Foreign professionals in the United States
Foreign professionals in the United States have become a significant focus of immigration policy, especially since the 1990s, as the nation seeks to address labor shortages, particularly in specialized fields like healthcare and technology. Advocates for increasing the number of specialty visas argue that foreign professionals are essential to filling critical gaps in the workforce, particularly in underserved areas. They contend that these professionals often bring competitiveness and innovation, helping organizations thrive and contributing positively to the U.S. economy.
However, there is a counterargument that suggests qualified American workers are being overlooked in favor of cheaper labor, raising concerns about fair wages and working conditions for foreign employees. The debate also touches on the concept of "brain drain," where the emigration of skilled professionals from their home countries can lead to a loss of talent. Some propose that this phenomenon might be viewed as "brain gain" for the U.S., with potential benefits for both the host and home countries through "brain circulation." The complexities surrounding foreign professionals reflect broader themes of economic interdependence, workforce dynamics, and the evolving nature of immigration policy in the United States.
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Foreign professionals in the United States
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, US immigration legislation has been largely influenced by the nation’s need for labor. Although earlier laws typically involved unskilled workers, legislation in the 1990s began to focus on the admittance of foreign professionals. Those who advocate increasing the number of specialty visas are primarily in, but not limited to, the healthcare and STEM fields. They argue that not enough qualified people are available in the United States. To support their position, they cite the shortage in medical personnel, claiming that many rural and inner-city healthcare systems would have collapsed had it not been for foreign medical professionals who filled these positions. Proponents also say that US-born professionals do not work as hard and are much more expensive than foreign professionals. Opponents counter that many qualified individuals are available, but companies prefer to terminate middle-aged, more expensive employees and hire foreign professionals. In addition, opponents say that these companies are creating sweatshops by not providing foreign professionals with the proper wages and benefits.
Proponents argue that by hiring foreign professionals, businesses become more competitive, have greater flexibility in reducing or augmenting the size of the workforce, and benefit from the best foreign talent; this increased competitiveness results in additional jobs and a stronger US economy. For example, at Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle in 2010), more than half of its 20,000 employees worked on technology developed by foreign professionals who first entered on temporary visas.
To hire a foreign professional, organizations are required to demonstrate to the US Department of Labor that the foreigner being hired is not taking a job that could be filled by an American citizen. Managers are highly critical of this procedure because it not only decreases organizational efficiency but also makes the US Department of Labor the personnel manager of an organization. Another option that has been suggested is to tax organizations that use foreign professionals; however, organizations have been critical of this idea because it negatively affects efficiency and profits.
Many companies use H-1B visas for their foreign professionals. The United States currently caps the number of H-1B visas at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 visas for foreign professionals who graduate with a master's or doctorate degree from a US higher education institution. In fiscal year 2025, the government reached the cap on December 2, 2024.
Two other issues—education and the phenomenon called "brain drain"—also come to the forefront in discussions concerning foreign professionals. As long as US companies and facilities are able to hire foreign professionals cheaply, the American educational system will not develop adequate training facilities in those areas, making the United States dependent on overseas talent. In addition, the recruiting of highly educated or skilled professionals from other countries by US companies produces a phenomenon called brain drain—a situation in which a country loses its best and brightest to another country that can offer these people better economic opportunities. No country can truly afford such a loss of educated talent, despite often receiving much-needed remittances that such professionals send to their family members, and many set up barriers to leaving. This could result in a diminished ability to recruit foreign professionals.
Some scholars have begun reframing "brain drain" as "brain gain," shifting the emphasis to the country of relocation rather than the loss by the home country. Those countries that gain more professionals than they lose would be characterized as experiencing "brain gain." And, in fact, there is a school of thought that brain drain does not cause detrimental outcomes, such as poor health in health-care professionals' home countries, since many of the negative conditions attributed to the emigration of professionals are actually the result of several, often-unrelated factors. Some also argue that the home country may regain better-skilled workers at a later point in a phenomenon known as "brain circulation."
Bibliography
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