Very few Members of Congress seem to understand one of the less talked about but equally portentous consequences of the recent death of the immigration bill: it has put the high-tech industry into a crisis by continuing to deny it the ability to attract the best and brightest talent from around the world.

The issue of high skilled, legal immigration, which allows companies to bring highly educated workers to the United States on temporary H-1B visas or permanent employment-based green cards, received little media attention.  But in terms of American economic and technological prowess, it will have a huge impact.  Nobody on Capitol Hill seems to get this.

The failure of Congress to act on high skilled immigration means that companies will not have access to the qualified workers they need and some will be forced to move offshore – not because the labor is cheaper, not because the market is bigger, but because that is where the talent is.

Since the Sputnik crisis – the 50^th anniversary of which is October 4^th of this year – America has been the beneficiary of being able to attract the best minds in the world to come work in the United States.  9/11 slowed that flow dramatically.  It also slowed the creation of jobs and wealth that foreign-born scientists and engineers spawned over the last 50 years.

The inability to obtain these visas is compounded by a simple fact.  Fewer American kids are choosing engineering as a major.  U.S. universities awarded 79,700 bachelors degrees in engineering in 2005, down 22 percent from a high of 97,100 in 1986, according to the Department of Education.  For graduate engineering degrees, Americans receive only 54 percent of all masters and 40 percent of all doctorates awarded.  The rest go to foreign nationals, and without visas waiting for them upon graduation, they have to leave the country.

Let’s look at the other data:

·         The U.S. high-tech industry lost over a million net jobs between 2000 and 2004. But between 2004 and 2006 the industry added 250,000 net new jobs.  This job growth would have been substantially higher if qualified individuals, American or foreign-born, were available.

·         The official U.S. unemployment rate for all engineers in 2006 was 1.8 percent; for electrical engineers it was 1.9 percent.

·         The fourth most difficult job category for employers to fill is engineers, according to Manpower’s Annual Talent Shortage Survey.

·         In 2006, the average high-tech wage was 86 percent higher than the rest of the private sector.  In some states, including California, the differential was over 100 percent. 

·         Since 1995, one of every four U.S. high-tech companies was established by at least one foreign-born co-founder. 

One argument against increasing the cap on H-1B visas is that tech companies hire foreign workers on the cheap and depress wages.  But as the 86 percent wage differential attests, high tech pays people very well.  Have some companies abused the system?  Yes.  These companies, many of them foreign-owned, do try to use the H-1B program to hire cheaper labor.  Though these companies are the exception rather than the rule, they clearly have abused the system and should be punished.  The tech industry fully supports enforcement provisions that go after abusers of the system.

The overwhelming majority of companies pay H-1B workers the prevailing wage.  As one senior executive of a large high-tech company stated: “Do you think I could get away with paying below the prevailing wage?  These guys are sharp.  They know exactly what they’re worth.”

Even the IEEE, an association of engineers that argues against allowing in more foreign nationals, may be seeing the light.  A commentary on the IEEE Spectrum website, in response to the recent tech industry job growth, remarked: “It's high time for all the hand wringing to end and for those involved in preparing a new generation of engineers and scientists to fill the job openings that are being offered now by this welcome rejuvenation in the U.S. electronics industry.”

Despite this brave new world of globalization, American tech companies remain just that: American.  They do not relish the idea of moving operations out of the United States.  They would much rather hire an American worker or bring a foreign-born worker here to become part of the culture of an American company, creating high paying jobs, wealth, and intellectual property in the United States instead of in a foreign country.

If our lawmakers are serious about keeping a vibrant tech industry on American shores, with everything that engenders, then Congress cannot let this legislative year pass without taking action on legal, high-skilled immigration.

WILLIAM T. ARCHEY is President and CEO of AeA, the nation’s largest technology trade association with 2,500 member companies representing all segments of the high-tech industry.

JOSH JAMES is the Senior Research Manager at AeA.