IMMIGRATION POLICY
AND THE SEARCH FOR SKILLED WORKERS
Summary of a Workshop
Gail Cohen, Aqila Coulthurst, and Joe Alper, Rapporteurs
Committee on High-Skilled Immigration Policy
and the Global Competition for Talent
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy
Policy and Global Affairs
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by Contract/Grant No. 10000653 between the National Academy of Sciences and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, with additional funding provided by Microsoft. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-33782-3
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-33782-8
DOI: 10.17226/20145
Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.
Copyright 2015 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. Immigration Policy and the Search for Skilled Workers: A Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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PLANNING COMMITTEE ON HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION POLICY AND THE GLOBAL COMPETITION FOR TALENT
Jennifer Hunt, Chair, Rutgers University
Edward Alden, Council on Foreign Relations
Ellen Dulberger, Ellen Dulberger Enterprises, LLC
David McKenzie, The World Bank
Subhash Singhal, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Paula Stephan, Georgia State University
Project Staff
Gail Cohen, Executive Director (Study Director, from Fall 2014)
David Ammerman, Financial Officer
Aqila Coulthurst, Associate Program Officer
Cynthia Getner, Financial Officer (through Spring 2014)
Karolina Konarzewska, Program Coordinator (through Summer 2015)
Stephen Merrill, Director Emeritus (Study Director, through Fall 2014)
David Visi, Mirzayan Fellow (through Winter 2015)
BOARD ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ECONOMIC POLICY (STEP)
For the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, this project was overseen by the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP), a standing board established by the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering and the Institute of Medicine in 1991. The mandate of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy, one of several program units in the Policy and Global Affairs division, is to advise federal, state, and local governments and inform the public about economic and related public policies to promote the creation, diffusion, and application of new scientific and technical knowledge to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the U.S. economy and foster economic prosperity for all Americans. The STEP Board and its committees marshal research and the expertise of scholars, industrial managers, investors, and former public officials in a wide range of policy areas that affect the speed and direction of scientific and technological change and their contributions to the growth of the U.S. and global economies. Results are communicated through reports, conferences, workshops, briefings, and electronic media subject to the procedures of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to ensure their authoritativeness, independence, and objectivity. The members of the STEP Board and staff are listed below:
Richard K. Lester, Chair, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (from Spring 2015)
Jeff Bingaman, Former U.S. Senator, New Mexico
Ellen Dulberger, Ellen Dulberger Enterprises, LLC
Alan M. Garber, Harvard University (through September 2014)
Ralph E. Gomory, New York University
Michael Greenstone, University of Chicago
John L. Hennessy, Stanford University
William H. Janeway, Warburg Pincus, LLC (through Fall 2015)
Paul L. Joskow, Chair, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (through Spring 2015)
David T. Morgenthaler, Morgenthaler Ventures
Luis M. Proenza, University of Akron
Kathryn L. Shaw, Stanford University
Laura D’Andrea Tyson, University of California-Berkeley
Harold R. Varian, Google, Inc. (through Summer 2015)
Jay Walker, Patent Properties, Inc./TEDMED
STEP Staff
Paul Beaton, Senior Program Officer
Gail Cohen, Executive Director
McAlister Clabaugh, Program Officer (through Fall 2015)
Aqila Coulthurst, Associate Program Officer
David Dierksheide, Program Officer
Karolina Konarzewska, Program Coordinator (through Summer 2015)
Fred Lestina, Senior Program Assistant (from Fall 2015)
Natacha Montgomery, Senior Program Assistant (through Fall 2015)
Stephen Merrill, Director Emeritus
Sujai Shivakumar, Senior Program Officer
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The market for high-skilled workers is becoming increasingly global, as are the markets for knowledge and ideas. While high-skilled immigrants in the United States represent a much smaller proportion of the workforce than they do in countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, these immigrants have an important role in spurring innovation and economic growth in all countries and filling shortages in the domestic labor supply. As this workshop summary report will show, “high-skill” is defined differently in different countries but is often used as a proxy for highly educated. This workshop report summarizes the proceedings of a Fall 2014 workshop that focused on how immigration policy can be used to attract and retain foreign talent. Presenters covered immigration policy in specific countries including Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom; they also looked at trends in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, in the Middle East and in Southeast Asian countries. Workshop participants compared policies on encouraging migration and retention of skilled workers, attracting qualified foreign students and retaining them post-graduation, input by states or provinces in immigration policies to add flexibility in countries with regional employment differences, among other topics. The panelists also discussed how immigration policies have changed over time in response to undesired labor market outcomes and whether there was sufficient data to measure those outcomes.
