Left to their devices, several of the nation’s top political pundits would have the world believing that immigrants come to America with the primary goal of pushing existing workers out of the job market. Not only does this rhetoric breed prejudice, it’s also categorically untrue.
According to the job loss calculator from Compete America, an association of high-tech companies advocating for immigration reform, 500,000 new U.S. jobs could have been created in the past year if it wasn’t for outdated H-1B visa restrictions. The H-1B visa allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. And foreign-born students are earning degrees in STEM fields at a rate that far outpaces their American counterparts.
Compete America also highlights how immigrants really affect the job market — they grow the economy, drive cutting-edge innovation and create more jobs for everyone. Research from the National Foundation for American Policy states that for every H-1B worker hired in small- to mid-sized technology companies, 7.5 jobs are created.
Except for a few years of temporary increases, the cap on H-1B visas for skilled workers with bachelor’s degrees has been set at 65,000 per year and 20,000 for U.S. advanced degree holders. Because demand has constantly exceeded supply, the cap is reached quickly every year. Last week, during the annual filing window, USCIS received 172,500 H-1B petitions. Like the other components of our immigration system, the insufficient number of H1-B visas demonstrates how deeply flawed our current immigrations system is. Our current approach isn’t flexible enough to keep pace with our ever-changing economy — a reality that threatens to hamper America’s admirable economic progress.
Zulkie Partners is nationally recognized for its command of immigration law. We offer services that cover all aspects of corporate immigration law, including nonimmigrant work visas, permanent residence sponsorship and more.
0 Comments