H-1B visas

CEI Podcast for July 28, 2011: Immigration Reform

by Ryan Young on July 28, 2011

in Economy, Employment, International, Personal Liberty, Podcast

Have a listen here.

President Obama made a speech on immigration reform this week. He is looking for a dance partner in Congress to ease restrictions on the immirgant-dependent high-tech sector. Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh points out that there are several bills already in Congress that would do just that, including the STAPLE Act and the DREAM Act.

Eliminate the Cap on H-1B Visas

by Ryan Young on February 18, 2011 · 1 comment

in Economy, Employment

My colleague Alex Nowrasteh has an op-ed in Investor’s Business Daily where he makes the case for liberalizing the H-1B visa for skilled immigrants.

An oft-neglected point he makes is that if companies can’t legally get the workers they want to come here, they’ll just go abroad to hire them. As with most anything else, prohibiting or limiting immigration comes with unintended, but not unforeseeable consequences.

Read the whole thing here.

Fixing America’s Immigration Black Market

by Ryan Young on April 27, 2010 · 1 comment

in International, Legal, Personal Liberty, Regulation

One of the problems with current immigration laws is that they raise the price of immigrating legally. Basic economics tells us that when something costs more, people consume less of it.

That’s why so many of America’s immigrants are turning to dangerous but cheap immigration black markets to enter the country. This is a problem with an obvious solution. In today’s American Spectator, Alex Nowrasteh and I make the case that lowering the cost of legal immigration through liberalization will reduce the amount of illegal immigration, and shrink cruel black markets.

Basic economics wins again.

Get more doctors — get rid of H-1B visa cap

by Fran Smith on November 11, 2009 · 2 comments

in Health and Illness, Healthcare, Mobility

CEI’s champion of letter-writing, Alex Nowrasteh, has a letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal today advocating removing the cap on H-1B visas to encourage more doctors to practice in the U.S.  As Alex points out:

In 2005, a paltry 7,218 medical and health-care professionals earned H-1B visas, while many were denied. A cap on the number of doctors and medical professionals entering the U.S. discourages health-care access and raises costs. The H-1B visa cap should be removed along with other barriers to the migration of foreign-born doctors and medical professionals. Training more American doctors is important for tomorrow, but looking abroad can help lower medical costs and improve access today.

Also worth noting is the succinct letter following Alex’s by Harry Deloidian:

Convert all law schools to medical schools. That would solve more than one problem.