Green Cards: A Better Way to Attract Skilled Foreign Workers?

Bruce Morrison has seen immigration legislation backfire before. In 1990, when he was a Democratic congressman from Connecticut chairing the House immigration subcommittee, unions complained that U.S. employers were using H-1 visas to exploit skilled foreign workers, paying them low wages that undercut American job seekers.

So Congress created a new visa, the H-1B, with tighter rules.

Workers had to have a bachelor’s degree, and employers had to meet wage standards. At the same time, lawmakers roughly doubled the number of green cards available for these desirable immigrants in hopes companies would sponsor them for permanent residency and citizenship.

Read more... “The United States must do a better job of attracting and keeping the world’s best and brightest”