Visa Program Research Articles

Selling Citizenship to the Highest Bidder: A Proposal to Reform the United States EB-5 Investor Visa Program

Selling Citizenship to the Highest Bidder: A Proposal to Reform the United States EB-5 Investor Visa Program

India to U.S. Migration Case Study

Indian migration to the U.S. dates back to the the 1800s, but more recent legislation resulted in a large flow of highly skilled Indian workers to the U.S. While this has boosted the U.S. economy and led to the creation of more jobs, India has not experienced the same degree of beneficial effects. Those who emigrate typically continue to exchange valuable information— in the form of investments and remittances— back with India to increase productivity and stimulate the economy. Yet, this has not proven to counteract the great economic loss due to this outflow of their most educated and skilled laborers. This paper specifically explores the ways in which Indian immigration to the U.S. has contributed to an academic phenomenon known as “brain drain,” and the adverse as well as positive effects that this flow of human capital has on both the U.S. and Indian economies. Further, we examine how President-Elect Trump’s administration will likely handle the H-1B visa program.

Mapping the Highly Skilled: Employment Situation and Geographical Distribution of Temporary Skilled Migrants in the United States

ABSTRACTIn the past two decades, migrant workers have become an important source of the skilled labor force in the United States. The H-1B visa program has also become one hotly debated topic of U.S. immigration policies. Since the start of this visa program in 1990, temporary skilled migrants in the United States have not only grown in number but have also become more ethnically homogenous, occupationally homogenous, and economically homogenous. By analyzing the data sets from Department of Labor H-1B and PERM Labor Condition Program Statistics in 2015, this article aims to explore the employment situation and spatial distribution of H-1B visa applicants and PERM applicants in the United States. It also reveals the underlying institutional barriers that skilled migrant workers face in the U.S. job market. Its findings can provide policy implications for understanding the migration experiences and location choices for skilled migrant workers in the United States and can shed light on understanding the migration movements of global talent in the major migrant receiving countries.

Affecting Lives: How Winning the US Diversity Visa Lottery Impacts DV Migrants Pre‐ and Post‐Migration

AbstractUsual debates about the diversity visa (DV) programme revolve around the impact of DV initiated mass migration on African countries’ development, on whether the programme sufficiently diversifies U.S. immigrant streams, and on whether there is a tradeoff in immigrant quality for diversity. This article seeks to extend the focus of these debates by examining the impact of the diversity visa programme on DV migrants at the micro‐level pre‐ and post‐migration. Based on in‐depth interviews with sixty‐one diversity visa lottery winners from Ghana and Nigeria, the article examines how this immigration policy has become a contextual determinant of immigrant incorporation. It argues that an account of the impact of immigration policies on immigrants pre‐ and post‐migration must be added to theorization of state agency in shaping migration flows. It concludes with a discussion on ways the diversity visa programme can be modified to facilitate incorporation of DV migrants in the United States.

Will we see more foreign-trained dentists in the United States?

There has been a lot of debate around immigration in the United States. The US president and his administration have signaled their intent to reform the pathways through which highly skilled workers can gain entry to the United States, which includes a re-examination of the H-1B visa program. Although the messages coming from the White House have been inconsistent at times, at least up to the time of the writing of this article, there appears to be growing commitment to reduce the number of H-1B visas. 1 Jan T, Ehrenfreund M. After a series of flip-flops, Trump prepares to deliver on a key campaign pledge. The Washington Post. April 17, 2017. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/17/after-a-series-of-flip-flops-trump-prepares-to-deliver-on-a-key-campaign-pledge/?utm_term=.85d24223d9b3. Accessed May 19, 2017. Google Scholar The H-1B visa program allows US companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in jobs that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields such as information technology, finance, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and so on. The purpose of the visa is to bring highly educated and skilled foreign workers to the United States. 2 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. H-1B specialty occupations, DOD cooperative research and development project workers, and fashion models. Available at: https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-dod-cooperative-research-and-development-project-workers-and-fashion-models. Accessed May 19, 2017. Google Scholar Dr. Vujicic is the chief economist and the vice president, Health Policy Institute, American Dental Association, 211 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.

