UTS Voice
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The only barrier stalling Arun Shanmugam’s ascent in the corporate world is a small card that would proclaim him a permanent resident of the US. The green card, which isn’t green in colour, would help him snag the next best opportunity, launch his own company, and enjoy homestead tax rebates. So, this year the Tampa software engineer joined a queue of more than 300,000 immigrants vying for the coveted card. But a severe backlog is forcing high-skilled workers to question their American dream.
Last week, a Kansas-based private, nonpartisan foundation released a study warning that America could face a sizable reverse brain drain unless the government eases visa restrictions, increases the quota and speeds up the process. The Kauffman Foundation said there are more than one million skilled immigrants, including doctors, engineers and scientists, competing for the approximately 120,120 green cards issued each year, with a
7% limit per country.
The uncertainty of the process and the imbalance in the demand and supply could trigger a trend of highly trained immigrants returning to their country and moving elsewhere. “It’s the first time in American history that we are faced with the prospect of a reverse brain drain,” said Vivek Wadhwa, Wertheim fellow with the Harvard Law School and a co-author of the study.
“There are so many business opportunities in Shanghai and Bangalore, why put up with all the (immigration) crap?”
Many of the green card applicants are on a six-year H-l B visa. The non-immigrant work permit keeps them wedded to a single employer. Immigrants who have applied for a green card can continue working on an extended H-l B visa until the card arrives. But they can’t change employers, or start their own companies. Their wait time is open-ended, made longer by a Congress-mandated quota for the visas and severe backlogs in the system.
Frustrated with the system, in the last three to five years, 100,000 highly skilled Chinese and Indian immigrants have returned to their home countries, Wadhwa said.
In a fiercely competitive global economy, this is the worst time for such an exodus, experts say. “Our previous studies document that highly skilled workers accounted for one quarter of all successful high-tech start-ups in the last decade,” said Robert Litan, vice-president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. “If we send a lot of these people back home, we will lose a disproportionate number of entrepreneurs.”
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