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发帖数: 104 | 1 Intel, IBM May Benefit From Green-Card Bill for Skilled Workers
June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. may have help in
their multiyear effort to bring more high-skill workers from overseas into
the U.S. under a bill Representative Zoe Lofgren introduced today.
Lofgren, a Democrat from California, introduced a bill that would provide
green cards, or permanent residence, to more foreign students who earn at
least a master’s degree in science or engineering at U.S. universities. It
also gives green cards to foreign entrepreneurs who start companies
employing five or more U.S. citizens.
Technology companies, from Intel and Microsoft to International Business
Machines Corp., have backed efforts to make it easier for scientists and
engineers from abroad to come to the U.S. Many scientists come to the U.S.
for their post- graduate education and leave when they can’t get a visa to
stay, said Peter Cleveland, Intel’s vice president of global public policy.
“We drop the ball when we let these individuals take this education
elsewhere,” he said in a phone interview. “We should have them stay here
and work for Apple, work for Facebook, work for Intel.”
Graduates with master’s degrees and higher in science, technology,
engineering and math who get jobs related to their degrees would qualify for
green cards under Lofgren’s bill. Entrepreneurs from abroad would get a
temporary residence and could petition to stay permanently after two years
if their businesses are still open and employing U.S. citizens.
Republican Co-Sponsor
Lofgren is looking for a Republican to co-sponsor the bill.
“I hope we will have Republican support,” she said in a phone interview
today.
The bill is broader than past efforts, said Ron Hira, an associate professor
of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, citing other
bills that haven’t been passed. In 2009, Representative Jeff Flake, a
Republican from Arizona, introduced a bill that would have allowed in more
foreign graduates with doctorate degrees. It never left the House Judiciary
Committee.
“There’s a lot more master’s than Ph.Ds,” Hira said.
Current laws cap the number of employment-based green cards at 140,000 per
year. Under the bill, the green cards for graduates and entrepreneurs wouldn
’t count against the quotas.
The bill also would keep workers’ spouses and children from counting
against caps and reclassify some workers, such as fashion models, to other
visas.
Intel’s Support
The bill “would not only make it easier for U.S. companies to hire the
workforce they need but will address the concerns of foreign-born workers
who must deal with the challenges and uncertainties of the immigration
system,” Intel said in an e- mailed statement. About 6 percent of
Intel’s 45,000 domestic employees are on visas, Cleveland said last month.
Companies would pay a fee of about $2,000 to get graduates the green cards,
which would fund the visa program, as well as scholarships for U.S. students
in science, technology, engineering and math.
“We ought to keep the best and brightest and we ought to educate the
American students,” Lofgren said. “The two are not in opposition to each
other.”
Intel and other companies have lobbied for green cards for foreign
scientists and engineers.
“We’re highly dependent on very, very high-skilled engineers,” said Brian
Toohey, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, which
represents companies such as IBM and Texas Instruments Inc. “We don’t have
enough engineers at the right skill level in this country.”
Temporary Visas
When graduates from abroad find jobs at U.S. companies, they often first
apply for temporary visas, such as H1-Bs. The process of turning that into a
green card can often take up to a decade, during which employees can’t
leave their jobs, Cleveland said.
Some companies abuse the H-1B program by using it to import cheap labor in
place of local workers, Lofgren said at a Congressional hearing in March.
The bill gives the Department of Labor more oversight to ensure companies
pay the prevailing wages, she said. It also keeps them from charging fees to
recruit workers.
“These individuals get frustrated,” Cleveland said. “They think to
themselves, ‘Why not go back to Chengdu or go back to New Delhi and create
the next big company there?’”
To contact the reporter on this story: Katie Hoffmann in New York at
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