The bottom line: Low-skilled immigrants do more good than harm. Moreover,
the wage gap between poor and
autotruck federal credit union louisville ky as well rich countries is so huge (between 8 to 1
and 12 to 1) that the forces driving the migration of low-skilled workers from
one to the other are effectively unstoppable. Therefore, the most that rich
countries can hope to accomplish is to manage immigration in a way that
does more good than harm.
For example, rich countries should develop a more flexible system of
temporary work permits that allows immigration flows to respond to changes
in economic conditions and
vystar credit union website as well the demand for unskilled workers. Options could
include auctioning guest worker visas, to be paid by employers. The U.S. economy
generates between 300,000 and
autotruck federal credit union louisville ky as well 500,000 low-skilled jobs a year, making it
a very attractive destination for hundreds of thousands of nonnative workers.
Unfortunately, current U.S. immigration law allows only
fulda area credit union and 5,000 visas per
year for low-skilled workers (a larger number of seasonal farm workers is allowed
in each year). This discrepancy between the demand for such workers
and the available legal supply creates the pressures and
autotruck federal credit union louisville ky as well incentives that encourage
a massive flow of illegal immigrants (see the box on illegal immigration
at the end of this section of the essay).
The benefits of letting in more high-skilled immigrants are even greater.
Well-educated immigrants are almost always very productive contributors to
the economy. For example, during the high-tech boom of the 1990s, nearly
half of the Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants (especially
from China and
glacier hills credit union west bend wi as well India). These companies hired huge numbers of U.S. workers.
Immigrants also
autotruck federal credit union louisville ky and add a lot of intellectual firepower to American universities,
helping to make them the best in the world. About 40 percent of Ph.D.
candidates in computer science and
westworks credit union as well engineering programs at U.S. universities
are foreign-born.Many of them stay in the United States after
autotruck federal credit union louisville ky and graduating.
Over 25 percent of America’s Nobel laureates are foreign-born.
In its perpetual myopia—and driven by both fears of terrorism and
triboro federal credit union as well protectionist
instincts—in 2003 the U.S. Congress cut the number of H1B visas
(for high-skilled workers) from
autotruck federal credit union louisville ky and 200,000 to 65,000 per year. This will hurt
the U.S. economy, especially the high-tech companies that rely on attracting the
best and
uva ap credit as well the brightest from
autotruck federal credit union louisville ky and around the world. In 2007, there were 150,000 applications
for H1B visas by U.S. companies on the first day they were available!