Precarity and guest work in U.S. tourism: J-1 and H-2B visa programs

ABSTRACTOver the past couple decades, hotels and resorts in the United States have come to rely on the influx of foreign guest workers to meet labor demand during peak tourism seasons. In particular, employers leverage two visas programs: J-1 and H-2B. While helping to solve seasonal workforce issues, these programs have come under scrutiny by worker advocacy groups and other stakeholders who have recognized that both programs at times feature unfavorable conditions for workers. This case study focuses on the precarities embedded in the lives of these foreign guest workers when they come to the United States. Particular attention is paid to the ways that policies crafted to facilitate the flexibilities required by employers have a hand in structuring the precarities associated with living and working in the United States. Results show that workers are at times vulnerable to inadequate housing, questionable employment practices, weak program sponsorship, and, in rare cases, human trafficking. Analysis suggests a general spatial unevenness in the ways that workers experience precarities, especially pertaining to the presence of effective community outreach programs aimed at assisting foreign workers. It is argued that the latter are particularly important for ensuring that guest worker programs can achieve the goals laid out by government agencies of providing employment and protection for workers. Research is based primarily on interviews with major stakeholder groups associated with tourism guest work, including guest workers, advocates, and program sponsors. It is suggested that despite recent reforms, more work is needed to ensure that guest workers' experiences in the United States are not fraught with vulnerability.

The IT Boom and Other Unintended Consequences of Chasing the American Dream

With the majority of all H-1B visas going to Indians, we study how US immigration policy coupled with the internet boom affected both the US and Indian economies, and in particular both countries’ IT sectors. The H-1B scheme led to a tech boom in both countries, inducing substantial gains in firm productivity and consumer welfare in both the United States and India. We find that the US-born workers gained $431 million in 2010 as a result of the H-1B scheme. In India, the H-1B program induced Indians to switch to computer science (CS) occupations, increasing the CS workforce and raising overall IT output in India by 5 percent. Indian students enrolled in engineering schools to gain employment in the rapidly growing US IT industry via the H-1B visa program. Those who could not join the US workforce, due to the H-1B cap, remained in India, and along with return-migrants, enabled the growth of an Indian IT sector, which led to the outsourcing of some production to India. The migration and rise in Indian exports induced a small number of US workers to switch to non-CS occupations, with distributional impacts. Our general equilibrium model captures firm-hiring across various occupations, innovation and technology diffusion, and dynamic worker decisions to choose occupations and fields of major in both the United States and India. Supported by a rich descriptive analysis of the changes in the 1990s and 2000s, we match data moments and show that our model captures levels and trends of key variables in validation tests. We perform counter-factual exercises and find that on average, workers in each country are better off because of high-skill migration.

H-1B Visas, Outsourcing and Body Shops: A Continuum of Exploitation for High Tech Workers

This article analyzes the exploitation of immigrant workers under the H-1B visa program. It analyzes pure H-1B workers that work directly for the company that sponsor the visa; outsourced H-1B workers that work on a visa sponsored by an outsourcing vendor; and body shop workers who work on a visa sponsored by a labor contractor that operates outside the legal boundaries of the law. The article provides a comprehensive survey of lawsuits brought under the visa laws for prevailing wage violations, wage theft, benching, and liquidated damages. It also discusses lawsuits brought as independent causes of action under state tort and contract law; the TVPA; RICO; and employment discrimination statutes. The article argues that even perfect enforcement of existing law will not eliminate H-1B worker exploitation because the program includes systemic inequalities and subordinating structures that are modern manifestations of involuntary servitude, debt bondage and unfree labor. The unfree system of labor created by the guest worker program is based in the ways in which threats of deportation and liquidated damages prevent workers from complaining or quitting; the way in which the visa sponsor's control of the guest worker's labor parallels antebellum slave codes; the commodification of immigrant workers as part of the human supply chain; and the lack of citizenship rights guaranteed to these guest workers.

The US-Mexico Border and Mexican Migration to the United States: A 21st Century Review

This article juxtaposes key recent trends in international immigration to the United States with President Trump’s focus on the US-Mexico border and Mexican migration to the United States as the principal source of recent undocumented migration to the United States. The article analyzes recent trends in Mexican, Latin American, and other foreign national migration to the United States, demonstrating the reduced role of border crossings as the source of undocumented migration, the reduced role of Mexican migrants as those making border crossings, and the increased role of non-border entrance into the United States as greater challenge to undocumented migration and jobs for US citizens. Drawing on recent data and studies, the article argues that the reduction of undocumented immigration, should that be the policy goal, would be more cost-effectively achieved through an emphasis on non-border policies: catching visa overstayers, enforcement of employer sanctions, improvements in the H-1B and H-2B visa program, and targeted support for US citizens to fill labor market demand. The article argues that the focus on border security and Mexico is outdated and counterfactual for the migration and jobs challenges mostly likely to face the Trump administration in the next four years.

