Is There Too Much Legal Immigration? Yes and No

I’m pro-immigration; but in my research on a specific legal immigration program, I am finding evidence that supports immigration restrictions. I’ll briefly present information from a “restrict immigration” and “maintain immigration” perspective. If you don’t learn anything new, I have failed here.

The H-1B program applies to “specialty occupations,” namely computer programming, engineering, and accounting. Think of Silicon Valley (and your local version of a high tech cluster). Employers say that cannot find enough qualified Americans. Opponents say the program is used to substitute cheap foreign labor for American jobs.

Let’s say you want to hire an H-1B worker. You need to advertise the job locally. If you cannot fill it, you need to put an application together. In it, you must promise to pay the H-1B worker a prevailing wage rate that is measured by state or federal government agencies. You can’t fudge numbers.

Even if you go through this process (it costs about $20,000 in lawyer fees per application), there is an annual limit of 65,000 (plus 20,000 international students in the U.S. who can be hired for up to 24 months). Often, the quota is filled in a week; many applications rejected (wasting money spent on attorney's fees).

Okay, now let’s think about some new information.

Restrictions Perspective: Those low quota numbers are really misleading. According to federal government data, this group totaled 494,565 in 2011; 473,015 in 2012; 474,355 in 2013; 511,773 in 2014; and 537,450 in 2015. This is because an H-1B worker can remain in the U.S. for up to six years—and then, when the legal limit is reached, they can apply for an extension as they work toward getting a green card (a very slow and cumbersome process). 
Two good arguments from this points of view? First, this program is “temporary” in the law, but permanent in reality. Few H-1B workers ever return to India, China, and so forth. Second, even in the past six years, these high numbers have gone up by 10%.

Maintain Perspective: These workers add immense value to the American economy. A study by Giovanni Peri, Kevin Shih, & Chad Sparber, STEM Workers, H-1B Visas, and Productivity in US Cities, 33 J. of Labor Econ. 225 (2015), finds that for every one-percentage point increase in the foreign STEM share of a city’s total employment [that is a proxy for H-1B jobs], wages grew by 7-8 percentage points for college-educated Americans, and 3-4 percentage points for non-college educated natives. Want more practical evidence? Look at the 20-year boom in the San Jose-San Francisco area, where wages are shooting up, as are rents, real estate values and economic output. So, if you are bothered by the 10% growth in these workers, ask yourself: Have tech industries grown by only 10% since 2011, or have they grown exponentially? Why is 10% growth in H-1B visa holders a problem if these workers are expanding the pie of progress?

I will write later on President Trump’s Executive Order 13788, which will sharply decrease this program.