Brookings: Topics - H-1B Visas

This Week in Immigration: SJC Sends Immigration Reform to the Floor

Nicole Prchal Svajlenka — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:06:00 -0400

Big news in immigration policy: Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send S.744 to the Senate floor. In a 13-5 vote, Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch, Lindsey Graham, and Jeff Flake joined their Democratic colleagues. Much of the day was focused on contentious amendments aimed at making the pathway to citizenship impossible for undocumented immigrants. Sen. Hatch’s reworked high-skilled amendments were approved. “With a heavy heart,” Sen. Patrick Leahy withdrew one of the most controversial amendments extending immigration protections to gay couples.

A brief recap of last week’s markup: Last Tuesday the Committee wrapped up amendments regarding border security and began discussion of temporary high-skilled workers. Notably, the Committee rejected the use of a biometric entry-exit system as a trigger for beginning the legalization process (expect Sen. Rubio to bring it up again) and approved an amendment that doubles labor certification fees, allocating them to STEM education. On Thursday the Committee addressed E-Verify.

The House’s Gang of Eight – Democrats Luis Gutierrez (IL), Zoe Lofgren (CA), John Yarmuth (KY), and Xavier Becerra (CA), and Republicans Raul Labrador (ID), John Carter (TX), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), and Sam Johnson (TX) – has come to an “agreement of principles” and will release a bill in the near future. The road was (and still is) rocky, with talks looking like they might unravel right before their self-imposed deadline of last Thursday. Rep. Carter is a vocal critic of the Senate bill and anti-immigrant rhetoric is harsh in the House, so expect this bill to be more conservative than S.744.

In the meantime, the Rep. Bob Goodlatte is not satisfied with S.744 and House Judiciary Committee is still working on its piecemeal approach to immigration reform. Over the last week it held hearings on its two bills, covering E-Verify and a temporary agricultural worker program, as well as the Senate’s bill. Next up is a bill from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) addressing “rules for highly skilled and educated foreign workers.”

It is well documented the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) union isn’t happy with the Schumer-McCain bill. But another agency union is joining them – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – claiming “the bill would fail to address an ‘insurmountable bureaucracy’ at the federal agency.”

How does your legacy on immigration issues affect your election prospects? It depends on who you ask, but it promises to play a role for Republicans eyeing 2016 or former U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo’s potential bid for Colorado governor. For one Republican, it was enough to change parties: the Republican National Committee’s State Director of Florida Hispanic Outreach switched his affiliation to Democrat because of the “culture of intolerance” toward immigrants.

There is a slew of government reports from the last week to check out:

The Congressional Budget Office released their 2013 update to “A Description of the Immigrant Population.” It includes some great top-level statistics about the foreign-born population in the United States.
The Congressional Research Service released a report finding “a widely touted Border Patrol initiative to send migrants back to Mexico far from the points they are caught entering the U.S. illegally has one of the worst track records at discouraging people from trying again.”
The Census Bureau released a report estimating “net international migration is projected to overtake natural increase as the driver of population growth in 2032.”
USCIS released the latest DACA applicant numbers. As of April 30, they received 515,922 applications.

Authors

Nicole Prchal Svajlenka

Image Source: © ERIC THAYER / Reuters

H-1B Visas and the STEM Shortage

Jonathan Rothwell and Neil G. Ruiz — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:01:00 -0400

Last month, a landmark immigration reform bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate that has the potential to both increase the number of available H-1B visas for foreigners working in specialty occupations and shift the U.S. employment-based visa system to a more merit-based scheme favoring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers.

As it stands today, businesses say they cannot find the skills they need in the domestic labor pool and need access to a global pool of STEM workers. Bolstering their contention are a number of studies that suggest that STEM jobs exhibit characteristics of under-supply: high wages and low unemployment.

Yet, some analysts have argued that there are plenty of U.S. native-born workers who can do these jobs. They claim that H-1B workers do not have special skills but instead are preferred because they are paid lower wages.

Without attempting to fully resolve this complex issue, new detailed data on H-1B wages by occupation, presented more fully here, suggests that the H-1B program helps to fill a shortage of workers in STEM occupations.

Employers request H-1B visas for hard-to-fill STEM jobs. The vast majority—90 percent—of H-1B applications are for jobs requiring high-level STEM knowledge. This finding is based on our analysis of Department of Labor survey data on the knowledge needed to perform occupations. The evidence shows that these vacancies are harder-to-fill than other job openings.

Labor market experts interpret the duration of a job opening as an indicator that qualified candidates are hard to find. Such an interpretation of vacancy survey data is empirically grounded in both historical and many contemporary labor market surveys from private firms and state governments.

Using 2011 job openings data from the Conference Board for the 100 largest metropolitan areas, we find that 43 percent of job vacancies for STEM occupations with H-1B requests are reposted after one month of advertising, implying that they are unfilled. By contrast 38 percent of vacancies in non-STEM occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree go unfilled after one month, and just 32 percent of job postings for all non-STEM occupations. In a statistical analysis of over 50,000 openings, we find that those requiring STEM knowledge take significantly longer to fill, even controlling for requirements for education, experience, training, and managerial knowledge, as well as wage rates and metropolitan area location. The most commonly requested H-1B occupations in each metropolitan area also take longer to fill.

H-1B visa holders earn more than comparable native-born workers. H-1B workers are paid more than U.S. native-born workers with a bachelor’s degree generally ($76,356 versus $67,301 in 2010) and even within the same occupation and industry for workers with similar experience. This suggests that they provide hard-to-find skills.

To reach this conclusion, we analyzed 2010 H-1B petitions obtained from labor economists Magnus Lofstrom and Joe Hayes through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. We combined these data with micro-records from the American Community Survey to compare employed the U.S. native-born with a bachelor’s degree to their H-1B counterparts.

Like Lofstrom and Hayes, we find that H-1B workers earn more than Americans in the same occupation and age cohort. The 20 most common cohort-minor occupation combinations found in the H-1B program are listed below. These groups comprise roughly three-quarters of all H-1B workers in the database. In 17 of the 20 groups, wages are significantly higher for H-1B workers, and there is a significant negative difference only for life scientists aged 30 to 35. For the three largest computer occupation groups, wages are much higher.

Download this data (PDF) »

Wages are increasing in occupations with most H-1B requests. In recent years, from 2009 to 2011, nominal wage growth for U.S.-born workers with at least a bachelor’s degree has been high for the most prominent H-1B occupations. The average native-born worker experienced flat annual growth in wages over that period (0.0 percent), but wage growth for those in computer occupations—the largest H-1B category—grew by 1.3 percent each year since 2009 and 2.7 percent each year since 2000 for those with a bachelor’s degree. Wage growth was even higher for engineers, with 2.1 percent growth since 2009 and 3 percent growth since 2000.

For every prominent H-1B occupational category except life scientists and operations specialties managers, wage growth was stronger than the national average since 2009. Since 2000, all but postsecondary teachers have seen higher than average wage growth.

Download this data (PDF) »

There are two important caveats. First, hard-to-fill high-skilled jobs do not always require many years of post-secondary training. Even among H-1B visa requests, about 25 percent are for occupations that typically require only an associate’s degree, meaning that the current U.S. workforce could be trained to do these jobs at relatively little cost. Second, not all STEM jobs are experiencing the same symptoms of shortage.