Australian student visas: Assessing how the GTE requirement is assessed

Australia is a country that has long sought to be competitive in the international education sector, for the purposes of both revenue generation and contribution towards Australia’s social fabric. However, it has also historically had ambivalent views concerning migration, since the days of the ‘White Australia’ policy. Given this socio-legal background, on 5 November 2011 the Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) requirement was introduced as part of Australia’s Student Visa Program. It sought to maintain the integrity of Australia’s international education sector, as well as enhance the sector’s global competitiveness. However, industry experts have expressed concern over the requirement, suggesting that its application has been subjective and lacked transparency. This essay examines the GTE requirement through two cases submitted for review to the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT), to consider whether these concerns are evident at an appellate level. The essay will compare Australia’s requirements with Canada’s, taking into account broader policy objectives and the aforementioned goals. It will conclude that Australia’s GTE test is subjective, evidenced by unclear and inconsistent decisions that lack transparency.

Skilled Labor Supply and Corporate Investment: Evidence from the H-1B Visa Program

I study how a firm’s ability to hire skilled workers affects corporate investment. To this end, I exploit the 2003 reduction in the legislative cap for the H-1B visa program, which U.S. firms use to recruit foreign skilled (college-educated) workers. I find that the reduction in the cap caused a significant decrease in the investment rate of firms that were ex ante more reliant on H-1B workers as a source of skilled labor. The effect persists for several years past the 2003 cap reduction, and is more pronounced for firms hiring workers in “industrial” occupations related to science and engineering compared with firms hiring workers in “knowledge” occupations related to computers and administration. My research shows that constraints on access to human capital, much like constraints on access to financial capital, can hinder corporate investment.

Great Plains harvest: evolution of the US public employment service, transnational labor, and nonimmigrant visas

Government H-2A visa data and employer surveys show that Great Plains custom harvesting operations now rely on the US public employment service (PES) and private labor agencies to hire transnational labor. Wheat harvest labor problems and private labor bureau abuses during the Progressive Era were a driving force in the formation and development of the local, state, and federal PES agencies that are now used to secure foreign workers. The PES addressed harvest labor problems from the late nineteenth century until the 1930s when mechanization and drought sufficiently reduced labor demand. The PES became active in the wheat harvest again during WW II and into the 1950s until mobile custom combining crews eliminated the need for the federal government’s involvement. Beginning in the 1990s, domestic labor scarcity caused custom harvesting employers to hire foreign labor through the H-2A and J-1 visa programs. The PES is part and parcel of the H-2A visa program, but unlike most agricultural employers that use H-2A labor, foreign workers in custom harvesting are from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and numerous European and other countries rather than Latin America. Transnational custom harvesting employees that use H-2A visas occupy a niche within the program and thereby maintain Great Plains harvesting’s unique place in the labor market. This article traces the concurrent evolution of Great Plains harvesting and the PES from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1950s and examines the role of the PES and private labor agencies in today’s global labor market.

Mobility, Modernity, and Abroad

Mobility, Modernity, and Abroad

Bill to reform U.S. skilled worker visa programs is effort to ‘build momentum’

Bill to reform U.S. skilled worker visa programs is effort to ‘build momentum’

Highly Skilled Migration from Africa to the US: Exit Mechanisms, Demographic Determinants, and the Role of Socioeconomic Trends

Despite increases in research on the migration of skilled Africans to the developed world, few studies have examined the specific mechanisms of departure contributing to these trends. Previous studies further contain limited analysis of how these mechanisms respond to Africa’s changing social and demographic trends. This study uses data from various sources to examine these issues. The results indicate that, in absolute terms, overall emigration flows of highly skilled Africans to the US more than doubled between 1980 and 2010. In addition, they suggest that previous arguments indicating that the recruitment of African professionals drives these flows understate the role of student migration in driving these movements. In the past three decades, more skilled Africans migrated to the US through student migration mechanisms than through any mechanism associated with the recruitment of workers. Furthermore, in recent years, the Diversity Visa Program has become the second most important mechanism through which skilled emigration from Africa occurs. Finally, the analysis finds that trends in African student emigration are highly responsive to youth population growth and that, surprisingly, the migration of skilled professionals is less influenced by African economic trends than by economic trends in the US.

