Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates testified before Congress this week that the United States should allow more foreign engineers to work in the US. News.com is reporting that Gates testified that America’s competitiveness is “at risk,” and encouraged lawmakers to commit to reevaluating US immigration policy to encourage highly-educated foreign workers to contribute to the American economy.
Gates said that many highly-trained foreign engineers are educated at US universities, often partially subsidized by American taxpayers, and then are promptly asked to leave the country upon completing their education. “It makes no sense,” said Gates, referring to the current US policy.
When asked whether raising the cap on highly-educated foreign workers would take jobs away from qualified Americans, Gates responded sharply, “These top people are going to be hired. It’s just a question of where.” But some US lawmakers disagreed, pointing out that replacing B students from America with A students from India was not in the best interest of the United States.
The argument was also made that when companies like Microsoft raise their wages, there are more than enough highly skilled American workers ready and willing to take those jobs. Gates responded that it is not really an issue of increasing wages, at the jobs in question are already very high paying positions.
At one point, Gates testified that Microsoft was currently unable to employ about one third of the foreign job candidates it would like to hire because there are only a limited number of H-1B visas available from the State Department.
Gates also railed against the current state of education in America, at one point citing research from 2005 which indicated that nearly 60% of all doctoral degrees awarded in the US go to foreign citizens.
Proponents of more H-1B visas for highly skilled workers point out that the productivity of American companies is increased by hiring these well-qualified foreigners, and that if the US does not take advantage of foreign-born talent, other countries will.
For example, Microsoft recently opened up a branch office just over the Canadian border in British Columbia. The new Canadian Microsoft headquarter is a type of refuge for many highly trained foreign workers who could not qualify for a US work visa.
On one side of the argument, lawmakers must be careful not to alienate American workers, or appear to be “outsourcing” US jobs to foreign workers. But on the other hand, they must also be pragmatic, and recognize that a highly skilled workers, especially in the data programming and engineering fields, contribute greatly to America’s competitiveness abroad.
Gates not only advocated for changes in US immigration policy, but also repeatedly testified that American schools must vastly improve, especially in the science and technology fields. Gates pointed out that the US educational system was in need of a major overhaul at all levels, from grade school to graduate school.
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