On April 2 the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) that would increase the number of work visas for highly skilled immigrants, in response to a critical shortage of professional workers in the electronics and computer industries today.
Congress should approve it. But beyond this immediate fix, there are two other, more difficult questions the lawmakers need to grapple with: Why are our schools not producing enough talent? And shouldn’t U.S. immigration policy tilt more in favor of applicants with skills demanded by our economy?
Owing at least partly to the explosive growth of the Internet and to the short-term problem of adjusting software for the year 2000, there now are 350,000 high-tech vacancies, and 1.3 million additional new jobs are projected over the next eight years. At the same time, enrollment in computer-science programs at American universities has declined to about 24,000, although the top-flight schools are running at full capacity.
As a stopgap, the Abraham proposal would raise the annual number of worker visas from 65,000 to 95,000 for five years, after which the issue would be re-evaluated.
Yet the growing scarcity of native-grown applicants–even in the face of sky-high salaries–is deeply troubling and deserves further study and action by Congress. The Abraham bill proposes 20,000 scholarships for students in engineering, computing and other technical careers. But that doesn’t address other fundamental problems, such as possible shortcomings in American technical schooling, beginning as early as elementary school.
The high-tech labor shortage also suggests that structural changes in immigration policy may be in order, to more closely match the skills of newcomers with the demands of the U.S. economy. Current immigration policy gives strong preference to applicants with relatives already here–a process known as “chain migration”–with only secondary consideration given to skills and talent.
The annual ceiling on temporary worker visas is 65,000, an arbitrary figure adopted by Congress in 1990 without any supporting data on how many foreign professionals might be needed or in which fields.
Canada has a more rational, self-interested immigration system. It admits immigrants according to a point system that heavily factors in the individual’s skills and potential contribution to the economy. These quantitative and qualitative criteria are adjusted annually, depending on the condition of Canada’s economy and its labor market.
If Sen. Abraham’s “American Competitiveness Act” is to fully live up to its billing, Congress should look beyond the immediate shortages and toward more permanent problems–and solutions.
