“An H-1B visa allows a company to create a new job for a highly educated foreigner in the U.S. for at least three years,” Slaughter writes. “The H-1B program, which accounts for nearly all of America’s skilled immigration, imposes an annual cap of 85,000 new visas: 65,000 with at least a bachelor’s degree and 20,000 with at least a master’s degree.”
The immigration policy admits fewer skilled workers than U.S. companies need, and that “hurts American workers, companies, and the economy,” writes Slaughter, the Signal Companies’ Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business.
“There is a real, tangible cost to the U.S. economy of allocating far fewer skilled-immigrant visas than companies need,” he writes. “Most immediately, the cost is forgone jobs created in the companies and beyond. More broadly, the cost is forgone ideas, innovation, and connections to the world.”
Read the full opinion piece, published 3/25/14 by The Wall Street Journal.