Communications of the ACM
Why Has H-1b Visa Demand Plummeted?
Vivek Wadhwa, visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeleys School of Information and co-author of a study on why Indian and Chinese tech entrepreneurs are returning home.
In April, about 8,000 petitioners sought H-1B visas from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But a year earlier, that number stood at more than twice that — about 16,500. And in 2009, requests for H-1B visas topped 45,000, almost six times this year’s figures.
Clearly, the once-coveted paperwork that enables skilled non-citizens to work legally in the U.S. is not the prize it once was. What’s happened?
According to a study of Indian and Chinese tech entrepreneurs who once worked in the States, opportunities abound in their homelands and seem more favorable to them than do working conditions in the U.S.
“The best and the brightest used to flock here from all over the world because there were no opportunities for them elsewhere,” says Vivek Wadhwa, visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley’s School of Information, a co-author of the study. “But IT grads can now get better jobs at home in India or China. They may make a little less money, but they have a higher quality of life.”
As a result, he says, not only can’t U.S. tech firms fill jobs, but America is losing talent and companies.
“Salaries are shooting through the roof in Silicon Valley,” he says, “which some say is a good thing. But that makes building a company here so much more expensive that it’s now more economical for U.S. tech firms to outsource or even build their companies in Delhi or Shanghai.”
Wadhwa says he is “absolutely sounding a warning” that something needs to be done—and quickly.
Wadhwa’s co-author—AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of University of California, Berkeley’s School of Information—agrees that more immigrants are returning home than in the past. “But this is not about visas. Only 9% of the survey respondents ranked visa issues as important reasons for returning home,” she says, “whereas a majority ranked the availability of economic opportunities, access to local markets, and family ties as important reasons.”
Unlike her co-author, Saxenian believes the U.S. and emerging economies like China and India benefit from what she calls “brain circulation.”
“These returnees remain well-connected to the U.S.,” she explains. “They travel back often, share information about markets and technology, collaborate, and co-invest with U.S. businesses. They also create new markets and complementary technologies.”
But what Saxenian calls “brain circulation,” Wadhwa calls “brain hemorrhage.”
“When I came to America in 1980, it took me 18 months to get a green card,” he recalls. “Now, because of flawed immigration policies and the visa backlog, it could take my students 20-30 years to get a green card after they graduate. I have no doubt that if we fix the backlog, far fewer will return home.”
His “quick fix” recommendation is to retain the highly educated, legal immigrants already in the U.S. by accelerating the process of giving them the green cards they require to live and work here permanently.
Saxenian supports this measure, but doesn’t believe it will halt the return of entrepreneurs seeking to return to their fast-growing home economies. “They know that there is great wealth to be made in China and India today.”
Paul Hyman was editor-in-chief of several hi-tech publications at CMP Media, including Electronic Buyers’ News.
Comments
Anonymous
I have never seen so many stupid people responding badly to a well documented study, are you all anonymous bozos fired from your respective jobs for being mediocre?
Anonymous
"- Google - Google was founded by one American - Larry Page - and one immigrant - Sergei Brin. But Brin came from Russia, not India or China - and he came here at age 3 and grew up here and was educated here. He's more American than immigrant.'
-Both their parents came here on H-1 Visas.dont be so shortsighted.
Anonymous
Yes, i guess H-1B must only be allowed for highly skilled workers! The local scene in India is that each and everyone wants to go to the US!! Why?? err, cause the guy next to me is going? That's not a reason, fool, is what all of us here have to say!! But again, if you ask me, Indian govt must take the initiative as well, to discourage the so called "highly skilled" workers from leaving the country. All Indians must work here and try and emulate the success of other nations, instead of trying to jump the bandwagon or trying to make some quick moolah!!
This is a sensitive topic, but Indians should work here to help our country succeed!!
Cheers and peace
Anonymous
to all those people whining their lives away.. U wud have lost ur jobs.. U cud come to India.. We can definitely find one job for u..
Anonymous
I read with great interest every article in CACM about the American IT industry. Like this one, *most* of these articles claim that (1) there are lots of open jobs in the IT sector, (2) wages are constantly rising, (3) US must train more IT and CS graduates and (4) US needs foreign talents, because in-house IT people are not enough. Interestingly, comments say the opposite! It is impossible that both sides are right :) Okay, I understand the commenters - if I were American (I'm from Hungary, Europe) I would not be happy to see foreigners taking American jobs. Even a *single* job taken by a foreigner would make me upset, even if the foreign guy is a genius and profitable for the American company which hires him/her. What I do *not* understand is why American journals like CACM would like to see foreign employers in the US. Because "brain drain" worked well in the past? In the past, who moved to the US (by the way, some of them were Hungarian, like John Neumann, John Kemeny or Charles Simonyi) never leaved. They became American, worked there and gave all their talent to the US. Today, moving between contries is easy, even for Chinese and Indian people. Anyone can enter the US, work there, get a high salary, collect the knowledge, and then go home, take everything home. This is not "brain drain". This is the "brain sponge" age. You put the dry sponge into the water, let it fill, then take it away along with the water. That's it. We see this even here, in Hungary...