A data-driven bureau is needed to identify occupational shortages. Overall, there is compelling evidence that the H-1B visa program is helping to alleviate acute shortages in various occupations. Yet, because of data limitations, the evidence is far from complete. If the Senate bill is passed into law, the proposed Bureau on Immigration and Labor Market Research should collect better information from employers about job openings, including occupations, the number of qualified applicants, the number of interviews conducted, and the length of time it takes to fill the job. Likewise, the bureau should also consider how demand and supply play out in regional or metropolitan area labor markets, since job search and recruitment often happen locally. Armed with such information, as well as indicators presented above, visas and public funding for training and education in hard-to-fill occupations could be more confidently allocated.

Authors

Image Source: © Brian Snyder / Reuters

This Week in Immigration: Senate Markup

Nicole Prchal Svajlenka — Tue, 07 May 2013 10:22:00 -0400

Last week, we saw the first modifications to immigration, specifically student visas, in light of the Boston Marathon bombings. Two of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friends, Kazaks in the United States on student visas, were “charged with conspiring to obstruct justice.” Now, as reported by the Associated Press, “The Homeland Security Department ordered border agents to verify that every international student who arrives in the U.S. has a valid student visa.”

While many senators were visiting their districts during the recess, there’s still plenty to report on. May Day rallies in support of comprehensive reform and citizenship were scattered throughout the country, including an event with Sen. Harry Reid in Las Vegas. Sen. Orrin Hatch “appears willing to support” reform that includes a pathway to citizenship. “Gang of Eight” Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham were on the town hall offensive to promote their proposed legislation. Markup begins this week; be sure to check out this Politico piece, detailing what kind of amendments you can expect to see and from whom.

Representatives in the House are slowly releasing individual legislative pieces. The first, introduced by Reps. Bob Goodlatte and Lamar Smith, is an expansion of E-Verify. The second, introduced by Goodlatte, is an agricultural guestworker program. With a flexible cap but 500,000 visa minimum, it looks like there is a lot to work out between the House and Senate.

President Obama visited Mexico and Costa Rica last week, and immigration reform became a central focus. Prior to his trip, Obama held hosted an advocate briefing at the White House. As reported by the Washington Post, Janet Murguía, President of the National Council on La Raza was in attendance and recalled Obama’s remarks: “He said, ‘If the bill were presented on my desk today, I would sign it,’” and “He looked at the advocates and said, ‘We’re not going to get everything we want in this.’”

Sen. Marco Rubio continues to be at the front and center of immigration reform. Over the last week, we learned Rubio doesn’t have high hopes for the Schumer-McCain bill in the House, considers provisions for same sex couples a deal breaker, and published a high-profile op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times also reported on the relationship between Rubio and former Sen. Jim DeMint, his one-time “mentor.”

If there is a rift between Rubio and DeMint, it looks like it will only continue to grow. Today DeMint’s Heritage Foundation released a report on the fiscal impacts of the Schumer-McCain bill, making immigration reform look very costly. The libertarian Cato Institute especially pushes back on Heritage’s methodology, already releasing a rebuttal. The reason? Heritage uses a “static fiscal scoring” as opposed to “dynamic fiscal scoring” that assesses the impact among all sectors of the economy.

While Heritage’s report on the costs of immigration reform will cause a stir, I’ve been enjoying NPR’s coverage of the economic impacts of different aspects of immigration. Stories on costs of “farmworker shortages,” impacts of reform on “low-wage black workers,” and how “major American companies benefit from undocumented workers” have all been on-point.

Authors

Nicole Prchal Svajlenka

Image Source: © David McNew / Reuters

Immigration Facts on Foreign Students

Neil G. Ruiz — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:04:00 -0400

Downloads

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz

The 2014 H-1B Visa Race Begins Today

Neil G. Ruiz and Jill H. Wilson — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:09:00 -0400

Reforming immigration may be at the top of the news, but as it dominates the headlines our existing system continues apace.

To wit: Today marks the first day U.S. employers can submit H-1B visa applications to the federal government for fiscal year 2014 (for visas beginning on October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014). Every year at the beginning of April, employers race for a limited number of H-1B visas available—currently set at 85,000, including 20,000 that are set aside for foreign graduates with advanced degrees from American universities. These visas are given on a first-come, first-served basis, resulting in this frenzy.

Last year the race for H-1B visas ended in 10 weeks, whereas the year before, amid a more sluggish economy, it took three times longer. As our report, “The Search for Skills,” highlighted, the demand for H-1B visas over the past decade fluctuated in response to both economic and political conditions. The trend has been one of growth, with the exception of significant declines in demand after the collapse of the dot-com bubble in 2001, September 11, 2011, and the Great Recession that started in 2007.

Since the cap was reached last year on June 11, many of those employers denied an H-1B visa have waited 294 days to file a new application. This long wait period, coupled with better economic conditions, may prompt a quicker end to the race this year. Some predict that the H-1B cap might be reached within five days . But the uncertainty of both the application period and the chance of success make it difficult for employers to predict whether a visa will be available to hire foreign candidates. This makes human resource planning tricky, to say the least.

The comprehensive immigration reform debate kicked off with a Senate bill called the Immigration and Innovation Act of 2013 (I-Squared Act). Under this proposal, instead of a static cap, there would be an “H-1B escalator” that automatically adjusts the cap depending on demand. The proposal raises the initial H-1B cap to 115,000 and, depending on how quickly the cap is met in a given year, it would increase incrementally, by up to 20,000 visas the following year. Likewise, if the cap is not met in a given year, it would decrease by no more than 20,000 visas the following year. The I-Squared Act proposes that the cap be no fewer than 115,000 and no greater than 300,000. At the very least, it would take 10 consecutive years of reaching the cap within 45 days to hit the upper limit of 300,000 visas.

The I-Squared Act also proposes to allow foreign students to apply for a permanent green card, to provide unlimited H-1B visas for foreigners with U.S. advanced degrees, to “staple” permanent green cards to graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) earned by foreigners at U.S. universities, and to increase visa fees that would be invested in educating the American workforce in STEM. Some or all of these proposals might be included in the much-anticipated comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Senate “Gang of Eight” is scheduled to introduce sometime this month. A group of House members have also been hammering out a plan that they may make public soon.

The current immigration reform debate is a great opportunity to overhaul the system and move away from an arbitrary race against time for H-1B visas. A new method that structures America’s future immigration system to better meet the demand for high-skilled workers—through less-arbitrary H-1B visa caps, new visa classes, and better-targeted workforce training—will be welcomed by employers and workers alike.

If the H-1B visa system is revamped, this may be the last time we see the race to the H-1B visa cap.

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz
Jill H. Wilson

Better Align H-1B Visa Fee Revenues to Local Workforce Needs

Neil G. Ruiz and Jill H. Wilson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

The Employment and Training Administration at the Department of Labor should focus its distribution of H-1B visa fee revenue to metropolitan areas with a high demand for H-1B workers to train the existing workforce for high-skilled jobs. To date, fees have been distributed disproportionately to metro areas with a lower demand for H-1B workers. Channeling H-1B technical skills grants to those places with a high demand will expand the pool of local workers possessing needed skills and reduce employers’ reliance on foreign labor.

Background
Skilled workers are an essential component of the next economy—not only do they generate new ideas, but they also produce the advanced goods and services that make American firms competitive abroad. Metropolitan areas, in turn, assemble the skilled workers that the private sector needs by either producing a skilled labor force through educational and workforce training systems or obtaining workers from elsewhere in the United States and beyond. And in a global economy characterized by greater levels of labor mobility, U.S. regions increasingly find themselves competing to attract educated foreign workers. The H-1B visa program holds tremendous potential not only for attracting skilled workers from abroad, but also for upgrading the skills of America’s workforce to meet demand both today and in the future.

Proposal
The Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings proposes that the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration better focus flows of H-1B visa revenues on metropolitan areas with a high demand for H-1B workers.

