• IMMIGRATIONU.S. Immigration Has Become an Elaborate Bait and Switch

    By Edward Alden

    The United States is relying on its engineering and science talent to stay ahead of China in what has become an existential struggle to lead in the industries of the future. At U.S. universities, international students make up 74 percent of graduate electrical engineering students, 72 percent of computer and information science students, and half or more students in pharmaceutical sciences, mathematics, and statistics. Yet, the U.S. Congress has not revised immigration quotas since 1965, when the U.S. population was almost 140 million people smaller. Nor has Congress revisited the rules for highly educated immigrants since 1990—which was before the U.S. information technology sector created millions of new jobs in technical fields that have attracted so many immigrant scientists and engineers.

  • IMMIGRATIONProcessing Backlogs in the U.S. Immigration System: The Scale of the Problem

    By David J. Bier

    Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. immigration system is broken – but the issue is not who should be admitted legally, for how long, and what about their families. Rather, a defining way in which the system is broken is that the current system is unable to implement the policies that Congress and the administration have already chosen. This article summarizes the basic facts about the immigration backlogs, which comprise roughly 24 million cases across the U.S. government.

  • H-2B VISASWill DHS Again Leave H‑2B Winter Industries Short Workers?

    By David J. Bier

    The H 2B program allows employers to hire foreign workers for seasonal or temporary nonfarm jobs. USCIS recently announced that employers had already reached the H 2B cap of 33,000 visas for the winter months before the start of the season. The H 2B program is filling jobs in relatively niche areas or positions where the shortages are most severe. DHS should immediately raise the cap to allow more H 2B workers to enter these positions.

  • IMMIGRATION & INNOVATIONTo Out-Innovate Global Competitors, the United States Should Embrace Immigrant Talent

    By Laura Taylor-Kale

    Immigration barriers for entrepreneurs and U.S.-educated STEM graduates hurt American innovation.

  • IMMIGRATIONLegal Work-Related Immigration Has Fallen by a Third Since 2020, Contributing to U.S. Labor Shortages

    By Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez

    The gap between the demand for labor and its supply was already forming in 2017. By July 2022, as the pandemic’s effects on the workplace were easing, the U.S. had 11.2 million job openings but only 5.7 million unemployed workers who might fill them. The trend that’s driving labor shortages: declining numbers of immigrants allowed to legally work in the U.S.

  • IMMIGRATIONHow Have Attitudes Towards U.S. Immigration Changed?

    By Edmund L. Andrews

    Hostility to immigrants isn’t new to the United States. From the Know Nothings in the 1850s, to Henry Cabot Lodge in the 1890s, to Donald Trump, there were political movements and leaders who demonized immigrants. Are the Know Nothings, Cabot Lodge, or Trump representative of the broader opinion of their times? A new study that uses artificial intelligence to chart the tone of more than 200,000 congressional and presidential speeches on immigration since 1880 provides a surprising historical perspective.

  • IMMIGRATIONDebunking Defining Myths About Immigration in American History

    A new book traces millions of immigrant lives to understand how they – and their children – thrived in the United States.

  • IMMIGRATIONImmigrants in the U.S. Are More Likely to Start Firms, Create Jobs: Study

    By Peter Dizikes

    Compared to native-born citizens, immigrants are more frequently involved in founding companies at all scales. A new study finds that, per capita, immigrants are about 80 percent more likely to found a firm, compared to U.S.-born citizens.

  • STEM ImmigrationThe Only Way for the U.S. to Maintain Tech Edge Over China: STEM Immigration

    U.S. global technology leadership is under serious threat. Given current trends, it is inevitable that China will overtake the United States. The most powerful—and perhaps only—lasting and asymmetric American science and technology advantage over China is the U.S. ability to attract and retain international S&T talent. But the U.S. government risks squandering that advantage through poor immigration policy.

  • ImmigrationIncreasing Immigration Vital to the U.S. Continued Global Economic Leadership: Study

    A new report presents data which show that increasing immigration is vital to the U.S.’ continued global economic leadership, and how the U.S. must raise immigration levels in order to remain the world’s largest economy, maintain a strong, competitive workforce, and outperform global competitors. “At a time when population dynamics promise rapid aging and a drop in economic productivity, welcoming more newcomers would make the United States workforce younger and more prosperous,” said the report’s lead author.

  • ImmigrationStudy: Rethink Immigration Policy for STEM Doctorates

    By James Dean

    A streamlined process for awarding green cards to international STEM doctoral students graduating from U.S. universities could benefit American innovation and competitiveness, including leveling the field for startups eager to attract such highly skilled workers, according to a new study.

  • Immigrants & the economyCost of Excluding Undocumented Immigrants from Stimulus Funds: $10 billion in Economic Activity

    A new study found that the exclusion of undocumented residents and their families from the COVID-19 pandemic-related $1,200 stimulus payments given to taxpayers resulted in a loss of $10 billion in potential economic output. It also cost 82,000 jobs nationally and 17,000 jobs in California, the research found.

  • ImmigrationIncrease in Immigration Has Little Impact on U.S. Citizens’ Wages

    A new study suggests that a large increase in the stock of immigrants to the United States would have little impact on the wages of native U.S. citizens. Allowing for more high-skill immigration could be detrimental to some highly skilled workers in the country, but disproportionately beneficial to low skilled workers.

  • MigrationBrexit Uncertainty, Migration Decisions Spark Brain-Drain Worries

    A new study found that, over the last four years, the “collective uncertainty” triggered by Brexit has sparked major changes in migration decisions, equivalent to the impact of a serious economic or political crisis. The study reveals the U.K. is facing a potential brain drain of highly educated British citizens, who have decided to invest their futures in continental Europe. The study compares changes in migration and naturalization patterns of migrating U.K. citizens before and since the Brexit referendum. 

  • Immigration & the economyBoosting Skilled Immigration – and the Economy

    Comprehensive immigration reform has long proved too heavy a lift for the U.S. Congress. But two Cornell Law School scholars say an incremental change with bipartisan support could not only improve a broken system but spark the nation’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Their proposed pilot program would target highly skilled foreign workers, using a points-based selection system modeled after successful programs in Canada and Australia.