Universities and knowledge-intensive companies have long voiced concern that restrictive immigration policies are hampering their abilities to attract the talent they need to thrive. These challenges are particularly pronounced in STEM fields where international talent is often the difference between being globally competitive or not.
A new study from Cornell University adds to the discussion, arguing that the process for awarding green cards to international STEM doctoral students needs to be streamlined in order for American competitiveness and innovation to thrive. This is especially so for startups who, as I explained in a previous article, are already struggling to attract the talent they need to grow.
The study comes at a time when the Biden administration is openly backing policy reform in this space, but progress is notoriously slow, with recent efforts stalled by concerns that the temporary H-1B visas often used to recruit IT workers, are detrimental to native workers.
Unjust concerns
Now, of course, these concerns are largely unjustified, as a previous article highlighted that immigrants create far more jobs than they take, while recent research from University College London found that immigrants have next to no impact on the income levels of American workers.
The analysis reveals that the entry of high-skill immigrants usually results in wage gains for native workers, especially those at the lower end of the skills spectrum. For these people, they gain a 4% boost to their income. There is also a positive effect, albeit a smaller one, for high skilled natives. The only group that appears to lose out are fellow high-skilled immigrants, who see their wages drop by around 5%.
“The adverse effects are concentrated on the wages of incumbent high skilled immigrants since they are in direct competition with the new high skilled immigrants,” the researchers explain. “But since these new arrivals are not close substitutes to high skilled natives, and given some complementarity between the new arrivals and low skill workers, a skill selective policy can lead to higher productivity and raise natives’ wages regardless of their skill levels. However, the gains are larger for low than high skilled natives. As a result, this policy can reduce local real wage inequality.”
The need for STEM talent
Anyway, while this clearly shows that fears around immigrants and native workers are largely unfounded, the Cornell team believe concerns should certainly not apply to foreign-born STEM doctorates.
“Given that these doctorates often possess highly specialized skills and training at the leading edge of research in areas like vaccines, artificial intelligence, robotics and space,” they explain. “Blanket visa restrictions could significantly impact U.S. firms’ ability to hire and retain the best and brightest scientists.”
The researchers spoke to around 1,600 foreign-born and American STEM doctorates from a number of American research universities about their first jobs after university. The surveys covered things such as their starting salaries, the visa process, the qualifications they have, and the number of hours they worked.
A winding path
The results reveal that long and winding path many international doctorates have to embark upon to gain permanent residency. Commonly, after their student visa many would secure sponsorship for their first job via the H-1B guest worker visa. These visas are valid for three years and can be extended after that for another three.
The doctorates taking advantage of this route were often from China and India, as national quotas mean that immigrants from both countries face a long wait for green cards.
What is clear is that H-1B visas weren’t being used by employers to give lengthy trial periods to the doctorates but rather to buy time between graduation and the eventual securing of a green card. Employers would often transition after a few years towards sponsorship for permanent residence.
The responses to the survey suggest that this lengthy process is endured not because it’s legally required but because of the uncertainties and delays in the visa system prompt people to use it as a bridge towards working in the country permanently.
An unfair advantage
The bureaucracy involved in recruiting overseas doctorates gives big tech firms, such as Microsoft and Apple, a major advantage over smaller startups who often lack both the manpower and the financial resources to go through the burdensome process.
“Rather than rolling out a red carpet for these doctorates, the visa system necessitates a wait at a crowded front door, and multiple steps, with no guarantee they can get in,” the researchers say. “These individuals have rare and valuable skills, and they can get jobs in almost any country.”
The researchers believe that one possible solution would be the Stopping Trained in American Ph.D.s from Leaving the Economy (STAPLE) Act that was first proposed in 2009 and has been revisited again by the Biden administration. This gives foreign-born STEM doctorates green cards when they graduate through existing jobs-based visa categories. It’s an approach that would also exempt them from any national caps that may exist.
The researchers hope that the detailed data that they’ve been able to accumulate may help to dispel some of the fears that had previously hampered evidence-based policymaking. They hope that the relatively small number of STEM doctorates, coupled with their outsized impact on technology and innovation, should make this an easy change to make.
“We provide new evidence that, we think, dispels many of the concerns that have hindered past efforts at visa reforms for high-skilled workers,” they conclude. “We are optimistic that this study might provide much needed evidence in support of visa changes.”
