Immigration is often misunderstood.  The general consensus is that immigrants are stealing work from Americans.  But what happens when there aren’t enough workers on U.S. soil to fill demand?  Are we comfortable shipping jobs overseas, because we can’t meet the demand in the US?  With global economy, companies can locate anywhere.  Shouldn’t the U.S. being doing everything possible to keep companies and their tax dollars in the United States?

Last year Bill Gates, told a congressional panel that

the US immigration system makes attracting and retaining high-skilled immigrants exceptionally challenging for US firms.Congress’s failure to pass high-skilled immigration reform has exacerbated an already grave situation. As a result, many US firms, including Microsoft, have been forced to locate staff in countries that welcome skilled foreign workers to do work that could otherwise have been done in the United States, if it were not for our counterproductive immigration policies … limits on so-called H-1B visas aimed at highly skilled professionals are far too low for the rapidly growing tech sector… The current cap of 65,000 H-1B visas is arbitrarily set and bears no relation to the US economy’s demand for skilled professionals. All of the 65,000 visas for the current fiscal year were snapped up in ONE DAY last April and that employers were forced to wait to apply for visas the next fiscal year. He also stated that Microsoft was unable to get H-1B visas for one third the foreign-born job candidates that he wanted to hire … If we don’t reverse these trends, our competitive advantage will continue to erode. Our ability to create new high-paying jobs will suffer.

By 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor projects that there will be more than two million job openings in the core technology disciplines. Yet, fewer and fewer degrees awarded in the United States are in engineering and mathematics.  Combine this with immigration barriers that prevent U.S. employers from recruiting foreign technical talent needed to fuel economic growth and ensure competitiveness.  If the US plans to compete globally, we need to be able to hire talent on our own soil.

One of the more obvious barriers to the emigration of talented technical workers to the United States from abroad is the H-1B visa cap.  This restrictive legislation compromises the ability of large American corporations and struggling start-ups to staff and plan for growth.

And just more more fact to think about - If we increase the number of H-1B visas that are available to US companies, unemployment of US nationals will likely fall.  Why? Microsoft has found that for every H-1B hire they make, they add on average 4 additional employees to support them in various capacities.