Study: Rethink Immigration Policy for STEM Doctorates
Training (OPT) program – and a green card, with employers transitioning within two or three years, on average, to sponsorships for permanent residency.
According to the researchers, doctorates pass through the H-1B on their way to a green card not because it is legally required, but rather because delays and uncertainties in the U.S. visa system necessitate this step as a bridge to working in the U.S. permanently.
Those delays and uncertainties have given Big Tech firms such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft a recruiting advantage over startups, for whom sponsoring foreign-born STEM doctorates may be too costly or burdensome. In addition, the study noted, leading U.S. firms have opened R&D centers in countries with immigration policies designed to attract highly skilled workers, such as Canada.
“Rather than rolling out a red carpet for these doctorates, the visa system necessitates a wait at a crowded front door, and multiple steps, with no guarantee they can get in,” said Skrentny. “These individuals have rare and valuable skills, and they can get jobs in almost any country.”
In previous research, Roach and Skrentny found that international STEM doctorates from U.S. universities were more interested than their American counterparts in working for startups, but less than half as likely to accept startup job offers, largely due to visa concerns.
A relatively simple solution, the researchers said – as proposed in the Stopping Trained in American Ph.D.s from Leaving the Economy (STAPLE) Act in 2009, and again now by the Biden administration – would be to give foreign-born STEM doctorates green cards upon graduation through existing employment-based visa categories while also exempting them from national caps.
Roach and Skrentny found a highly competitive market for STEM doctorates, who, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, had a pre-COVID 19 unemployment rate of roughly 1% and a median annual salary of $100,000. The researchers found in their own survey data that American and foreign-born doctorates reported no significant differences in compensation or hours worked early in their industry R&D careers, suggesting that U.S. workers were not being negatively impacted and foreign workers weren’t being exploited – two significant concerns relating to H-1B visas.
Such detailed data about the visa paths of U.S. university STEM doctorates hasn’t previously been available to inform policymakers, the researchers said. They said the data suggests immigration policy should treat STEM doctorates from U.S. universities differently, given their relatively small numbers – roughly 3,000 to 5,000 per year – but disproportionate contributions to innovation.
“We provide new evidence that, we think, dispels many of the concerns that have hindered past efforts at visa reforms for high-skilled workers,” Roach said. “We are optimistic that this study might provide much needed evidence in support of visa changes.”
James Dean is staff writer at the Cornell Chronicle.This article is published courtesy of the Cornell Chronicle.
