[TRW says 70% of their resumes come from foreigners]

News Bytes

WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1999 AUG 5 (NB) -- By Bob Woods,
Newsbytes. As several bills asking for an increase of foreign
workers to be allowed into the US to work in the information
technology (IT) industry work their respective ways through
Congress, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on
Immigration and Claims heard from several industry members on the
subject in a hearing today.


Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chided several
companies that did not send representatives to today's hearing,
"especially since they are so outspoken on the subject."


Without any company officials to speak for increasing the H-1B
visa level, many of the views expressed before the committee were
against upping the number of foreign workers.


Ranking Democrat on the Committee, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee,
Texas, said while the H1-B visa program is an important one and
has been one throughout this past year, "I believe that the
current high demand market for certain technical specialties is
that it should encourage us to retrain displaced workers, attract
underrepresented women and minorities, better educate our young
people and recommission willing and able older workers who have
been forced into unemployment."


Jackson Lee said the IT industry is lacking in its recruitment of
young people from minority groups. Also, "there is a general
failure to fully utilize older, more experienced workers," she
said.


"The suspicion is that high-tech companies hire young foreign
workers instead of recruiting more experienced people because the
more experienced people require higher salaries," Jackson Lee
also said. "While many companies do need people with highly
specialized skills, these skills can be learned by the older,
more experienced people as well as by people just graduating from
school."


American companies are using more visas because of a growing
domestic economy, tight labor markets and a trend towards
globalization, said American Council of International Personnel
Chairman Austin T. Fragomen. But no one can tell who is using the
visas because "statistics are sorely lacking" from the
Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS), he said. INS
figures were also grossly inaccurate, he also said.


"We need to consider how the H-1B program fits into our broader
employment-based immigration system and that it meets the needs
of employers in the 21st century," he added.


Crystal Neiswonger, immigration specialist for TRW Inc., said
that while her company has selectively used H-1B visas, "since
1995, it has become increasingly difficult for us to find US
candidates for positions requiring degrees in electrical,
mechanical, industrial and software engineering. US colleges and
universities lack American-born students who choose these majors
and students who choose to pursue advanced degrees in these
areas.


TRW recruiters estimate that only three in ten resumes from
college students come from American citizens, she also said.
"Consequently, the labor pool that TRW and other global companies
need to draw from comprises overwhelmingly of foreign-born
students attending American universities."


Neiswonger was speaking on behalf of the National Association of
Manufacturers.


And visa fraud, which "seems to be prevalent," according to
Smith, also contributes to the problem of the cap being reached
so quickly.


Additionally, others besides high-tech employees use H-1B visas,
Smith said. "A large share of H-1B visas are used by physical and
occupational therapists, and we must consider the impact of any
increase on these professions," he said.


A total of three bills have been introduced in both the House and
Senate to increase the number of H-1B visas issued annually to
200,000 from the current 115,000 cap, which this year was reached
in June.


House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., late
Wednesday introduced a mirror version of Senate Banking Committee
Chairman Phil Gramm's, R-Texas, bill to raise the annual H-1B
cap.


Dreier also said he expects his New Workers for Economic Growth
Act to go "hand-in-hand" with legislation introduced on Tuesday
by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who wants to start a pilot program
to offer F and J visa holders, full-time foreign students in US
higher learning institutions, five-year temporary visas upon
graduation.


Lofgren's bill also tries to build a US-based technology
workforce for the future by placing a reasonably large fee on US
companies that would be eligible to hire the foreign workers
under her so-called T-visas. The fee would go into a pot that
would be spent on educating US children in math, science and
engineering.