Given that employers are the ones requesting these workers, the program should also require that grants be distributed to public-private partnerships that include an advisory board of local employers working together with educational and training institutions. One potential model for this approach is the Kansas Engineering Excellence Project, which assists the long-term unemployed in completing B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. programs in engineering at Wichita State University. The program’s success relies on the partnership between an advisory board of local employers and university representatives that create programs capable of meeting local employers’ projected skills needs.

Targeting the H-1B visa fees for technical skills training in high H-1B demand metros and requiring employer involvement would:

Reduce dependency on hiring high-skilled foreign workers and minimize the need for employers to apply for limited H-1B visas

Enable the existing U.S. workforce to gain the skills needed to compete for in-demand jobs

Encourage companies to work with local educational and training institutions to identify skills requirements for areas of projected job growth

Strategic and targeted distribution of the skills training grants funded through H-1B visa fees to metropolitan areas with the highest demand for H-1B workers will help ensure that local employers are better able to meet their workforce needs.

Download the full paper

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz
Jill H. Wilson

Targeting H-1B Visa Fees to Better Address Skills Needs

Neil G. Ruiz and Jill H. Wilson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:04:00 -0400

With sequestration-related budget cuts occurring throughout the government, one of the critical challenges the nation currently faces is how to allocate funds to education and skills training more effectively.

As we outline in a new brief today, one small smart change Congress should make is to better allocate revenue generated by the H-1B visa program. Released as part of our ongoing Remaking Federalism | Renewing the Economy series, the brief, like its companions, offers another way for Washington to square budget stabilization with smarter policy than we’ve seen in recent spending fights.

Our idea stems from a lesser-known aspect of the H-1B program: the requirement that employers requesting H-1B visas for highly skilled temporary workers pay a fee that is then used to fund grants for skills training and STEM education. These grants are meant to develop the skills of the existing U.S. workforce in order to fill jobs presently held by H-1B workers. This small but important grants program funds skills training through the Department of Labor and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education through the National Science Foundation. Completely funded by H-1B visa fees rather than tax dollars, it is protected from sequestration.

Although modest in size, these funds potentially can create significant impact at the local level if they are smartly invested. Unfortunately, these grants have not gone to the locations where H-1B workers are in greatest demand, nor do they necessarily support programs that equip workers with the qualifications needed to fill the jobs currently being held by H-1Bs. Last summer, Brookings analyzed how this $1 billion dollar fund has been distributed over the past decade to fund skills training and STEM education across the country. It turns out that metropolitan areas that had the highest demand for H-1B workers received on average only $3.09 in technical skills grants per working-age person, compared to $15.26 for those metro areas with a lower demand for H-1B visas.

With comprehensive immigration reform on the table, now is a good opportunity to reform how these fees are allocated in order to better reflect local skills needs. We’ve been heartened by the fact that Congress is already exploring options for improving the effectiveness of H-1B visa fee use. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee spoke about using these visa fees for training the American workforce, and the Senate’s Immigration and Innovation Act of 2013 proposes to increase H-1B fees to provide funding for long-term STEM education.

Congress should continue to invest in these efforts but reform how these funds are distributed by better targeting metropolitan areas with greatest demand for H-1B workers and encouraging local employers to work with local educational and training institutions to identify skills that are especially necessary for the local job market.

If America is to compete globally, the federal government should see that local areas can get the funds they need to train workers for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz
Jill H. Wilson

Overhauling the Temporary Work Visa System

Pia M. Orrenius, Giovanni Peri and Madeline Zavodny — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

In this policy proposal — part of The Hamilton Project's 15 Ways to Rethink the Federal Budget — Pia Orrenius, Giovanni Peri, Madeline Zavodny present a strategy to change the U.S. employment-based immigration system to make the system more efficient, increase the economic benefits of immigration and raise revenues by using market-based auctions to allocate visas.

IMPACT

Deficit Reduction (10-year): $7 billion to $12 billion

Broader Benefits: Maximizes the economic benefits of work-oriented visas by allocating visas to firms (and immigrants) based on market needs; raises revenue from auctions.

INTRODUCTION

Immigration creates economic value and potential fiscal revenues when workers move from countries where their productivity and wages are low to countries, such as the United States, where their productivity and wages are relatively high. Highly educated immigrants contribute substantially to technological and scientific innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity growth. Less-educated immigrants supply useful skills by providing much-needed labor to fill jobs in agriculture, construction, and personal services—sectors where local demand from employers is increasingly not matched by a supply of American workers. The country’s employment-based immigration policies should encourage the inflow of workers who make the greatest contributions to the U.S. economy.

Unfortunately, the complex and outdated U.S. immigration system, even in its employment-based component, imposes significant inefficiencies and costly restrictions on the inflow of foreign-born workers. Current immigration policies ultimately lead to inferior economic outcomes. Instead of being allocated to the workers who make the greatest economic contributions, employment-based visas are typically allocated to those who happen to be first in line, or are distributed randomly via a lottery. The difficulty of obtaining employment-based visasdiscourages highly educated potential immigrants who would contribute significant value to U.S. employers and generate tax revenues. At the same time, less-educated potential immigrants have extremely limited options for legal entry despite being in high demand from U.S. employers, who often end up turning to unauthorized workers.

The goal of this proposal is to introduce simple but significant changes to the U.S. employment-based temporary immigration system that would make that system more efficient. The proposed changes also would increase the economic benefits of employment-based immigration for the U.S. economy and contribute additional revenue to the federal budget. The proposed system uses market-based auctions to allocate temporary permits that allow employers to hire foreign workers. An employer who purchases a permit effectively purchases the right to hire a foreign worker for a specified period. The foreign worker selected for that job, in turn, receives a temporary worker visa after passing a background check, and will be fully mobile across employers who own permits. The employer can resell the permit in a secondary market if the foreign worker leaves that job. These auctions would first be implemented to replace the current H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B visa programs, and would ultimately replace most of the current temporary employment-based immigration system. To succeed, the auctions need to be accompanied by increased workplace enforcement, such as mandating that all employers use E-Verify.

Auctioning permits to hire foreign workers would offer a number of economic benefits. It would lead to a more efficient allocation of foreign workers across employers while protecting workers through visa portability and employer competition. Permits would be allocated to employers who value these workers’ contributions the highest and who hence would bid the most for permits.

The auctions would generate revenue for the federal government. Baseline estimates suggest that auctioning of employer permits would generate from $700 million to $1.2 billion in revenues annually, with the higher end of the range possible if more visas are available for high-skilled workers. In the long run, a more efficient immigration system would have an even bigger budget impact by increasing productivity and gross domestic product (GDP).

This proposal focuses on temporary employment-based immigration, which plays an important role in the employment-based immigration system. Most immigrants,however, are admitted permanently on the basis of family ties. Among permanent immigrants, employment-based immigration accounts for only 14 percent of permanent resident visas awarded each year, with about half of those going to accompanying dependents. The economic and fiscal gains would be far greater than those discussed here if the immigration system put a greater emphasis on employment and skills. Similarly, there could be important implications of providing currently undocumented immigrants with a path to legal permanent residence. These are complex and controversial issues; this proposal focuses on more circumscribed reforms to employment-based temporary visas.

Download the policy proposal » (PDF)

Downloads

Download the policy proposal

Authors

Pia M. Orrenius
Giovanni Peri
Madeline Zavodny

Publication: The Hamilton Project

Image Source: Digital Vision.

