy, we can’t help but wonder if the Act is doing the US a disservice by failing to increase the amount of visas being offered to the increasing amounts of foreign students graduating from US universities. As we’ve noted, foreign students (particularly from China) are pouring into US institutes of higher education. When they graduate, why send them back to their home countries to compete in rival economies, when their talents instead could be used to aid the faltering economic climate in America?
{ 0 comments… add one now }