Recent Bangor Daily News OpEds by Bob Casimiro (Feb. 4) and Jonette Christian (March 6) advocating for the restriction if not the elimination of foreign worker programs are both misguided and counterintuitive. They paint the measured flow of immigration of any kind as an albatross, and like the old sailor in Samuel Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” they want to kill it and leave our state faced with “Water, water, everywhere. Nor any drop to drink.”
The underlying rationale for the call to restrict the flow of an immigrant labor force is twofold:
First, U.S. employers are simply trying to access cheap labor at the expense of U.S. employees.
Second, immigrant labor is unnecessary because an adequate domestic labor force already exists.
Data don’t support this reasoning.
Immigrant visas are limited in number, expensive and not easily obtained. The expense and restrictions are even greater for obtaining visas for skilled and professional employees. Consequently, it begs the question as to why the business world would go through this process if there is, as these critics claim, a willing, able and available workforce within their domestic reach.
As article after article published by the BDN within the past few months alone point out: 1. Maine is faced with a decreasing population, especially its young, student population; 2. any decrease in the unemployment rate is because of a shrinking labor force, not increased job availability; 3. international immigration into the state has acted as the primary bulwark against this decline.
Without employees a business can’t exist. To survive it will move to an area of adequate labor supply. This is what is happening in Maine, and without an injection of employees, it will continue its downward spiral.
The I-Squared Act offers a solution to this problem. It will increase the number of H-1B visas, which could generate an estimated 1.3 million new jobs and significantly increase U.S. GDP by 2045.
How does this affect Maine?
Well, immigrants contribute to Maine’s economic growth and competitiveness by earning degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields from the state’s research universities. The American Immigration Council estimates that in 2009, almost 32.9 percent of STEM graduates from the state’s universities were foreign-born, and almost 42 percent of graduates earning Ph.D.s in engineering in Maine were foreign born. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor certified 474 H1B labor certification applications in Maine, with an average annual wage significantly higher than both Maine’s median household and per-capita income. I-Squared would create an estimated 1,300 new jobs in Maine by 2020, filled by Maine residents.
The Information Technology Industry Council, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, estimates that every foreign-born worker in the United States with a U.S. STEM degree creates 2.62 jobs for U.S.-born workers and that every H-1B visa holder creates 1.83 jobs for Americans. Finally, H-1B visa holders are particularly valuable to smaller businesses, which hire an additional 7.5 workers for each H-1B worker hired.
Sen. Angus King, who supports the “I-Squared Act of 2015,” and Sen. Susan Collins, who supports the “Save our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2015,” should be applauded for their efforts to supply Maine with an adequate labor force.
Both of these senators have a long history of working for the benefit of the state of Maine. They understand the problems that the small seasonal businesses face as well as an increasing need for a workforce skilled in the sciences and technology. An increase in both areas will strengthen the tax base and contribute to the overall economy of Maine.
In short, the state must offer businesses a workforce and facilitate the inflow of employees whether from other parts of the country or internationally.
Mark Russo, an immigration attorney whose practice is in Biddeford, is the New England liaison for the American Immigration Society.