Comprehensive Debate Kicks Off with High-Skilled Immigration

Neil Ruiz — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Earlier this week, the president and Congress officially kicked off immigration reform as a top agenda item for 2013. Also, the first bill of the year (S.169) was introduced Tuesday by a bipartisan group of senators that includes Christopher Coons (D-Del.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

That bill, Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 (or I-Squared Act), focuses solely on high-skilled immigration—one of the least controversial aspects of immigration reform. Strongly endorsed by the business community, the bill proposes to reform both the temporary and permanent high-skilled immigration system by tackling four areas: H-1B visas, student visas, green cards, and the money collected from visa fees to fund training of the existing U.S. workforce and STEM education. Although this was introduced independently, legislators pledge to incorporate this bill into broader comprehensive immigration reform efforts.

The bill touches upon two problem areas highlighted in “The Search for Skills” Brookings report on H-1B workers: the need to dynamically adjust the visa cap to meet unmet demand for high-skilled labor; and the need to reform how H-1B visa fees are used to fund existing workforce and STEM education programs in the United States. While the proposal makes progress in each area, further improvements are possible.

The H-1B Visa Cap Escalator

Start with the total number of H-1B visas issued. Each April, employers race against the H-1B cap to submit applications for the limited number of visas available to private employers. Depending on the year, these visas can run out in a matter of days, weeks, or months. For instance, during the Great Recession, the cap took as long as nine months to be reached, while during years of economic growth the cap was reached in a day or two.

The I-Squared Act proposes to replace the hard cap with an “H-1B escalator” that automatically adjusts the number of available visas depending on demand. How does this work? As written in the bill, if the new proposed cap of 115,000 is reached within the first 45 days, an additional 20,000 H-1B visas would be made available. The number of additional visas is scaled down if it takes longer to reach the cap (15,000 more visas are released if the cap is hit on the 60^th day, 10,000 if on the 90^th, or 5,000 if on the 275^th). Conversely, if the cap is not reached by the end of the fiscal year, the following year’s cap is reduced by the number of visas left unused the previous year.

This is a good start at developing a market-based indicator for employer demand, but it only addresses one piece of the puzzle: employer demand. The Brookings H-1B report recommended a more holistic solution: the creation of an independent panel of experts in a “Standing Commission on Labor and Immigration” in line with other organizations such as the Migration Policy Institute. That special panel of the Commission would make real-time recommendations to Congress on H-1B cap levels based on local employment data, job projections, and insights from the business community. This mechanism would allow H-1B visa cap levels to adjust to reflect broader national and regional labor market needs, rather than the outcome of a potentially artificial race to the cap that the proposed H-1B escalator might ignite.

Reforming U.S. STEM Education and Workforce Training

The I-Squared Act would also reform the programs funded by H-1B visa fees for existing workforce and STEM education training. Brookings analysis shows that the federal government has invested the bulk of the $1 billion raised by H-1B visa fees over the last decade in short-term workforce technical skills training. The majority of occupations for which employers request H-1B workers require extensive time-consuming education and training, especially in the STEM fields. In line with the Brookings H-1B report’s recommendations, the new bill targets more funding from the visa fees to support long-term STEM education strategies. The proposed legislation would charge employers a $1,000 visa fee for each application, and invest the proceeds in a new fund that the Department of Education would distribute to state governments based on competitive grant applications. To obtain these funds, states would need to outline how they would improve STEM education to meet employer needs.

The bill can be improved by requiring that state governments receiving funds work closely with local industry and educational institutions to develop programs to train students for jobs that will be in demand in the near future. An example of a successful H-1B visa fee funded program is the Kansas Engineering Excellence Project that trained long-term unemployed individuals for B.A., M.A., or Ph.D. programs in engineering at Wichita State University. The program’s success relies on the partnership between an advisory board of local employers and the university to create programs that would meet local employers’ future skills needs.

The I-Squared Act represents an important kick-off to the comprehensive immigration reform debate focused on an area of relative consensus. As the debate moves forward, additional refinements to its proposals would ensure that the nation and its regional economies can obtain the skills they need to be globally competitive.

Download Media

A Global View of High-Skilled Laborers

See our immigration resources page for more key topics and relevant research and commentary.

Video

A Global View of High-Skilled Laborers

Authors

Neil Ruiz

Image Source: © Robert Galbraith / Reuters

Five Keys to the H-1B Debate

Neil G. Ruiz, Shyamali Choudhury and Katie Morris — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:00:00 -0400

Last week’s research release event for “The Search for Skills: Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas” was a spirited and intelligent debate about national policy combined with some thoughtful analysis by regional actors. The conversation highlighted differing opinions about the need for high-skilled foreign labor, important areas of agreement, as well as the need for further research. Based on this discussion, we’ve identified five keys for future productive, pragmatic debate on the H-1B program. They include:

There are things we can agree on. Despite extreme polarization over the H-1B visa program and the need for high-skilled foreign labor, there is plenty that both sides can agree upon. Experts with opinions as diametrically opposed as Vivek Wadhwa and Jared Bernstein agreed that high-skilled foreign workers can be a positive economic force and that the current mechanisms for H-1B workers to obtain green cards need to be improved to maximize this potential. Capitalizing on these areas of agreement is critical to making progress toward reform.
Market-based solutions are necessary, but not sufficient. Reform to the H-1B program needs to balance market-based solutions with legislative protections for both foreign and native workers. The right balance of regulation and economic freedom would champion the interests of workers without sacrificing innovation, global competition, and economic growth. A standing commission with stakeholder representation would be an ideal forum to identify and make recommendations toward achieving this balance.
State and local issues should not be lost in the debate. Business happens at the metropolitan level. While Congress is gridlocked over immigration reform, metropolitan actors are building businesses. One of the most important contributions of this report is an understanding of how diverse metropolitan economies utilize high-skilled foreign labor. State level policy on immigration is just one example of sub-national innovation on this front—the varying skills needs across regions must be addressed with flexible and responsive federal policy.
Public-private partnerships are the most effective way to match labor supply with employer demand. Experts on all sides have called upon employers to get involved in workforce training. Employer engagement in education and training is the best way to ensure that these programs meet the needs of companies. Workforce investment boards, community colleges, and local companies must team together to target training for skills that are valuable in the market. H-1B visa fee funded grants distributed by the ETA have sparked this kind of activity; and the kind of data made available through this report will empower public-private partnerships to be more effective in filling metro-level skill needs.
STEM is here to stay. Projected job growth in science, technology, engineering, and math industries indicates that STEM skills will only become more important in the future. The education pipeline needs support and reform in order to meet this need so the United States remains competitive in the global economy. The National Science Foundation works to attract students to pursue high-level STEM degrees, but any higher education efforts depend on middle and high schools to provide the early training and enthusiasm required to succeed in these fields.

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz
Shyamali Choudhury
Katie Morris

Publication: The Avenue, The New Republic

Is America Falling Behind in the Skilled Worker Race?

Neil G. Ruiz and Shyamali Choudhury — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

The United States’ competitiveness will falter if employers cannot access the highly skilled workers that they need.

The search for skills has been a daunting task for U.S. companies trying to find the right person to fill well paying and highly skilled jobs. A high-skilled workforce is an essential input to economic growth in the fast-growing knowledge economy, and specialized skills – often requiring education or experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – are critical to supporting innovation in fields as diverse as computers, medicine, and communication.

Instead of relying on classified sections of newspapers or local networks to find the perfect match, companies have to search far and wide for skills in high demand. Yet despite high unemployment rates, many employers report they’re struggling in the job matching process, frequently complaining that there’s a mismatch between the available domestic workforce and the skills they are demanding.