Scott Delman
As the Publisher of CACM, I rarely comment on articles published in the magazine, but after reading the comments in response to Paul Hyman's article on H-1B Visas, I am compelled to interject.
In order to maintain some level of journalistic objectivity and integrity, I am not going to comment on the article itself, other than to say that it was well thought out, well researched, well presented, and interesting (as evidenced by the level of response received thus far). This is not to say I agree or disagree with any of the opinions or conclusions stated in the article itself, but in general I was pleased that the article was published and I believe it is consistent with the standards our readers have come to expect of CACM.
However, after reading the comments posted to the site, it is almost impossible not to jump into the mix and share an opinion.
When we introduced the anonymous commenting option on the site late last year, it was our intention to create a "safer" and more "comfortable" environment for our readers to share their traditionally "well educated" and "well informed" opinions, all with the goal of reaching some greater understanding about topics related to the computing and IT communities.
Well, sometimes unintended consequences happen and this is such a time. The level of vitriol, political fear mongering, ignorance of and willingness to confuse opinion with facts, and outright racism and ethnic hatred is something that I can say has rarely ever touched the pages of this magazine, and I can only conjecture that many who have commented above anonymously do so out of some level of fear of exposing their less than well informed views.
CACM's readership comes from over 190 countries around the world, our editorial board is among the most international any will find in any scholarly or non-scholarly publication in existence today, and our authors and editors come from every corner of the world. ACM's membership is approximately 60% from North America and 40% from the international community. We do not have a political agenda that favors one country over another, nor do we accept hatred, bigotry, or ignorance towards the many cultures and ideologies we represent in our various publications as acceptable methods of communication.
Nevertheless, we will continue to read these comments with interest and a strong desire that facts and good journalism will stand above the kind of negativity expressed in the comments posted in connection to this article.
Respectfully,
Scott Delman
Group Publisher,
Communications of the ACM
Anonymous
"you can always emmigrate to the third world"
Sorry...but that isn't true. India (as well as most other countries) are not as open as the USA to allowing foreigners to work there. I can go to India as a tourist...certainly...but the Indian goverment will not let me earn a living there. Isn't it odd that our "Global Economy" doesn't include freedom of labor?
Anonymous
It's a bitter experience to have one's job being outsourced while watching the profits of multinational corporations soar. And it's tempting to blame the foreigners. However, to really understand the forces shaping our lives, we need to go back to the 18th century.
In the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom and soon spread to rest of Europe. It made the West prosperous, but not content. The demand of capitalism for ever higher profits drove the West to seek cheaper labor and bigger market throughout the world. But the rest of the world, still living the traditional agrarian lifestyle, did not want to serve as cheap labor or consumers for the West. Hence, the West had to impose free trade by force...
Fast forward to the present. Now, most countries are embracing free trade. The West's vision of a free-trading, globalized economic world order has triumphed. But not everyone wins. At the business level, American multinationals corporations crush the Indian local mom and pop stores. At the employee level, Indian programmers underbid the American ones.
If you happen to be on the losing side of globalization, it's futile to blame historical forces for one's predicament. The only solution is to adapt to the changing environment. If you do, you'll thrive.
Anonymous
I suggest to stop blaming nations for individual activities whatever it is.
Some of the observations/opinions are interesting and can be forwarded to the appropriate senate/congress committees instead of posting here where barely anyone would notice.
The best thing is to publish another article and circulate worldwide to have your counter arguments more visible.
Anonymous
Lets not forget that US used to be number 1 in olympics only because of imports from African countries. Now, US is no longer number 1 in Olympics. This is because, the African nations themselves compete in Olympics and get a gold. The education system of US is the best. This is only because it gets one of the best student from around the world-toppers in SAT, GRE, GMAT. Businesses fail due to lack of innovations. Remember the book-who moved my cheese ? The IQ 140 based Americans will become number 1 if they keep re-skilling, spend less time in clubs and have a stable family (-less divorces). Then they will not need Construction workers from Mexico, Security staff from Africa and Students from China and India.
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