There’s a reason many companies zealously try to safeguard and retain talent, going as far as incorporating bonus schemes and legally dubious non-compete clauses into contracts: training people well is time-consuming and complicated, and People are ultimately the most valuable asset of any company.
Unfortunately, that simple lesson does not appear to have been learned on a large scale by our leaders in Washington, who have stood by for decades as a clumsy and ineffective immigration system has hampered the ability of foreign graduates to remain in the country after receive years of often highly technical education here. As international students and graduates have integrated into and developed crucial sectors of the US economy, research and culture, they have done so despite rather than because of our onerous visa systems.
While true for a long time, the situation has only become more acute in recent years, as immigration bureaucracies become more complicated, delays mount, and the consequences of COVID continue to manifest themselves. TO recent analysis by the Niskanen CenterUsing data from Canadian immigration authorities, it found that between 2017 and 2021 alone, approximately 45,000 post-secondary students graduating from American schools, the vast majority of them international, were invited to obtain permanent residence in the North.
That’s just a four-year period, involving an additional country that makes immigration easier and more attractive. Thousands more return to their home countries or are recruited for positions in other parts of the world. Many of these graduates would like nothing more than to stay here and build a personal and professional life in the country with which they have developed an affinity throughout their education, and we reward that commitment by turning them away.
It’s a situation the United States can no longer afford, as we face shortages of certain types of highly-skilled labor and an aging population. Congress must simplify and modernize the outdated visa system. You’re already a day late and a Canadian dollar short, but the cost of inaction will only compound.