Read the full article at cnn.com »

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz
Shyamali Choudhury

Publication: CNN

Image Source: Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

The Search for Skills: Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Neil G. Ruiz, Jill H. Wilson and Shyamali Choudhury — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

U.S. employers use H-1B visas to hire high-skilled foreign workers

The H-1B visa program allows employers to hire foreigners to work in specialty occupations on a temporary basis. Visas are granted in three-year increments with the option to extend up to six years. With sponsorship from their employers, H-1B visa holders may apply for permanent residence, and their H-1B visas can be renewed for one year extensions until their green card is issued. There is a cap on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each fiscal year. Academic and research institutions are not subject to this cap. Steps in the H-1B application process are outlined below.

Demand for H-1B workers consistently outpaces supply of visas

Over the last 10 years the demand for H-1B visas has fluctuated in response to both economic and political conditions. The trend at the national level has been one of growth, with the exception of significant declines after the collapse of the dot-com bubble in 2001, September 11, 2001, and the Great Recession starting in 2007. Over this period, there has been an average of 311,889 requests for H-1B visas, fluctuating from a 2003 low of 220,731 to a 2008 high of 404,907.

H-1B workers are requested for a variety of occupations and industries

Employers requesting the most H-1B visas are large companies specializing in information technology, consulting, and electronics manufacturing. Yet three-quarters of requests come from employers requesting fewer than 150 workers, and ten percent originate from universities and research institutions that are not subject to the annual visa cap. Of the highest requesting employers in 2010-2011, 80 percent are headquartered in the United States. STEM occupations account for almost two-thirds of all requests for H-1B workers.

H-1B demand comes from both large and small metropolitan areas

One hundred and six metropolitan areas exhibited a high demand for H-1B workers in the 2010-2011 period, accounting for 91 percent of all H-1B requests. In these and other metropolitan areas, the H-1B intensity, calculated as the ratio of H-1Bs requested to the total number of jobs in the metro area, is high. Demand for H-1B workers, however, is not limited to large metropolitan areas Columbus, Indiana boasts the second-highest demand intensity at 14.6 requests per 1,000 workers.

Select a
metro area

Metro area H-1B profiles hover over the map icon to select from a list >>

TOTAL NUMBER OF H-1B VISA REQUESTS

RANK

NUMBER OF H-1B VISA REQUESTS PER 1,000 WORKERS

RANK

TOTAL DOLLARS RECEIVED FROM H-1B SKILLS GRANTS*

. MILLION

RANK

PER-CAPITA DOLLARS RECEIVED FROM H-1B SKILLS GRANTS*

RANK

TOP OCCUPATIONS BY NUMBER OF VISA REQUESTS

% OF VISA REQUESTS FROM UNCAPPED ORGANIZATIONS

RANK

% OF VISA REQUESTS
IN STEM OCCUPATIONS

RANK

NON-STEM STEM

CAPPED UNCAPPED

SELECTED TOP EMPLOYERS

Follow the conversation on Twitter: #metroH1B

All data averaged for 2010–2011 unless otherwise noted.

*Of the 106 metro areas in this study, 36 received no grant dollars.

An analysis of the geography of H-1B visa requests — particularly in the metropolitan areas with the highest demand between 2001 and 2011 — reveals that:

Demand for H-1B workers has fluctuated with economic and political cycles over the last decade and reflects a wide range of employers’ needs for high-skilled temporary workers. Employer requests have exceeded the number of visas issued every year except from 2001 to 2003 when the annual cap was temporarily raised from 65,000 to 195,000. Employers requesting the most H-1B visas are large companies subject to the cap specializing in information technology, consulting, and electronics manufacturing. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations account for almost two-thirds of requests for H-1B workers; healthcare, finance, business, and life sciences occupations are also in high demand. Over the last decade the federal government has distributed about $1 billion from H-1B visa fees to fund programs to address skills shortages in the U.S. workforce.

One hundred and six metropolitan areas had at least 250 requests for H-1B workers in the 2010–2011 period, accounting for 91 percent of all requests but only 67 percent of the national workforce. Considerable variation exists among these metro areas in the number of workers requested and the ratio of requests to the size of the total metro workforce. On average, there were 3.3 requests for H-1Bs per 1,000 workers in these 106 metro areas, compared to 2.4 for the nation as a whole.

Metropolitan areas vary by the number of employers using the H-1B program and the cap status of the employers. Demand in corporate metro areas (such as Columbus, IN and Seattle, WA) comes predominantly from private employers subject to the annual visa cap, while in research metro areas (such as Durham, NC and Ann Arbor, MI), the demand is driven by universities and other research institutions exempted from the cap. In mixed metro areas (such as Atlanta, GA and Trenton, NJ), a variety of employers are demanding temporary highskilled foreign workers.

In 92 of the 106 high demand metropolitan areas, STEM occupations accounted for more than half of all requests. Computer occupations were the most highly requested occupation group in all but 11 metros of the 106 high-demand metros, where engineering, healthcare practitioners, and postsecondary teachers were more requested. Metropolitan areas also vary on occupational concentration, ranging from 74 occupation groups requested in the New York metro area, to 15 groups requested in Bloomington, IL.

H-1B visa fees designated for skills training and STEM education have not been proportionately distributed to metro areas requesting the highest number of H-1B workers. Metropolitan areas with a high demand for H-1B workers are only receiving $3.09 on average per working age person 16 years or older of the technical skills training grants compared to $15.26 for metros that have a lower demand for H-1Bs from 2001-2011. STEM education funds are similarly distributed with the high H-1B metros receiving only $1.00 per working age person 16 years or older compared to $14.10 in the low H-1B metros.

The U.S. government should develop an independent standing commission on labor and immigration removed from politics that can adjust the cap for H-1B visa applicants based on local employer skills needs and regional economic indicators. The federal government should also channel H-1B visa fees to skills training in areas that are currently being filled by H-1B workers at the metropolitan level.

Downloads

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz
Jill H. Wilson
Shyamali Choudhury

Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Remarks by Neil Ruiz

Neil G. Ruiz — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Editor’s Note: During an event to release a report on U.S. demand for skilled immigrant labor, Neil G. Ruiz delivered a presentation highlighting major findings.

Good morning. Thank you Bruce for that introduction and thank you very much to all of you for participating in this event.

I first want to take this opportunity to recognize my two other co-authors, Jill Wilson and Shyamali Choudhury, who have laboriously worked with me over the past year on this project. The three of us our grateful to others in the Metropolitan Policy program who also contributed to this project.

The research we are releasing today analyzes a decade of data on H-1B worker applications—over 2 million employer requests for high-skilled foreign visas. We used this data, to paint the first-ever picture of demand for these skilled workers at the local and regional levels across the country.

As Bruce noted in his remarks, the Great Recession and slow recovery have only heightened the demand for skilled workers to help American firms compete globally.

A skilled workforce provides the foundation upon which metropolitan areas can transition to the next economy—one that is fueled by innovation, powered by low carbon, driven by exports and greater internationalization, and rich with opportunity.

The question is, where and how should America’s metro economies find those skills?

In this presentation, I will make three main points.

First, the H-1B program connects U.S. employers to high-skilled workers.

Second, metropolitan areas drive demand for H-1B workers. They are the places where employers utilize skills, and these skills needs, vary from place to place.

And third, the U.S. must match the supply of skilled workers to metropolitan demand. It’s time for a smarter approach.

(1) The H-1B Program connects U.S. employers to high-skilled workers

So let’s begin with the first point, that the H-1B program connects U.S. employers to high-skilled workers.

More and more, the high skilled workers that U.S.-based employers seek can be found not just at home but also in foreign markets. This is particularly true for STEM workers who have science, technology, engineering, and mathematics training.