Chinese Students in White Australia: State, Community, and Individual Responses to the Student Visa Program, 1920-25

A recent archival discovery reveals that around four hundred visas were issued to students from China to study in Australia from 1920 to 1925. This article explains and explores the significance of this little-known initiative under the White Australia Policy by reference to China's global resurgence, the role of the Chinese consulate-general in local community affairs, and support and resistance among Chinese community leaders in response to these developments. It highlights a paradox associated with the students' arrival, specifically the Melbourne publication of fabricated ‘Chinese letters home’ at a time when literate students were writing personal letters to their families and friends in China about their impressions of Melbourne, their understanding of local labour and gender relations, and their engagement with the big political and business issues of the day. The recently-released letters and papers of a contemporary student, Joe Tong, tell an untold story of Chinese Australians in the postwar era.

Do Foreigners Crowd Natives Out of Stem Degrees and Occupations? Evidence from the U.S. Immigration Act of 1990

This paper examines effects of the U.S. Immigration Act of 1990 on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree completion and labor market outcomes for native-born Americans. The Act increased the in-flow and stock of foreign STEM workers in the U.S., both by increasing green card allotments and by expanding temporary work visas via the H-1B visa program. These policy changes potentially altered the relative desirability of various college majors and occupations for natives. We examine effects of the policy on STEM degree completion, STEM occupational choice, and employment rates separately for black and white males and females.We identify the effects using variation in natives' exposure to foreign STEM workers and the geographic dispersion in foreign-born STEM workers in 1980, which precedes the Act and predicts future foreign STEM flows. We find that the Immigration Act changed natives' skill investment and utilization in three ways: (1) it pushed black males out of STEM majors; (2) it pushed white male STEM graduates out of STEM occupations; and (3) it pushed white female STEM graduates out of the workforce.

Legalizing undocumented immigrants

Addressing unauthorized immigration is controversial. Countries have adopted a variety of legalization programs, ranging from temporary visa programs to naturalization. Research in the US focused on past amnesty programs finds improved labor market outcomes for newly legalized immigrants. Findings are more mixed for European countries. Studies suggest that regularization of undocumented immigrants can result in increased use of public benefits and reduced formal labor market participation. Despite widespread disagreement, legali­zation is widely used in practice.

Ability Drain: Size, Impact, and Comparison with Brain Drain Under Alternative Immigration Policies

Immigrants or their children founded over 40% of the Fortune 500 US companies. This suggests that ‘ability drain’ is economically significant. While brain drain associated with migration also induces a brain gain, this cannot occur with ability drain. This paper examines migration’s impact on ability, education, and productive human capital or ‘skill’ (which includes both ability and education) for source country residents and migrants, under three different regimes: (i) a points system that accounts for educational attainment; (ii) a ‘vetting’ system that accounts for both ability and education or skill (e.g., the US H1-B visa program); and (iii) a points system that combines the points and vetting systems (as in Canada since 2015). It finds that migration reduces (raises) source country residents’ (migrants’) average ability and has an ambiguous (positive) impact on their average education and skill, with a net skill drain more likely than a net brain drain. These effects increase the more unequal is ability, i.e., the higher the variance in ability. The average ability drain for highly educated US immigrants from 42 developing source countries is 84 percent of the brain drain, a ratio that increases with source countries’ income and is greater than one for most Latin American and Caribbean countries. Heterogeneity in ability is the ultimate cause of both ability and brain drain (as they are equal to zero under homogeneous ability). Policy implications are provided.

Chinese Investment in U.S. Real Estate Markets Using the EB-5 Program

EB-5 is a U.S. immigrant-attraction program created in the early 1990s. After lying mostly dormant, it recently became a source of gap capital when the lending markets collapsed during the Great Recession of 2008 to 2012. With low loan-to-value ratios and high capitalization rates for real estate projects at the end of the Great Recession, the EB-5 investor visa program has been instrumental in filling the financing gap, especially for hotels. Most EB-5 investors are Chinese. We focus primarily on Chinese investor attitudes toward the program, using a nonrandom survey of 85 potential investors who invested in projects in Cleveland, Ohio. The survey was administered in Chinese. Our survey found that Chinese wealthy private business owners are mainly participants in EB-5 for acquiring a U.S. green card on behalf of their young adult children. The rate of return of the EB-5 program for investors is a low-priority item, less important than return of capital.