Immigrateful

When the issue of immigration comes up, too many Americans close their minds… and ultimately the job-creation door that we desperately need. They envision undocumented hordes crossing the Rio Grande, eluding the Border Patrol forces and making for good reality television. They see all those wonderful jobs – stoop labor on farms, dishwashing in less-than-swanky restaurants, ditch diggers where heavy machinery won’t fit, housekeepers and the bottom end of the construction industry (whatever of that is left) – going to illegals and not citizens (who don’t want that work even if they cannot get other jobs and their unemployment has run out!) – social services and educational benefits being sucked dry and below-the-border gangs (well armed from U.S. gun shows where no ID is needed to purchase heavy weapons).

As a matter of fact, as our economy has slowed, the flow of undocumented aliens from south of the border has actually reversed, according to an April 23^rd report issued by the Pew Hispanic Center. Yet, say the word immigration in too many American communities, and still, every negative predisposition, every negative stereotype and every “shut down our border” slogan they can muster flies to the fore. Only one little tiny problem… our immigration policies are slitting our own throats.

The reality is that skilled and educated immigrants have been the backbone of American job creation for some time now, and companies founded by folks born in other countries are disproportionate to their numbers. Earlier this summer, journalist Fareed Zakaria addressed this nation’s policies and compared them to policies in Germany and Canada that create many pathways for skilled and educated workers to move into their economies. Not so America, despite the positive facts he presented: “Advocates for more immigration point out that foreign-born students account for more than half of advanced technical degrees in the sciences, and American companies lose access to highly-trained workers when those graduates leave the U.S. after receiving their degrees.

“As a result, a lot of that ‘brain drain’ ends up in Canada, where high-skilled workers unable to get American visas are encouraged to work, start companies, and pay taxes, according to New York City Mayor Bloomberg. Zakaria points out that the current cap on H-1B visas for high-skilled workers who wish to emigrate to the U.S. is 85,000 per annum – a figure that is less than half it was just a decade ago. And, more than 200 of the Fortune 500 companies in America were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Bloomberg says a failure of leadership in Washington is to blame for American immigration policies that he describes as approaching ‘national suicide…[U.S. immigration policy] is the biggest economic issue facing this country,’ says Bloomberg.” CNN.com, June 6^th.

Fact is, the job creation in our major tech centers is going the wrong way. Zakaria writes: “A new book caught my eye... It’s called The Immigrant Exodus by Vivek Wadhwa, a former tech entrepreneur who now studies and lectures on immigration. He has some fascinating findings. Wadhwa says between 1995 and 2005, more than a half of all Silicon Valley tech companies were founded by immigrants. But when Wadhwa updated his findings to 2012, he found the proportion of immigrant-founded companies had dropped by a sixth – from 52 percent to 44 percent.

“Now, that might seem like a small drop, but it’s actually a ratio that should be rising, not dropping. You see, the tens of thousands of highly skilled immigrant engineers from the mid-1990s are now in prime position to found companies. According to the 2012 ‘Open for Business’ study, immigrants are twice as likely to start a business as native-born Americans. And yet Silicon Valley is seeing a decline in immigrant-founded companies… Silicon Valley tends to be a harbinger of things to come in the national economy. Immigrant-founded companies nationwide accounted for the creation of nearly half a million jobs between 1995 and 2005.” CNN.com, October 3^rd.

How about this confirming fact: “Immigrants started 28 percent of all new businesses in the U.S. in 2011, according to a report issued … by the Partnership for a New America Economy… The report, which is based on three sets of Census Bureau data, found that the business startup rate among immigrants has jumped 50 percent since 1996. The startup rate for native-born Americans, meanwhile, declined by 10 percent during the same period.” Bizournals.com, August 14^th.  So let’s continue to restrict immigration from the overqualified and profoundly well-educated. Good thinking!

Another absurd anomaly in the system is the result of a statute passed in 1990 to encourage diversity of persons seeking immigration visas to move to the United States. “The Immigration Act of 1990 established the Diversity Visa (DV) program, where 55,000 immigrant visas would be available in an annual lottery, starting in fiscal year 1995. The lottery aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants mostly from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States in the previous five years…. The visas are distributed on a regional basis, with each region sending fewer immigrants to the US in the previous 5 years receiving more diversity visas. Currently, Africa and Europe receive about 80% of the visas in the lottery. In addition, no single country can receive more than 7% of the total number of visas…

“In order to allow for those who do not pursue immigrant visas, and for the applicants who do not qualify, more 'winners' are selected in the lottery than there are visas available. Hence being selected from the lottery does not guarantee an immigrant visa to the U.S. To receive a diversity visa and immigrate to the United States, 'winners' must meet all eligibility requirements under U.S. law to qualify, and must be interviewed before the 50,000 [diversity] green cards are distributed. Requirements include at least a high school diploma, or its equivalent, or two years of work experience in an occupation requiring at least two years training.” Wikpedia.

But that stupid 7% cap applies also against several other categories of immigrants. “[I]f the limits are 226,000 (currently the family-sponsored category, mostly spouses and children) and 140,000 (employment based category), respectively, the per-country limit will be 25,620, which is 7% of (226,000 + 140,000). Furthermore, the per-country cap of 25,620 is divided into family-based limit (15,820) and employment-based limit (9800).” ImmigrationRoad.com.  

So if China and India are producing lots of solid engineers, creating tons of new tech jobs and lighting up the Silicon Valley and other American tech centers, let’s make sure not too many of them get in by limiting any individual country (regardless of population!) to 7% of the visas issued. The more successful any country might be with U.S. immigrants, the more we should try and stop them. Let’s also make it difficult for that special category – those supremely skilled that we do let in – to bring their immediate family with them. Leave the wife and kids back where you came from!

Meanwhile, Canada and Germany are lapping it up, benefiting from our stupidity… as new start-ups are moving to countries where they are welcome. Let Germany and Canada get the new businesses, the new jobs and the new tax revenues. Further, as India and China build new infrastructure and create new opportunities, these would-be immigrants won’t find a hostile policy blocking them from returning to the new lands of opportunity… their homelands. Oh, did I mention, Congress wrestled with this issue? HR 3012 (introduced last fall, also known as the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act) would have taken the cap off employment-based visas and raised the per country cap to 15% on family-sponsored visas. Bring in the job-creators! It never made it out of the Senate, ostensibly because it appeared to threaten American workers… OMG!

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is fascinating as our fact-averse leadership continues to stab our economic future in the back every little chance they get.