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Page 1 of 2 San Francisco and Los Angeles Daily Journals - Dec 19, 2005
Forum Column
By Kirsten Schlenger
Preserving competitiveness is at the heart of many U.S. domestic and
foreign policy decisions. While much of our strength has come from
traditional American entrepreneurial spirit, know-how and hard work, a
growing portion of our economy is actually driven by those born
overseas.
A recent study by the California Economic Strategy Panel investigated
the relationship between immigration and the California economy, and
found that California, with its high rate of immigration, has performed
equal to or better than the national average based on such measures as
job creation, unemployment and wages over the past 15 years. Simply
put, immigration provides net economic benefits to Californians.
A separate study by AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the School of Information
Management and Systems at UC Berkeley, found that immigrant
entrepreneurs accounted for 30 percent of Silicon Valley start-ups
during the late 1990s, comprising nearly $20 billion in sales and more
than 60,000 jobs.
So while U.S. educators consistently and legitimately worry about
schoolchildren falling behind in math and science, the country has been
able to remedy this deficit, at least to some extent, by attracting the
world's best, brightest and most technically proficient immigrants.
While some come as university students, many others arrive as working
professionals. The U.S. government, however, tightly controls their
immigration. And therein lies the challenge for U.S. employers.
To employ a foreign national, a U.S. employer must certify that there
are no qualified U.S. workers for the job. The good news is that the
re-engineered Labor Certification program implemented this spring by
the U.S. Department of Labor has resulted in far speedier processing of
labor certifications than in previous years. Most applications are now
being processed within 90 days, instead of several years.
The bad news is that many foreign-born employees already working in the
United States have temporary work visas that are only valid for a
limited time (generally ranging from five to seven years, depending on
the visa classification). Those who seek to remain longer must obtain a
green card.
These aspiring permanent residents are now running into brick walls
because Congress has set strict limits on how many immigrant visas are
available and therefore on how many employees of U.S. businesses may
immigrate in any one year. So-called "visa retrogression" is back, and
the impact of this mounting waiting list on employers and their
employees is significant and adverse.
Without a visa number, a green card cannot be fully processed. Congress
has decreed that only 140,000 employment-based visas shall be available
in a single year. Within this total, there are limits on how many
foreign-born workers from any one country may immigrate during a single
year.
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