Immigrants Can Help Fix the Housing Bubble

An article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that, “The Obama administration should seriously consider granting resident status to foreigners who buy surplus houses in this country.”

In order to reduce the excess inventory of houses, it is suggested to “offer permanent residence status to the many foreigners who are clamoring to get into the U.S. — if they buy houses of minimal values (not shacks). They wouldn’t need to live in those houses, but in order to remove the unit from the total housing market, they couldn’t rent them.”

According to the article, “Each year, 85,000 H-1B visas are granted for foreigners with advanced skills and education, and last year, 163,000 petitions were filed in the first five days after applications were accepted. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation estimates that as of Sept. 30, 2006, 500,040 residents of the U.S. and 59,915 individuals living abroad were waiting for employment-based visas. Many would buy homes if their immigration conditions were settled.

These people tend to be highly productive. In 2006, foreign nationals residing in the U.S. were listed as inventors on 25.6% of the patent applications filed in the U.S., up from 7.6% in 1998. A Council of Graduate Schools survey found that in the fall of 2007, 241,095 non-U.S. citizens were enrolled in graduate programs. Some 55% were in engineering and the biological and physical sciences, compared with only 16% of U.S. citizens. In 2007, more people on temporary visas received doctorates in physical sciences and engineering than U.S. citizens.
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It’s a Terrible Time to Reject Skilled Workers

There was an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal:

Thanks to the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA) it’s become harder for companies getting government support to hire skilled immigrants with H-1B visas.

Supporters say the law will help U.S.-born workers and stimulate our economy, but this is just wrong. The economy is not of fixed size, in which more foreign-born workers necessarily mean fewer U.S. workers. Productive foreign-born workers can help create more jobs here. Keeping them out damages us.

There is also indirect, unforeseen damage that’s beginning to appear in higher education. According to the National Science Foundation, 42% of Ph. D. science and engineering workers in the U.S. today are foreign born..

And where will all these foreign-born students go? To countries whose leaders recognize their job-creation potential and shape policy accordingly. For example, current British immigration policy welcomes an unlimited supply of the world’s best and brightest business minds.

Stimulus package sets H-1B limits, leaves out E-Verify mandate

A provision requiring banks receiving federal bailout funds to give hiring priority to U.S. workers over foreigners with H-1B visas made it into the final version of the economic stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed last week.

But House and Senate negotiators dropped a separate proposal that would have forced all employers benefiting from stimulus money to use the government’s Web-based E-Verify system to vet the employment status of their workers.

Source: ComputerWorld

Report finds fraud in 20% of H-1B applications

Federal investigators discovered fraud in more than 20 percent of applications they examined in which employers were requesting H-1B visas to hire foreign professionals in the U.S., a finding they called a “significant vulnerability.”

In a report released late last year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service cited one especially egregious case in which an employer petitioned for a business-development analyst position but later told investigators the worker would be doing laundry and maintaining washing machines.

Source: The Seattle Times

H-1B, offshoring supporters get key Obama Administration posts

President Barack Obama has filled some of his top White House posts with people who not only support expanding the H-1B visa program, but also see offshore outsourcing as a plus for the U.S. economy. That group includes the president’s new pick to run the Commerce Department, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).

But another one of Obama’s choices, Diana Farrell, may be just as important in shaping White House policy. The former director of the McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Co.’s economics research arm, Farrell has been tapped to serve on the National Economic Council and as deputy economic adviser to the president.

McKinsey, a management consulting firm, has published research that argues that offshore outsourcing to low-wage countries brings “substantial benefits” to the U.S. Its studies and reports have been cited by the tech industry in support of the H-1B visa program.

Source: Computerworld

Microsoft to Layoff Some H-1B Holders

In wake of impending layoffs, Microsoft has released a preliminary response to a U.S. Senator who wants the software giant to cut non-citizens first.

Microsoft’s answer states that it will indeed layoff a significant number of H-1B temporary work visa holders but that their visiting worker status will not be the primary criterion when it comes to deciding who will stay and who will go.

Microsoft officials said they will respond to Senator Grassley’s request for a direct response. However, while the company’s initial response is polite, it doesn’t say it will meet Grassley’s request.

Source: internetnews.com