The H-1B program allows people to apply for a non-immigration visa to work in the United States. It allows workers to live in the states for three years with the option to renew it for another three years. The applicants are primarily searching for jobs in STEM fields (sceience, technology, engineering, and matematics). The demand for high skill labor in STEM fields is greater than the amount of workers available. Thousands of high skilled positions go unfilled yearly. With the H-1B program companies are able to fill their open positions faster, but there is a fixed amount of 65,000 availble visas. The number of applicants always well surpasses the amount available.
People should support the H-1B program because it helps increase domestic wages and mizimizes unemployment. By having a high demand and high wages in the STEM industry people are encouraged to educate themselves in those academic areas. Graduates knowledgable in STEM fields quickly find jobs and the unemployment in those industries is extremely low. Filling these positions is also beneficial to the job sector in general because for every STEM position filled five more jobs are created. Two of the jobs will go to other high skilled workers like doctors or lawyers, and three of the jobs will go to low skilled or unskilled workers in the service industry.
The H-1B program allows flexibility around the economy by filling positions as needed and providing options for workers and employers. Overall, the H-1B program has helped reshape immigration in a positive way. People should encourage students to earn college degrees in STEM subject areas and should be happy there are people abroad willing to help the economy by filling STEM positions across the country.
I believe H-1B is better then EB-5 because investment immigration has to pay over $50,000 to $100,000 and least take 6years to get citizen. The most students get a job after graduate then they become American citizen without any illegal status.
ReplyDeleteThis is a program that I had never really heard of, but it sounds like a very beneficial program to be implementing here in the United States. Like you noted, there is always a demand for high skilled labor, and this is a great opportunity to attract that talent. The one question I have about the rise in wages, is how long will it take these positive wage changes to occur? Im under the impression that this H-1B program will help in the long run, the statistical data certainly backs that theory up. However, with the influx in immigration won't the domestic workers' wages take a hit in the short run. From what I read in the article that was not mentioned. I fully understand that this is potentially huge for growth here in the United States, but is will it take a lot of time to see these effects?
ReplyDeleteThe H-1B program sounds like it would be a great thing for the U.S. because we need more highly skilled workers to fill in the areas with open job opportunities in the STEM fields. I'm curious though whether or not it will hurt us in the future. A lot of U.S. college students now a days are going to school to prepare for these very jobs in the STEM fields. That also is true for many countries worldwide. One day I feel like there will be so much competition for these jobs that even U.S. citizens with a degree in the STEM fields will struggle to get a job in the U.S. This may be looking too far ahead, but it's a thought and I'm curious to see what happens.
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