STEM Issues & Immigration

The items posted below are presented for the consideration of the reader only and do not necessarily represent the position(s) of the author of this blog.

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Beck, Jeremy  (9/11/13)
"Who Perpetuates the STEM Crisis Myth"

"According to Robert Charette, author of "The STEM Crisis is a Myth," (IEEE Spectrum, August 30, 2013), The STEM crisis myth (often used by advocates for the Senate immigration bill) is not unique to the United States. The myth has gone global.

"There is this feeling, one, that everybody is falling behind everybody else in the world," Charette explained in an interview about his article. From the U.S. to China to India and beyond, Charette writes, "the predicted shortfall of STEM (short for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workers is supposed to number in the hundreds of thousands or even the millions.

Yet wages aren't rising in any way that would suggest a shortage."

Charette, Robert N.  (8/30/13)
"The STEM Crisis Is a Myth"

"And yet, alongside such dire projections, you’ll also find reports suggesting just the opposite—that there are more STEM workers than suitable jobs. One study found, for example, that wages for U.S. workers in computer and math fields have largely stagnated since 2000. Even as the Great Recession slowly recedes, STEM workers at every stage of the career pipeline, from freshly minted grads to mid- and late-career Ph.D.s, still struggle to find employment as many companies, including Boeing, IBM, and Symantec, continue to lay off thousands of STEM workers."

Lee, Tony  (2/19/15)
"Expert: Gov't Data Reveal Guest-Worker Firms 'Abusing' System to Displace U.S. Workers"

"The top two importers of foreign H-1B guest workers are gaming and abusing the guest-worker system to bring in temporary, disposable, and cheaper labor and may be violating the spirit of U.S. immigration and labor laws, according to government data obtained by a prominent Howard University public policy professor.

Ron Hira, one of the nation’s foremost experts on H-1B visas and guest workers, noted in his Thursday Economic Policy Institute report that Tata and Infosys, the “two India-based outsourcing companies,” are “major publicly traded companies with a combined market value of about $115 billion, and are the top two H-1B employers in the United States.” He obtained data through the Freedom of Information Act and found that in fiscal year 2013, “Infosys ranked first with 6,269 H-1B petitions approved by the government, and Tata ranked second with 6,193.”

North, David  (5/7/14)
"Is There Really a "Shortage" of High-Tech Workers? Read This Book"

"The author politely dismisses the claims that there are widespread shortages of STEM workers, but notes with care the strenuous efforts of various interest groups (including Silicon Valley, immigration lawyers, many universities, and the Chamber of Commerce) to make the opposite point. Unfortunately, those voices of authority (and moneyed interests) carried the day on issue after issue..."