http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05233/557050.stm

Puts & Calls: Time to reopen the doors
The nation and region are paying for more restrictive immigration policies post-9/11
Sunday, August 21, 2005

By Robert Whitehill

The doors to America's workplace slammed shut early this year.

This month, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the cap had been reached on temporary worker visas, known as H-1Bs. This means that from Oct. 1 until Sept. 30, 2006, no more H-1B visas will be issued to qualified foreign personnel.

Employers in Pittsburgh and nationwide will be affected. They are being forced to wait more than a year to legally employ many talented professionals needed to staff a wide variety of highly skilled positions that impact their competitive position in the market.

Here is some background on the problem. H-1B is the entry level professional visa for foreign workers. It is restricted to individuals who have earned a college or university degree or the equivalency, and are working in positions that normally require the level of training, education and experience that aliens have.

H-1Bs are highly sought after and desirable, evidenced by the fact that two months before the beginning of the next fiscal year, they are all gone.

This is not the first time the supply of 65,000 visas has been depleted early. Free trade agreements with Chile and Singapore resulted in set-asides of 6,800 visas, leaving 58,200 for the rest of the world's citizens. Last year, the cap was reached on the first day of the fiscal year -- Oct. 1, 2004.

In March 2005, after six months of immigration limbo, Congress acted to address the cap problem by authorizing 20,000 new visas for aliens with a master's degree or higher from a U.S. institution.

Despite this fix, these important visas are oversubscribed and gone. This problem underscores the continuing attractiveness of U.S. employment for skilled foreigners but the federal government's inability to balance national security with corporate competitiveness.

Faced with the demand for H-1B visas far exceeding the supply in 2000, Congress passed the American Competitive Act of the 21st Century (AC 21). The purpose was to help America keep competitive by allowing knowledge workers to be legally employed here.

The H-1B cap was realistically tripled from 65,000 to 195,000 for fiscal years 2001, 2002 and 2003. Moreover, AC 21 allowed institutions of higher learning and government research facilities to be exempt from the cap. Later, certain physicians also were exempted. For three years there was no cap, but in the meantime, 9/11 changed how Americans perceive foreigners and grant them access to the riches of the U.S. workplace.

Before 9/11, immigration was administered by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, housed in the Department of Justice. Now, it's run by three agencies in the Department of Homeland Security. This may tell us something about security vs. justice.


As early as 2000, forward-looking U.S. employers were dealing with limitations on the flow of needed workers by establishing work sites overseas. If workers couldn't come easily to the United States, U.S. business would go to them. For example, the computer-services industry was one of the prime movers in lobbying for the passage of AC 21 but today, many of the jobs in that industry have been transferred offshore.

The H-1B cap is not the only reason that businesses outsource jobs overseas, but it is certainly one of them.

American immigration law and policy are damaging America's competitiveness. A recent Financial Times article, "World Turning Its Back on Brand America," reports on a global study ranking the perceived cultural, political and investment potential of 25 leading nations -- the United States came in 11th, while Australia was ranked No. 1.

Interestingly, American respondents to the study gave our country top marks in all categories. Among other conclusions, the study recommends that America's world image would be enhanced through improved immigration policies and practices.

Said another way, how the United States deals with the immigration issue will have significant impact on the future of corporate America.

The current state of the H-1B visa is paradoxical -- it promotes advanced degree, U.S.-educated professionals and scholars, but not advanced degree, internationally-educated professionals and scholars.

A Ph.D. educated at Oxford University may have to wait more than a year to take a position for a U.S. employer, even though the company really needs him now. A Carnegie Mellon University graduate with a bachelor's degree in computer science may have to return home because she won't have authorization to work but needs the income now.

It is clearly is in our long-term self interest to welcome the world's brightest to innovate, create and to learn in the United States. In the post-9/11 culture, immigration law has been used for security and not for business or U.S. "brand" enhancement.

More restrictive immigration laws have a self-fulfilling prophecy: fewer businesses locate here, fewer entrepreneurs invest and begin businesses here and fewer researchers come here to explore. It is bad for Pittsburgh and for America.

The H-1B cap is one example, but is exacerbated by various barriers erected for foreigners seeking to come to the United States, especially for students from the Middle East. We are turning off the spigot on a significant supply of this next generation's superstars.

About 8,000 U.S. schools admit approximate 800,000 tuition-paying foreign students. Immigration's long, hostile delays and invasive security have caused an increasing number of students to go elsewhere. Admissions of foreign students are down in the United States, but booming in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

September will mark the fourth anniversary of the terrorists attacks of September 11. While immigration law and policy are complicated, and today infused with security concerns and more than a touch of xenophobia, it is time to refocus on what is best for American competitiveness in the 21st century.