Visas Strengthen Our Economy
Tomorrow, the federal government hands out the 65,000 visas that are annually assigned to employers, allowing them to hire foreign professionals to work in America for three years. These visas, known as H1-B, are extremely valuable because they are the primary way to bring top talent from around the globe into a job that is in America.
Last year, there were 150,000 applications from employers on the first day applications opened. Those who failed to get the necessary visas either lost out on prime job candidates or, more often, moved the jobs in question to countries with more open immigration and work policies. The demand for these visas is greater this year, but uncertainty about the economy and the job security of American workers is making it harder than ever to resolve the debate over immigration and visa policies.
New York's delegation to the U.S. Congress should lead the way in expanding the number of highly educated and uniquely skilled workers that are allowed to come to America; in turn these workers help American businesses compete and grow. New York City — and the businesses of America that depend on access to global talent — cannot afford to wait.
A report released last week by the Partnership for New York City, Winning the Race for Global Talent, concludes that U.S. restrictions on professional and educational visas are causing serious damage to the New York economy. This is because we are a world city, where key industries depend on moving skilled workers in and out of the country with ease and on attracting the talent required to maintain our leadership in world finance, press, the arts, and professional services.
In the past, American businesses outsourced jobs overseas in order to get cheap labor. Today, businesses are actually being forced to move thousands of jobs off shore because they cannot recruit, train, and deploy the people needed in their international workforce under current U.S. immigration and visa policies. This does not just apply to large multinational companies. The Partnership found that small and midsize businesses are hurt the most.
The beneficiaries of restrictive American policies have been our foreign competitors. Most prominent is London, which markets itself — in contrast to New York — as a city that is "open" to global talent.
There are legitimate homeland security and legal issues that contribute to federal inaction and will take some time to solve. But there are immediate actions that the federal government can take to stop the loss of jobs and insure that America continues to attract the best and brightest from around the world to help fuel our economic recovery and future growth.
The most obvious example is to expand the number of H1-B visas available to skilled foreign workers. In New York, more than 80% of these visas go to small and midsize businesses that are seeking a few employees with language skills and global relationships.
The cap on H1-B visas was imposed by Congress to discourage employers from hiring foreign workers in place of qualified American workers. But this policy has boomeranged. In 2006, new H-1B professionals comprised just 0.07% of the total American labor force — certainly not a threat. The Partnership report cites an example of just the opposite situation, where a single H-1B visa holder helped keep 900 jobs in America.
The issue of professional visas has long been thought of as a narrow concern of hi-tech companies based in Northern California. However, the New York tristate area has the largest concentration of H-1B visas in the country, with 21% of the total. California is second with roughly 18%.
The top 20 users of H-1B visas in New York City include banks and investment firms and their technology suppliers as well as two top universities, Columbia and New York University, and two major medical centers, Mount Sinai and Memorial Sloan-Kettering.
New York and America need to resolve this immigration issue now. Investing in the education and skills development of our domestic workforce will take time. But immediate visa reform is an interim action that will help to safeguard American jobs and create opportunities for expanding businesses at a time when the economy needs it most.
Ms. Wylde is president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for New York City.
