The Trump
administration has recently made the process to get the H-1B visa
(skilled-worker visa) much harder. Workers on these visas typically come from
abroad to work for tech companies with in the United States. President Trump
believes that this causes “unnecessary competition”. More immigrants coming on
the H-1B visa will make skilled jobs a little more competitive especially in
the tech industry but the Trump administration is failing to acknowledge all of
the benefits H-1B visas bring to the United States.
If a firm is only looking at the
skills of people from the United States, they are potentially missing out on
the skills in the world surrounding the United States. If there is a better fit
for the position, even if it happens to be a foreigner, the company has the
potential to be more productive and more innovative across the span of the
career of the employee. In the scenario that a foreigner is the best fit for a
job, and they are working on an H1-B visa then this will increase the United
States’ GDP. The increase of the GDP would theoretically be the difference in
the factor of productivity between the native born worker and the foreign born
worker. Sure, this number is marginal for one worker compared to the US GDP,
but if you factor in all the workers currently here on an H-1B visa, it has the
potential to be a noticeable portion of the US GDP. Apart from the increase in
GDP, there will be more consumption within the United States and more tax
revenue.
This program is not stopping the
program completely, but slowing it down. Previously, approximately 20% of the
H-1B applications were turned down, and with these new provisions it is
expected that 25% or more will be turned down. On top of the estimated 5% raise
in denials for the H-1B visas, one of the provisions in the new policy is to
deny immediate family members of the applicants. This will not directly deny
applicants but it will surely deter applicants from coming to the US to work,
primarily for the newer tech companies.
This policy has severe economic
implications and the Trump administration could be hurting the US economy in
the long run with these new policies.
Article found from
print copy of The Wall Street Journal on November 20, 2017. (Front page,
continued on A4).
Denying immediate family members of applicants the ability to come with them to the US is very much like denying many good skilled workers admission in the first place. A worker with a family will want to to bring his family. The US could miss out on getting skilled workers where our economy needs them most. With so many of our own skilled worker population aging this is completely foolish.
ReplyDeleteAlthough allowing less people will raise the standard of living, this may hurt the U.S. in the long run. Not allowing skilled workers in could lower some productivity for companies. This does not allow companies to hire the best worker and in turn hurts output.
ReplyDeleteFirms want to find the best person for the job, so by making it harder for foreigners to come to the US, by using H-1 visas, could have a negative effect on the economy. This could lead to less skilled workers getting jobs that they are incapable of doing with their training and overall leading to a decrease in productively which will have a negative effect on GDP. Also, this could lead the tech sector efforts to improve technology to decline. The administration’s efforts to put a constraint on global competition for US tech jobs may lead to sub optimal performance in the affected firms.
ReplyDeleteThis is most likely a direct result of President Trump's actions against the H-1B Visa process. As mentioned above, the workforce full of people out of the US that are skilled could and has had a negative effect on the economy. In order to domestically grow the economy, many of America's jobs must be brought back.
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