United States Immigration Policy in Relation to Foreign Students

Obtaining an H-1B visa to work in the United States of America whether skilled or unskilled is one of the procedural tasks any foreign citizen would undergo. Their policy restricts foreigners from working in the United States even to the extent of denying foreign students studying in the United States the permission to work there after graduation. However, the recent proposed immigration policy reform would see a relief to students studying Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics because adoption of the reform would allow foreign students to work in U.S. The question would be whether the advantage should only be to STEM graduates only.

The world experiences a shortage of labor in relation to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Consequently, these are the most relevant sectors for economic growth and development in any country. It is importance for countries have a pool of trained human personnel in the above sectors whether native or foreign. The United States experiences a shortage of STEM personnel and therefore, giving a specific advantage to the STEM graduates only would increase the pool of workers in the sectors above, while avoiding over-crowding in the other sectors of the economy. This is because if every foreign graduate joins the U.S job market, unemployment would be very high in already crowded sectors.

Diversity is very important in the sectors mentioned above. Especially in technology, the world every day unveils different innovations in different countries. Students from different backgrounds will have different sets of innovations to share with their counterparts in the United States. Therefore retaining different graduates from different countries would guarantee the relevant diversity required in the technological sector, specifically, and generally to the STEM sectors. The move by the U.S government to allow STEM foreign graduates work in the country would create a blend of innovators in the U.S and thus technology would get a big boost. According to Brookings Institution analysis, foreign students are considered desirable towards a robust economic growth.  

However, the move is receiving some criticism from a section of lawmakers who argue that foreign graduates will limit the job opportunities to the Native Americans graduates. The lawmakers argue that the economy will face stiff competition in the job market. The criticism is not founded on strong grounds because recruitment is based on merit and some of foreign graduates would be better than Native Americans. According to Ruiz, many countries have adopted the robust immigration policy of allowing foreign graduates to work in their countries. Therefore, the argument by the section of lawmakers to oppose the move by the U.S government to allow foreign graduates is weak.  

In conclusion, the move by the United States Government to grant H-1B visas to foreign graduates to live and work in the United States is one of the most important steps towards a robust economic development. The move, being targeted only on the STEM students will not cause any personnel influx in U.S since currently the country is struggling to fill STEM jobs. The underlying premise is diversity in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics sectors, which are the most crucial sectors in economic growth and development. Diversity involves blending different graduates from all countries to share their innovations in the above sectors of the U.S economy. Human resource diversity can only be expanded if foreign students trained in the United States would be allowed to practice what they studied in the same country. It would be a great loss to waste resources training personnel and then deny them the chance to serve the government that facilitated their education. Therefore, the move will influence the economy of the United States positively.