STATEMENT OF TASK
The project was approved by the Governing Board Executive Committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine with the following charge:
An ad hoc committee under the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) will organize a workshop to examine the effects of changes in selected industrialized countries’ treatment of temporary and permanent immigrants with advanced training and skills, especially in the sciences, engineering, and software development, in an effort to understand the effects of
the policy changes, in relation to other factors, on entry and retention and domestic labor markets and educational patterns. The workshop will also compare these countries' administrative mechanisms (e.g., commissions and point systems), methods of integrity assurance, and data collection and evaluation. The committee will develop the agenda, select and invite speakers and discussants, and moderate the discussions. An individually authored workshop summary will be prepared by a rapporteur.
As a part of the study charge, the planning committee commissioned the following policy briefs which are available on the STEP website at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/step/PGA_146763.
- Trade-Offs Within a Skilled Immigration Policy: Lessons from Canada, Summary of a Presentation by Charles Beach
- A Comparison of the U.S. and Canadian Immigration Systems by Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny
- The UK Experience of Immigration Policy by Jonathan Wadsworth
- High-Skilled Migration to Asian Nations: Summary Version by Graeme Hugo
- A Comparison of Skilled Migration Policy: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand by Lesleyanne Hawthorne
- Paper on Global Demand for International Students as Skilled Migrants by Lesleyanne Hawthorne
- Flows of Students, Computer Workers, and Entrepreneurs by Lindsay Lowell
- High-Skilled Immigration and Imperfect Labor Markets: Theory and Cross-Country Evidence by Herbert Brücker
- International Migration and U.S. Innovation by William Kerr
THIS REPORT
This workshop report has been prepared by the rapporteurs as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop. The committee’s role was limited to planning and convening the workshop, and serving as panel moderators. The views contained in the report are those of individual workshop participants and do not necessarily represent the views of all workshop participants, the committee, or the Academies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
On behalf of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, we express our appreciation and recognition for the insights, experiences, and perspectives made available by the participants of this meeting. We would particularly like to recognize Joe Alper for his help in preparing the first draft of this workshop summary, and Radiah Rose-Crawford of the Academies’ staff for her assistance in preparing this report for publication.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS OF REVIEWERS
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for quality and objectivity. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Erik Antonsson, Northrop Grumman Corporation; David Card, University of California, Berkeley; Janette Haughton, Australian Embassy, Washington DC; Neil Ruiz, Brookings Institution; and Philip Webre, Congressional Budget Office.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the report, nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Julia Phillips, Sandia National Laboratories (Retired), appointed by the Academies, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the rapporteurs and the institution.
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Contents
2 HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION AND IDEAS IN A WORLD OF GLOBAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS
3 SKILLED MIGRATION TRENDS AND POLICY EVOLUTION: A MULTILATERAL OVERVIEW
Recent Trends and Future Challenges in the Global Competition for Skills
Transforming the Canadian Immigration System
Australia’s Approach to High-Skilled Immigration
4 COMPARATIVE SYSTEM DESIGN AND EFFECTS
Five Sets of Challenges for Skilled Immigration Policy: Lessons from Canada
Comparing the U.S. and Canadian Immigration Systems
The United Kingdom’s Experience with Immigration Policy
Comparison of Skilled Migration Policies and Outcomes in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand
High-Skilled Migration to Asian Nations
The Political Economy of Skilled Migration Policies
5 COMPETING FOR STUDENTS AND ENTREPRENEURS
Designer Immigrants? International Students as Potential Skilled Migrants
Investor Visas in OECD Countries
6 THE EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION ON INNOVATION AND LABOR MARKETS
High-Skilled Migration and Imperfect Labor Markets
The Israeli Experience with High-Skilled Migration
Immigration and U.S. Innovation
7 POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION
8 KEY POINTS MADE IN THE WORKSHOP
B BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF WORKSHOP SPEAKERS AND PLANNING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
TABLES, FIGURES, BOX
TABLES
1-1 Snapshot of Immigration Policy in the U.S., Canada and Australia
5-1 Full-time Employment Outcomes by Fields and Qualification Level, Year after Course Completion
6-1 Institutional Indicators for Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), and the United Kingdom (UK)
FIGURES
4-1 The share of foreign born individuals as a percentage of total population
4-2 Immigrants to Canada are more educated compared to those in the United States
4-3 Employment-based immigration is more important in Canada than in the United States
4-5 Canada relies more than the United States on immigrants to fill STEM jobs
4-6 The growth of temporary foreign worker visas
5-1 Percentage of nations reporting policies to raise highly skilled immigration
5-4 Researchers as a share of total employment in selected countries/regions: 1995-2011
6-1 Immigration to Israel in absolute numbers, 1948-2012
6-2 Educational attainment in Israel by immigrant status
6-3 Manufacturing output per worker by tech sector from 1990-1999 (1990=100)
6-4 The percentage of U.S. patents granted to U.S. residents with ethnic surnames
BOX
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