U.S. Tech Firms, Citing ‘Brain Drain,’ Push to Hire More Skilled Foreigners

Via the Los Angelas Times
0212/2006

President Bush’s recent call for more visas for skilled foreign workers
increases the likelihood that relief is on the way for U.S. technology
firms that say they are struggling to fill key positions.

In a Feb. 2 speech at the Minnesota headquarters of 3M, the president
said it was a “mistake not to encourage more really bright folks who
can fill the jobs that are having trouble being filled here in
America.” He called on Congress to be “realistic” and “reasonable” and
expand the quota of H-1B visas, which are used to bring in skilled
workers on a temporary basis.

Paul Zulkie, a Chicago immigration attorney, said the president’s
statement raised the pressure on Congress to respond to a “crisis faced
by American businesses.” He said he gets at least two calls a week from
companies desperate for help in hiring prospective foreign employees.

Silicon Valley companies are among the most vocal advocates of H-1B
reform. For decades, these companies attracted engineers, computer
programmers and other professionals from around the globe. Now they say
they are experiencing a reverse brain drain as skilled workers flock to
the booming economies of China and India.

“Every employer still
faces a shortage of certain talent,” said Lynda Ward Pierce, head of
human resources for SVB Financial Group, the parent company of Silicon
Valley Bank. “I think people going from here to there exacerbates the
problem.”

Though the debate in this country about outsourcing
work overseas has quieted down in the United States, it remains a
sensitive political issue. In December, an effort to get an H-1B visa
expansion provision attached to a budget bill was defeated in Congress.

“The business community is incredulous at the congressional
intransigence in refusing to raise the cap,” said Zulkie, the immediate
past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Assn.

In
response to high demand for H-1B visas at the start of the decade,
Congress expanded the annual quota to 195,000 visas for three years,
then cut it back to the current 65,000.

The allotment of H-1Bs
for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1 was filled by August, and
companies have to wait until April to apply for next year’s slots. The
U.S. agreed this year to give 20,000 additional visas to foreign
graduates of U.S. master’s and PhD programs, but those were filled last
month.

If no changes are made, immigration experts expect
next year’s quota to be filled even faster, given the improving economy
and tightening of the job market.

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