TW: It is not only the Dems, but the Dems control Congress so they bear the brunt of the blame. In the new stimulus we are making it more not less difficult to attract foreign talent into the U.S. Without repeating the tired cliches, this attitude contravenes a core competency of American society whereby talent regardless of its source is embraced and encouraged to flourish.
In today's world such narrow-mindedness is doubly troubling as many international markets are now not only more able to retain their homegrown talent but willing and able to compete to bring others to their shores as opposed to letting them move one to places like the U.S. The Republicans are committing political suicide with their nativist approach to less skilled immigrants. The Democrats are being foolish in permitting restrictions to grow for highly skilled immigrants.
From Business Week:
"...we're losing sight of an important fact: America is no longer the only land of opportunity for these foreign-born workers. There's another, increasingly promising, destination: home. New research shows that many immigrants have returned to their native countriesplus or minus—especially India and China—to enjoy what they see as a better quality of life, better career prospects, and the comfort of nearby family and friends.
The trend has accelerated in the past few years, in part because these workers have also lost patience with the U.S. visa backlog. At the end of 2006, more than a million professionals and their families were in line for the yearly allotment of just 120,000 permanent-resident visas. The wait time for some has been longer than 10 years.
And with Washington trying to create jobs for Americans comes another hurdle: provisions in the just-passed stimulus bill making it tougher for companies getting bailouts to hire workers on temporary H-1B visas.
...Immigrants to America have always felt lonely and homesick. They've always made sacrifices so their children could have a chance to succeed. Now they have another option in their quest for a better life: returning home. We may not need all these workers in the U.S. during this recession. But we will need them to help us recover from it. What might bring them back? Such a recruitment effort would almost certainly require major changes to immigration policy. That hardly seems likely given the current political climate, where the focus seems to be on doing whatever it takes to keep existing American jobs—even if that comes at the cost of America's long-term promise."
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_11/b4123069998812.htm?chan=magazine+channel_opinion
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