Immigration Policy and the Search for Skilled Workers Summary of a Workshop (2015) / Chapter Skim
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7 Policy Implications for High-Skilled Immigration
7 Policy Implications for High-Skilled Immigration
Pages 97-108
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From page 97... ...
The five panelists participating in this discussion were Felicia Escobar, special assistant to the (U.S.) President on Immigration at the White House; William Kamela, senior federal policy lead for Workforce Readiness and Immigration at Microsoft Corporation; Pia Orrenius, vice president and senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; 1 Madeleine Sumption, director of research at the Migration Policy Institute, and Michael Teitelbaum, senior research associate for the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard University.
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From page 98... ...
Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was ordered to: • Work with the State Department Work with the Department of State to de velop a method to allocate immigrant visas to ensure that all immigrant visas authorized by Congress are issued to eligible individuals when there is suffi cient demand for such visas; • Work with the Department of State to modify the Visa Bulletin system to more simply and reliably make determinations of visa availability; • Provide clarity on adjustment portability to remove unnecessary restrictions on natural career progression and general job mobility to provide relief to workers facing lengthy adjustment delays; • Clarify the standard by which a national interest waiver may be granted to foreign inventors, researchers and founders of start-up enterprises to benefit the U.S economy; • Authorize parole, on a case-by-case basis, to eligible inventors, researchers and founders of start-up enterprises who may not yet qualify for a national interest waiver, but who: Have been awarded substantial U.S.
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From page 99... ...
That flexibility enables countries to try various policies that might have positive impacts and then adjust those policies easily based on experience. Teitelbaum also reiterated Cissna's point that any policies enacted in the United States should not be too binding because of the difficulty in "tinkering at the margins" in the way that parliamentary systems can.
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From page 100... ...
Luckily for the United States, the nation does well in other areas -- the quality of our institutions of higher education, the salaries that U.S. employers pay, the flexible labor markets with many job opportunities, and the relative ease with which foreign workers integrate in the U.S.
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From page 101... ...
Felicia Escobar acknowledged how nice it was to be in a room full of people who were trying to study high-skilled immigration from a rational framework, and sounded a note of optimism in saying that the immigration debate has benefitted from the research that has been conducted over the last several years. "Research in the last several years has really generated a rich base of knowledge for those who are trying to advocate in Congress for immigration reform," said Escobar.
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From page 102... ...
The same is true for the Congressional Budget Office, a more recent innovation. While he agreed with the earlier comment that it was unlikely that the United States would create a body akin to the MAC, he thought that the Council of Economic Advisers could do more to develop and analyze immigration data.
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From page 103... ...
She suggested that just as countries and workers have benefitted from free trade agreements in terms of creating more competitive industries and improving the well-being of workers, the same could hold true if countries were to develop free migration agreements. "There are huge untapped gains to had from migration globally," said Orrenius.
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From page 104... ...
She also stressed that when this Administration thinks about a race for talent, it is thinking about the nation's investments in its domestic workforce which would limit the need to pull in high-skilled individuals from outside the United States. Quotas Noting that many countries are now moving beyond quotas as a means of controlling immigration, Alden asked Orrenius to comment on why the United States seems so wedded to quotas.
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From page 105... ...
Given that Congress is unlikely to act on immigration reform in the near future, Alden asked Escobar if she could comment on what kind of flexibility the President has to address high-skilled immigration. Escobar replied that the White House is in the process of determining what flexibility exists in the legal immigration space, and that those who are dealing with immigration issues are learning that "there are real limitations to what we can do, which is why we all need to continue to think about changing the actual law to really make the kinds of reforms that people are thinking about." She explained that the White House is looking in particular at green card and temporary worker reform, as well as at the Optional Practical Training Program, which allows graduates to stay here for a period of time after graduation depending on the type of degree that they have and if they have an employer that will give them additional 2 Lofstrom, M., and J
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From page 106... ...
Escobar commented that the workshop's presentations impressed her by showing how much innovation and change is going on with immigration policy outside of the United States. Kamela remarked that the White House's legal team is working on this issue which he believes will be well thought out and will withstand legal challenges.
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From page 107... ...
Alden mentioned that the workshop planning committee discussed the subject of mobility, and that questions were raised as to whether policy makers need to think in terms of people moving around instead of moving in and settling in one place. Sumption remarked that Canada's radical overhaul of its old system, which selected immigrants based on qualifications, was replaced with a system that emphasizes skills and gives companies the ability to select immigrants with the right skills.
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From page 108... ...
Escobar commented that she does not see Congress ever eliminating caps for the green card program or for H-1B, H-2B, and other immigration programs. She also noted that legislation has been proposed that included provisions that would raise or lower caps based on several factors such as employer demand and the economic cycle, but this legislation has never made it through Congress.
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