Take engineering. According to the National Science Foundation, Asia is producing 56 percent of the world’s engineering bachelor’s degrees, followed by 17 percent in Europe, and just 4 percent in the U.S.

How, then, should other parts of the world contribute to the deepening search for skills among U.S.-based employers and their wider regional economies?

This leads naturally to a discussion of the H-1B visa program. The program, as we know it today, is the product of two key pieces of legislation: The Immigration Act of 1990 and the American Competitiveness Act of 1998. The program has a two-pronged approach for increasing the supply of skilled workers to U.S. firms:

First, employers apply for H-1B visas for high-skilled workers for specialty occupations.

These occupations are defined as requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and the attainment of a bachelor’s degree or higher in the field of specialty. The one occupational exception to the H-1B bachelor’s requirement is, not surprisingly, fashion models, who make up less than 1 percent of all H-1B requests.

There are two types of organizations requesting H-1B workers.

Private firms account for the vast majority—90 percent—of all H-1B requests. Research, non-profit, and government organizations make up the remaining 10 percent of all requests.

But overall demand is spread widely. In 2011, a total of 70,000 companies and organizations requested H-1B workers. More than half of them requested only one H-1B worker.

Demand from private firms is subject to an annual cap set by Congress for newly issued H-1B visas. Currently, that cap is set at 85,000 visas, 20,000 of which are reserved for foreigners holding graduate degrees from American universities.

Visas are granted to employers on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications are accepted beginning on the first business day of April and are closed as soon as the cap is reached.

Private firms requesting H-1B workers come from a wide variety of industries.

They include:

Information technology producers such as Microsoft, Intel, and WiPro.
Management consulting firms such as IBM, Deloitte Consulting and Accenture.
Globally competitive manufacturers like Caterpillar, Qualcomm, and Cummins Incorporated.
And financial services giants such as Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase

The 100 employers with the most H-1B requests account for 20 percent of all applications. And more than a quarter of these employers are Fortune 500 companies.

Universities, non-profits, and government research institutions form the second category of employer requesting H-1B workers. Unlike private firms, these organizations are not subject to the annual visa cap under the H-1B program. Many rank among America’s largest and most prestigious research universities, such as the University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, Harvard, MIT, and the University of California system. Many of their requests are for STEM workers, professors, and medical doctors conducting research or residencies at university hospitals.

The National Institutes of Health also requests large numbers of H-1B workers in the health sciences.

While H-1B workers come from all over the world, Asia dominates as a source region. About two-thirds of visa recipients come from India and China, with India representing a majority of all visa recipients. Other countries represented include Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and the Philippines.

In terms of skills requested, slightly less than two-thirds of all H-1B applications are for STEM occupations. Computer occupations and engineers are the most highly demanded fields. Top Non-STEM occupations include healthcare practitioners and financial specialists.

The second, less well-known prong of the H-1B program uses revenues from visa fees to support U.S. workforce development efforts that aim to reduce the need for high-skilled foreign workers over time.

Between 2001 and 2011, the H-1B program generated about $1 billion in visa fees. Two government agencies have responsibility for distributing that funding: the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, and the National Science Foundation.

The majority of dollars fund short-term training, about 2 years in length. These grants are distributed by the ETA on a competitive basis to local workforce training centers or public private partnerships. NSF has distributed another $357 million to support post-secondary scholarships for students to earn STEM degrees, and to K-12 systems to help inspire children to pursue STEM fields.

(2) Metros drive demand for H-1B workers

This brings me to my second point, which is that metropolitan areas drive demand for H-1B workers.

In 2010 and 2011, 106 metropolitan areas across the country averaged at least 250 H-1B requests annually. We call these “high demand H-1B metros.”

They house 67 percent of the national workforce, but concentrate an astounding 91 percent of all H-1B visa requests.

The 10 metro areas with the highest number of H-1B requests are among the country’s largest regional economies. They range from the nation’s largest metro requester, New York, to Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Washington, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Houston, and Seattle.

These 10 metros alone account for 53 percent of all H-1B requests.

Another group of metro areas exhibit a high demand for H-1Bs relative to their existing workforce. They have, what we call, high “H-1B intensity.”

The top 10 metros for H-1B intensity range from larger metros like San Jose, New York and Seattle, to smaller metros like Columbus, Indiana, and Durham, North Carolina.

A closer examination of the H-1B visa program in four metro areas portrays how demand for these workers tracks the distinct economic profiles of these places.

The San Jose metro area, home to Silicon Valley, is most likely the first place that comes to mind when discussing demand for skilled workers and the H-1B visa program.

It ranks among the top 10 in total requests for H-1B workers, and number 1 for H-1B demand intensity.

The technology industry dominates demand for H-1B workers. The top employers requesting H-1B workers include Apple, eBay, Yahoo, and Intel.

Demand for H-1B workers in the New York metro is not a high-tech story, but rather reflects its specialization in high-end finance.

New York had nearly 53,000 H-1B worker requests on average between 2010 and 2011, highest in the country. The top employers requesting H-1B workers are in finance, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.

About half of H-1B requests in the region are for STEM occupations, ranging from financial specialists, business operation specialists, and computer occupations.

But demand for H-1B immigrant workers also lies well outside just the largest metropolitan areas.

With a population of just over 75,000, Columbus, Indiana is the smallest of the high demand H-1B metros. But it ranks second in its demand intensity.

The metro is characterized largely by its manufacturing sector, which accounts for one-third of all employment in the metro area.

The majority of H-1B requests in the area are from one major employer: Cummins Incorporated. Cummins is an advanced manufacturer specializing in clean technologies for automotive engines. The firm has experienced exponential growth over the past several years—even during the recession—and its requests for H-1B workers, especially in engineering, have followed that path.

Finally, Rochester, Minnesota, exemplifies a number of other small metro areas dominated by research and medicine that exhibit high H-1B demand.

The Mayo Clinic is both the largest employer in the metro area and highest requestor of H-1B workers. 71 percent of all Rochester’s H-1B applications come from institutions not subject to the annual visa cap, the highest share of any U.S. metro.

With 2.6 H-1B requests per 1,000 workers, the large majority of the region’s H-1B applications are for Life Scientists and Health Practitioners.

Metros—both large and small—are at the forefront of demand in the H-1B visa program. These four metro areas show that H-1B visas are not only being demanded by Silicon Valley, but also metro areas that are centers of American finance, manufacturing, and medicine.

(3) The U.S. must match the supply of skilled workers to metro demand

This brings me to my third and final point, the US must match the supply of skilled workers to metro demand.

Our research highlights 2 key priorities for matching highly skilled workers to the needs of metropolitan economies:

First, we must increase responsiveness to fluctuations in H-1B demand.

Currently, the H-1B visa cap is not responsive to fluctuations in demand for H-1B workers in U.S. metropolitan areas.

Demand far outstripped the cap in the late 1990s, and by the time Congress finally lifted the cap in 2001, the dot com bubble already burst. Congress failed to react to changing economic needs in the mid-2000s, and let the cap expire as demand grew.

Since then, the annual visa cap for private employers has been reached, every year.

This is not surprising, because the cap is set nationally by Congress without any deliberate method for receiving input from regional businesses that have a high demand for H-1B workers, or from labor market analysts who understand the distribution of skills among existing U.S. workers.

In response to this challenge, and in line with other groups like the Migration Policy Institute, we recommend that Congress create a Standing Commission on Labor and Immigration. We recommend that this Commission include a dedicated, non-partisan H-1B Panel to consider and respond to metropolitan demand for highly skilled labor.

