US: Do we need technology workers?

An interesting set of articles by six US academics was featured last week in the continuing series on immigration being published by The New York Times blog, Room for Debate. Last week the series examined the issue of skilled foreign-born workers, many of whom are in the US on temporary guest-worker visas. For high-tech industries, particularly, foreign-born workers on temporary visas are an important labour pool. Many of these workers arrived in the US as students and stay on through the H-1B programme.

Many also go on to become permanent residents and founders of start-up firms. But there is long-standing criticism among some labour groups that workers on such visas suppress engineering salaries and actually make it easier for employers to move more jobs to low-cost countries like India. Room for Debate asked several experts how immigration policy affects high-skilled workers and the industries that rely on them. They include the following articles:

"Our real problem is the brain drain"
By Vivek Wadhwa, an executive in residence for the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University and a senior research associate in the labour and work-life programme at Harvard Law School.

"Suppressing wages with younger workers"
By Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis.

"A work force in motion"
By Guillermina Jasso, a professor of sociology at New York University, research fellow at IZA Bonn and a principal investigator on the New Immigrant Survey.

"Training your own replacement"
By Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology and co-author of "Outsourcing America."

* Mark Heesen of the National Venture Capital Association.
* John Miano, a lawyer and computer programmer.
Full reports on the New York Times site

* See also US: Call to hire more foreign graduates in this issue