Give Us Your Skilled Masses

Date: Thursday, December 01, 2005 5:30 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

December 01, 2005 No. 1377

This writer for the Wall Street Journal gets right to the point - he wants
to eliminate H-1B while allowing unlimited numbers of Green Card holders to
enter our country. The only thing he didn't do is to call his proposal by
the proper name - amnesty and automatic citizenship.

Basically, I am proposing that H-1B visas be folded into a much
larger, employment-based green card program with the emphasis on
skilled workers. The annual quota should be multiplied many times
beyond present limits, and there should be no upper bound on the
numbers from any single country.

This University Professor of Economics and Nobel laureate understands the
impact this open border policy will have but he doesn't seem to care as
long as economics professors can keep their tenure.

To be sure, the annual admission of a million or more highly
skilled workers such as engineers and scientists would lower
the earnings of the American workers they compete against.

Of course the mere fact that the victims of his plan will be engineers and
scientists is of no consequence to him. In his view the U.S. will be much
better off by lowering wages by hiring foreign workers.

The U.S. would be much better off by having such skilled workers
become residents and citizens -- thus contributing to our
productivity, culture, tax revenues and education rather than to
the productivity and tax revenues of other countries.

He seems to think that other countries should also follow the same suicidal
open-border policy. I doubt they are that stupid!

Other countries, too, should liberalize their policies toward the
immigration of skilled workers. I particularly think of Japan and
Germany, both countries that have rapidly aging, and soon to be
declining, populations that are not sympathetic (especially Japan)
to absorbing many immigrants.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113331964004009856.html

November 30, 2005

COMMENTARY

Give Us Your Skilled Masses
By GARY S. BECKER
November 30, 2005; Page A18

With border security and proposals for a guest-worker program back on the
front page, it is vital that the U.S. -- in its effort to cope with
undocumented workers -- does not overlook legal immigration. The number of
people allowed in is far too small, posing a significant problem for the
economy in the years ahead. Only 140,000 green cards are issued annually,
with the result that scientists, engineers and other highly skilled workers
often must wait years before receiving the ticket allowing them to stay
permanently in the U.S.

An alternate route for highly skilled professionals -- especially
information technology workers -- has been temporary H-1B visas, good for
specific jobs for three years with the possibility of one renewal. But
Congress foolishly cut the annual quota of H-1B visas in 2003 from almost
200,000 to well under 100,000. The small quota of 65,000 for the current
fiscal year that began on Oct. 1 is already exhausted!

This is mistaken policy. The right approach would be to greatly increase
the number of entry permits to highly skilled professionals and eliminate
the H-1B program, so that all such visas became permanent. Skilled
immigrants such as engineers and scientists are in fields not attracting
many Americans, and they work in IT industries, such as computers and
biotech, which have become the backbone of the economy. Many of the
entrepreneurs and higher-level employees in Silicon Valley were born
overseas. These immigrants create jobs and opportunities for native-born
Americans of all types and levels of skills.

So it seems like a win-win situation. Permanent rather than temporary
admissions of the H-1B type have many advantages. Foreign professionals
would make a greater commitment to becoming part of American culture and to
eventually becoming citizens, rather than forming separate enclaves in the
expectation they are here only temporarily. They would also be more
concerned with advancing in the American economy and less likely to abscond
with the intellectual property of American companies -- property that could
help them advance in their countries of origin.

Basically, I am proposing that H-1B visas be folded into a much larger,
employment-based green card program with the emphasis on skilled workers.
The annual quota should be multiplied many times beyond present limits, and
there should be no upper bound on the numbers from any single country. Such
upper bounds place large countries like India and China, with many highly
qualified professionals, at a considerable and unfair disadvantage -- at no
gain to the U.S.

To be sure, the annual admission of a million or more highly skilled
workers such as engineers and scientists would lower the earnings of the
American workers they compete against. The opposition from competing
American workers is probably the main reason for the sharp restrictions on
the number of immigrant workers admitted today. That opposition is
understandable, but does not make it good for the country as a whole.

Doesn't the U.S. clearly benefit if, for example, India's government spends
a lot on the highly esteemed Indian Institutes of Technology to train
scientists and engineers who leave to work in America? It certainly appears
that way to the sending countries, many of which protest against this
emigration by calling it a "brain drain."

Yet the migration of workers, like free trade in goods, is not a zero sum
game, but one that usually benefits the sending and the receiving country.
Even if many immigrants do not return home to the nations that trained
them, they send back remittances that are often sizeable; and some do
return to start businesses.

Experience shows that countries providing a good economic and political
environment can attract back many of the skilled men and women who have
previously left. Whether they return or not, they gain knowledge about
modern technologies that becomes more easily incorporated into the
production of their native countries.

Experience also shows that if America does not accept greatly increased
numbers of highly skilled professionals, they might go elsewhere: Canada
and Australia, to take two examples, are actively recruiting IT
professionals.

Since earnings are much higher in the U.S., many skilled immigrants would
prefer to come here. But if they cannot, they may compete against us
through outsourcing and similar forms of international trade in services.
The U.S. would be much better off by having such skilled workers become
residents and citizens -- thus contributing to our productivity, culture,
tax revenues and education rather than to the productivity and tax revenues
of other countries.

I do, however, advocate that we be careful about admitting students and
skilled workers from countries that have produced many terrorists, such as
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. My attitude may be dismissed as religious
"profiling," but intelligent and fact-based profiling is essential in the
war against terror. And terrorists come from a relatively small number of
countries and backgrounds, unfortunately mainly of the Islamic faith. But
the legitimate concern about admitting terrorists should not be allowed, as
it is now doing, to deny or discourage the admission of skilled immigrants
who pose little terrorist threat.

Nothing in my discussion should be interpreted as arguing against the
admission of unskilled immigrants. Many of these individuals also turn out
to be ambitious and hard-working and make fine contributions to American
life. But if the number to be admitted is subject to political and other
limits, there is a strong case for giving preference to skilled immigrants
for the reasons I have indicated.

Other countries, too, should liberalize their policies toward the
immigration of skilled workers. I particularly think of Japan and Germany,
both countries that have rapidly aging, and soon to be declining,
populations that are not sympathetic (especially Japan) to absorbing many
immigrants. These are decisions they have to make. But America still has a
major advantage in attracting skilled workers, because this is the
preferred destination of the vast majority of them. So why not take
advantage of their preference to come here, rather than force them to look
elsewhere?

Mr. Becker, the 1992 Nobel laureate in economics, is University Professor
of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago and the Rose-Marie
and Jack R. Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.

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