This panel should make annual recommendations to congress and the president on H-1B visa levels and priorities, informed by analysis and expertise around the demand and supply of skilled workers at home and abroad. The panel dedicated to the H-1B program should include recognized experts in the fields of business, economics, immigration, and representatives from federal agencies and a business research organization.

The data presented in this report provide one example of the information this panel could use to inform its recommendations.

In addition, input from metros, including their local employers and business groups, workforce development groups, and educational institutions would provide complementary qualitative information regarding regional skills needs.

The second priority, is to more deliberately target education and workforce development resources, to meet longer-run metro needs for highly skilled labor.

As I said before, $628 million dollars of the H-1B visa fees have been distributed for technical skills training grants at the local level.

Ideally, many of these skills employers seek from abroad would already exist in the metropolitan workforce. Unfortunately, visa fees are not currently targeted to address the longer-run skills needs implied by the geography of H-1B demand.

Collectively, the 106 high-demand H-1B metros received only $3.09 per capita in skills training funds from 2001 to 2011. Other metros with far fewer H-1B requests, by contrast, received $15.26 per capita for technical skills training.

Indeed, the four metro areas featured earlier have a high demand for H-1B workers but received a very small portion of these funds, if any at all.

The bottom line is, H-1B supported workforce training does not match H-1B workforce demand at the regional scale.

We recommend that the program instead target worker training to metropolitan areas with a high demand for H-1B workers, in the specific occupations for which employers are seeking skilled foreign labor.

Metro leaders can then collaborate with local stakeholders to create smarter programs to help train their existing workers for jobs available today and in the future.

This is already happening in metro areas like Wichita, Kansas. The Kansas Engineering Excellence Project (KEEP) is a skills training program funded by the ETA. We will hear more about this later this morning from its executive director. It supports workers in completing advanced degrees in high-demand fields in aviation and aerospace—occupations that might normally be filled by H-1B workers. Private employers work with Wichita State University and the program to train students for jobs that will be in demand in the near future.

Other metropolitan leaders can take advantage of the data that we released today to more smartly target their workforce training to their skills needs. Metro organizations can use our metropolitan profiles to inform their applications for ETA grant funds, by identifying the specific skills and employers behind H-1B demand in their regions.

All these data are available at the following website, noted on the screen and on the handouts: www.brookings.edu/metro/h1b

In conclusion, to move forward in the national debate about global economic competitiveness, policymakers must understand local demand for foreign skills in the United States. Until now, the discussion around high-skilled immigrants and the H-1B visa program has been highly polarized, conducted solely at the national level, and lacking geographic information about employer demand.

Our metro economies are driving the nation’s demand for global skills, they need a seat at the table to maximize the value of the H-1B program for our businesses, our workers, and our economy. Thank you.

Downloads

Download the presentation

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz

Image Source: Robert Galbraith / Reuters

Geography of H-1B Workers

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:00:00 -0400

Event Information

July 18, 2012
9:00 AM - 12:30 PM EDT

Falk Auditorium
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

This year, it took only ten weeks for employers to reach the nation’s overall cap on the H-1B visas they need to hire immigrant workers in specialty occupations—three times faster than last year. Yet debates over the program suffer from a lack of information about where demand for H-1B workers is highest, and the role that the program plays in addressing local labor market needs.

On July 18, the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings hosted a forum presenting a regional analysis of the H-1B visa program, highlighting how foreign-born skilled immigrants in the United States contribute to the country’s metropolitan economies. Panelists from the public and private sectors discussed the report’s findings and their potential impact on current economic and immigration debates.

After each discussion, panelists took audience questions. Participants joined in the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #metroH1B.

Following this event, Brookings's Jill Wilson answered questions on the H-1B visa program in a live POLITICO web chat.

Neil Ruiz's event presentation and remarks are available. In addition, in a video previewing this event, he describes the demand for skilled labor.

Video

Participants

Panelists

The Debate over the H-1B Visa Program: A Live Web Chat with Jill Wilson

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:30:00 -0400

Event Information

July 18, 2012
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM EDT

Online Only
The Brookings Institution

Washington, DC

With unemployment still on the forefront of voters’ minds in the upcoming presidential election, and immigration issues also highly politicized, the H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers is hotly debated. Some claim that the visa program hurts American jobs in favor of immigrants, but others argue that the program provides a new, badly-needed source of highly-skilled labor.

Now that Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has removed his hold on the “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act,” will Congress be able enact meaningful reform to the H-1B visa program? How will this program shape the national debate? On July 18, Brookings associate fellow Jill Wilson took your questions and comments in a live web chat moderated by Vivyan Tran of POLITICO.

12:31 Jill Wilson: Welcome everyone, let's get started.

12:32 Comment From Victor: What are the minimum requirements to obtain this visa?

12:32 Jill Wilson: H-1B workers must possess at least a bachelor's degree (with the exception of fashion models). About sixty percent have a master's or PhD.

12:33 Comment From Tim DC: What benefits do companies enjoy from employing H-1B visa workers that make footing the bill for the fee worthwhile?

12:33 Comment From Jennifer: What factors weigh into an employer's decision to request (and pay for) a visa for an employee rather than hire a U.S. citizen?

12:34 Jill Wilson: These two questions are related. The employers we interviewed as part of the report we released today told us that if they could avoid the cost and hassle of hiring an H-1B worker they would. Employers report difficulty finding qualified workers from their existing local labor markets.

12:35 Comment From Jim: Is there any evidence that the H-1B visa program hurts American workers?

12:35 Comment From Scott B: With the high unemployment and the number of engineers who need jobs, why is the government still issuing H1-B visas? Shouldn't companies be required to look at the out of work domestic engineers over trying to buy cheaper labor from overseas?

12:36 Jill Wilson: I'll address these two questions together.

12:36 Jill Wilson: This is a contentious debate. One side says that there is shortage of high-skilled workers in this country and that we need to let in more foreign workers to fill those jobs.

12:37 Jill Wilson: The other side says that, especially during a time of high unemployment, we need to restrict visas in order to give native workers greater opportunity.

12:38 Jill Wilson: The report we released today recommends a standing commission that would be able to look at this issue more closely, using evidence about employment conditions and workforce needs, both at the national level, but especially at the local level since metropolitan economies vary greatly, as does their demand for H-1B workers.

12:38 Comment From Livia: Why haven't H-1B visa fees been proportionately distributed to metro economies requesting the highest numbers of H-1B workers?

12:38 Comment From Alexandra, MA: What specifically do H-1B visa fees pay for and how are those expenditures determined? Does the federal government play a large role in distributing those funds or is it mostly managed as an interaction between states and metro regions?

12:39 Jill Wilson: One aspect of the H-1B visa program that is not as well known is that the funds paid by employers for these visas are channeled to local areas for workforce training.

12:40 Jill Wilson: This is a competitive grant process, and metropolitan leaders need to, first, know about it in order to be able to apply and, second, have good data at the local level to know what their needs are.

12:40 Jill Wilson: One hope of ours in releasing this report today is that local areas-- businesses, workforce development agencies, and educational institutions -- can use the data that we have made available on our website to apply for these grants and make the case that they need to boost the skills of their existing workforce.

12:41 Comment From Anonymous User: Can you comment on unemployment rates of STEM workers in various metro regions? Where is unemployment higher or lower and why?

12:42 Jill Wilson: It is true that employment rates vary metro by metro. But overall, those with STEM degrees are less likely to be unemployed than those without STEM degrees. Our Metro Monitor provides unemployment rates for individual metro areas.

