Smart people, what do we want with smart people...

Lexington, at the Economist, points out the idiocracy of the current limit on H-1B visas in America. The H-1B visa program has historically been used to bring highly educated and/or trained individuals to America for work. More than a few of these have worked out quite well, but in our current state - with Congress being a leader in fermenting a frothing anti-immigrant fervor - we are limiting this program to a mere 70K per year (assigned by lottery no less, which fly completely in the face of a market approach).

Thirty years ago this approach may have been acceptable, as the United States could sit back and tell the applicants to wait... There wasn't a solid substitute location. Now, however, many nations are realizing the value of opening up their borders to global talent while America sits on its laurels.

There was a time when ambitious foreigners had little choice but to put up with America's restrictive ways. Europe was sclerotic and India and China were poor and highly restrictive. But these days the rest of the world is opening up at precisely the time when America seems to be closing down. The booming economies of the developing world are sucking back talent that was once America's for the asking. About a third of immigrants who hold high-tech jobs in America are considering returning home. America's rivals are also rejigging their immigration systems to attract global talent.

There is still time to see a marked change, but this will require political will in a time where there may not be a more unpopular cause. The GOP can't touch this one, even though the business lobby is strongly in favor, because some of the squeaky xenophobic base can't even stomach the sound of the word immigrant. The Dems won't touch it either, despite the program being a keystone to any theory of broad liberal social justice (i.e. equal opportunity). The fear from the Dems come from the protectionist labor portion of the tent, which holds that these folks are taking 'Murican jobs. This bothers me quite a lot, because they either come here and do the job, while spending money and integrating in our society. Or, the company ships the job to where they are, or some other country where the company can get the talent it needs. I spent some time on this issue in grad school, and am still stupefied by the lack of political will and the, to be cliche, perfect political storm that is inhibiting any long-term fix for this problem.