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March 2, 2006
Immigration and competitiveness
While R&D funding and S&T education get most of the attention, there are many other parts to the emerging competitiveness agenda. For example, reform of US immigration laws are addressed in both S. 2109 - the National Innovation Act (NIA) and S. 2198 - the Protecting America's Competitive Edge Through Education and Research Act of 2006 (PACE-Education Act). Both of these bills generally defer to other immigration reform legislation pending in the Senate. The NIA has only a sense of the Congress on immigration reform. The PACE-Education Act has both Sense of the Senate language and specific proposals for changes in visas for scientists and engineers.
Today the US Senate begins debate on that immigration reform legislation in the Judiciary Committee. Competitiveness will not be on the tip of every Senator's tongues, however. The debate will be focused on the issue of illegal immigrants and national security. As the Wall Street Journal - "Senate to Weigh Immigration Overhaul" puts it:
None of the four bills the Senate is likely to consider this month require the 11 million illegal immigrants to pack up and leave -- a move that would throw the construction, food-preparation, maintenance, agriculture and manufacturing industries into a tailspin.
Instead, the debate will be about "what hoops you make them jump through to stay," says Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in New York. As public sentiment turns against illegal immigration, those hoops are trickier to maneuver.
The competitiveness issue may be raised as amendments dealing with visas for engineers, scientists and computer programmers, either in Committee or on the Senate floor - or both.
That limited scope of debate is a missed opportunity.
The debate on illegal workers needs to focus as much on the economic issue and the national security. Those workers are an un-recognized key to our economic competitiveness. As the Journal article goes on to say:
Almost everyone in the immigration debate agrees they want to bring illegals in from the underground economy where they are prey to unscrupulous employers, can evade taxes, pose a security problem by their anonymity and aren't available to industries that want to see valid work papers. Anything less generous than permission to stay in the U.S. legally won't bring them in, [Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen] Specter argues.
"It is in our national interest to better protect our borders," Mr. Specter wrote his fellow senators this week. But it is also in the national interest for employers to be "able to find and hire available workers," he added.
But not only are those workers part of the low-skilled economy, they can and should be part of the I-Cubed Economy. There is no reason why creativity and innovation shouldn't infuse their jobs as well. As I've argued before, if we "dumb-down" jobs, we will loss the creative potential of the workers engaged in that activity; if we "smart-up" jobs, we open the door for greater innovation and productivity.
We also need to remember that it is the more ambitious, better skilled, more entrepreneurial persons who undertake the often hazardous journey to the US. These workers (and their children) represent a pool of talent that we can not afford to simply dismiss. If we treat them as just another cog in the economic machine, the opportunity to harness that talent will be wasted. If we continually force them back, we lose their contributions completely.
As Senator Specter noted, it will be important in this legislation to address both the issue of national and border security and economic competitiveness. A bill that does only one is not in our national interest. And regardless of what we do in other areas of the competitiveness agenda, this is one are we need to get right.
As the debate begins, America's economic competitiveness will probably not be at the forefront of the rhetoric. It will be, however, at the forefront of the economic reality confronting the Senators. I hope they will recognize that reality - and act accordingly.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at March 2, 2006 12:06 PM
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Comments
We also need to remember that it is the more ambitious, better skilled, more entrepreneurial persons who undertake the often hazardous journey to the US. These workers (and their children) represent a pool of talent that we can not afford to simply dismiss. If we treat them as just another cog in the economic machine, the opportunity to harness that talent will be wasted. If we continually force them back, we lose their contributions completely."
For us mexicans it's even sadder: we lose uneducated but enterprising people that flee across the border searching for better conditions, only to be treated as dirt. Back in México, we see many professionals working below their qualifications, for there aren't enough jobs here. A pity.
Posted by: Horacio Salazar at March 2, 2006 10:32 PM