12:42 Comment From Jane T: Why did Sen. Grassley have a hold on the legislation, and what made him remove it?

12:45 Jill Wilson: Sen. Grassley placed a hold on the "Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act," which would lift the country-level limits on green cards, due to his concerns over fraud and displacement of local workers. He is now negotiating with Democrats to bolster safeguards including annual audits of companies using the program.

12:45 Comment From Eduardo, DC: When will Congress address this issue?

12:45 Comment From Salomon Guenun: When will Congress debate the renewal/reform of the current cap on H-1B visas?

12:46 Jill Wilson: Due to the upcoming election and the continued, divided national debate over immigration, we do not expect any movement on this topic during this session.

12:47 Jill Wilson: The area where Congress has been able to come to the most agreement is around high-skilled immigration. There are currently 7 bipartisan bills addressing this issue.

12:48 Comment From h1b victim: My employer hired me on an h1 but neglected to properly file papers with USCIS and lied to me about it. By the time I found out I was already subject to the 10year bar and have no recourse. Why is there no legislation to prevent employers from abusing the system?

12:48 Comment From John: You mentioned in the discussion this morning that there's a prevailing wage requirement for H-1Bs. But aren't critics of the program right when they say that the prevailing wage is set too low at the 17th percentile? You can find plenty of examples of this in the LCA data you use. And the GAO found that 54% of the LCA applications were for the lowest wage levels. Would you support a higher prevailing wage floor?

12:49 Jill Wilson: There are a couple protections built into the H-1B program to prevent fraud and abuse. One is the prevailing wage requirement, by which employers must pay H-1B workers a wage that matches what is being paid to other workers doing similar jobs in their area.

12:50 Jill Wilson: The second protection is that USCIS makes unannounced site visits to employers to make sure that the workers they applied for are indeed working there and being paid the prevailing wage.

12:51 Jill Wilson: I am sorry to hear about the situation with your employer. I would suggest hiring a lawyer and/or talking to a congressional representative.

12:51 Comment From Carmen: What is the criteria to qualify as a research institution as it relates to the H-1B visa cap exemption?

12:52 Jill Wilson: To qualify as an uncapped employer in the H-1B visa program, the employer must be an educational institution, non-profit research or government research agency.

12:52 Jill Wilson: The demand from uncapped employers made up about 10% of total demand in 2010-2011.

12:54 Comment From Benjamin: Are American workers simply unable to fill highly-skilled STEM jobs? If so, why?

12:55 Jill Wilson: Some evidence suggests that the pipeline of STEM -trained workers in our country is not keeping up with employer demand. There is also evidence that STEM-trained workers are being diverted to other fields. 64% of the demand for H-1B workers is for STEM fields.

12:55 Comment From Karen: What kinds of reforms are needed for this program?

12:55 Jill Wilson: In addition to a standing commission on labor and immigration, we recommend more strategic use of funds from the visa fees to local workforce training.

12:57 Jill Wilson: The metropolitan areas with the highest demand for H-1B workers are receiving a disproportionately low level of these funds. Our interactive database will allow local areas to analyze the demands of employers in their areas and address the needs for high-demand occupations.

12:57 Comment From Sanjay Bhatt: Is there strong evidence that providing more ETA training grants to educational institutions will turn adult workers into the talent that companies say they can't find here? Engineering, science and math degrees aren't exactly popular among college-age students or middle-age workers.

12:58 Jill Wilson: Another funding stream from the H-1B visa program goes toward STEM education at both the college and K-12 levels. These programs aim to inspire students to pursue degrees and occupations in these high-demand fields.

12:59 Jill Wilson: One example of how the ETA funds are meeting the need for high-skilled workers is in Wichita Kansas. Our paper describes the Kansas Engineering Excellence Project which partners with Wichita State University's engineering department to train workers in the specialized occupations that local employers demand.

1:00 Jill Wilson: Thank you everyone for your great questions. I'm sorry I couldn't get to all of them.

Read the Metropolitan Policy Program's new regional analysis of the H-1B visa program »

Mapping the Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers

Neil G. Ruiz — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:00:00 -0400

The H-1B visa program is one of the primary paths for high-skilled foreign nationals to enter the United States, bringing in 85,000 new workers every year. The program has been touted as an important feature of the immigration system, opening the doors for highly-educated people from around the world to fill specialized skills needs in the United States. However, critics often note that the program provides competition against existing native workers.

Given the importance of maintaining American economic competitiveness, paired with the need to reduce domestic unemployment, the H-1B visa program has been at the center of high-skilled immigration debates, with a plethora of legislative acronyms on Capitol Hill to show for it. See STAPLE, STAR and SMART.

Yet we know little about the regional dynamics of demand for visas for high-skilled foreign workers. U.S. metropolitan areas are where most of American economic activity takes place, but all metro areas are not created equal in their skills needs and their available workforce. Different regions require different skills depending on what type of businesses, postsecondary educational institutions, and workers are located within them.

To better understand the occupational and employer trends for the H-1B visa across metropolitan America, we have conducted the first-ever spatial analysis of the demand for H-1B workers. It reveals the regions and employers requesting the highest number of H-1B workers, as well as information on the programs funded by H-1B visa fees for skills training and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education for the existing U.S. workforce.

Following my presentation of the report at the “Geography of H-1B Workers” event this Wednesday, July 18 at 9 a.m. Eastern, Brookings will host noted scholars Vivek Wadhwa and Jared Bernstein to discuss its national implications. Additionally, a regional panel featuring representatives from Microsoft, Emory University, the Bay Area Economic Institute, and the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas will then discuss how the H-1B program impacts workers and employers at the regional level.

For more information and to register for the live webcast, go here. Immediately after the webcast, Jill Wilson, another one of the report's authors, will be on a live web chat at 12:30pm EDT.

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz

The Importance of H-1B Visas to Regional Economies

Neil G. Ruiz — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:10:00 -0400

Encompassing both immigration and unemployment, the debate over the H-1B temporary high-skilled work visa program remains contentious. H-1B visa holders have the potential to provide specialized skills that keep our American companies globally competitive, although some contend their presence hurts native workers. Senior Policy Analyst and Associate Fellow Neil G. Ruiz says the issue is especially important at the local level where regional economies have unique skills needs.

Join the conversation on Twitter using hashtag #metroH1B.

Download Media

A Global View of High-Skilled Laborers

Video

A Global View of High-Skilled Laborers

Authors

Neil G. Ruiz

Brookings: Topics - H-1B Visas

This Week in Immigration: SJC Sends Immigration Reform to the Floor

Authors

H-1B Visas and the STEM Shortage

Authors

This Week in Immigration: Senate Markup

Authors

Immigration Facts on Foreign Students

Downloads

Authors

The 2014 H-1B Visa Race Begins Today

Authors

Better Align H-1B Visa Fee Revenues to Local Workforce Needs

Downloads

Authors

Targeting H-1B Visa Fees to Better Address Skills Needs

Authors

Overhauling the Temporary Work Visa System

Downloads

Authors

Comprehensive Debate Kicks Off with High-Skilled Immigration

Video

Authors

Five Keys to the H-1B Debate

Authors

Is America Falling Behind in the Skilled Worker Race?

Authors

The Search for Skills: Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Downloads

Authors

Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Remarks by Neil Ruiz

Downloads

Authors

Geography of H-1B Workers

Event Information

Geography of H-1B Workers: Event Photos

Video

Audio

Transcript

Event Materials

Participants

The Debate over the H-1B Visa Program: A Live Web Chat with Jill Wilson

Event Information

Mapping the Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers

Authors

The Importance of H-1B Visas to Regional Economies

Video

Authors