Visa curbs seen as threat to US tech industry

Steps targeting Chinese will backfire on sector reliant on foreigners, experts say

The increased restrictions imposed on Chinese students and workers in the science and technology fields in the United States threaten to weaken a tech workforce that relies on foreign-born talent, industry experts say.

The H-1B visa, a program for the highly skilled workers that many Silicon Valley companies have come to depend on, has become a target of the US administration.

The government’s latest move against the H-1B visa program comes in the form of rule changes unveiled on Tuesday that, among other measures, requires employers to pay higher wages, shortens the visa’s term to one year from the current three years, and strengthens worksite investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.

Ken Cuccinelli, the second-incommand at the department, said the latest changes will affect more than a third of all H-1B visa petitioners. This year, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services received nearly 275,000 registrations for the H-1B program, which is subject to a cap of 85,000.

In the past few years, the administration has stepped up visa restrictions on Chinese students over concerns about “intelligence theft” and has further cracked down on the H-1B visa program to “protect Americans”.

The measures, such as shortening visa durations and barring entry or issuance of visas to those with suspected military links, have made it harder for Chinese students, especially graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields — known as STEM — to study in the US.

“Chinese students are a tremendous resource for American research and innovation,” said Peter Leroe-Munoz, general counsel and vice-president of tech and innovation policy at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, whose organization represents nearly 400 Silicon Valley companies.

“They bring a diverse perspective and unique background when collaborating with domestic students and colleagues.”

Many of the students become permanent workers in the United States, and Chinese STEM graduates account for 17 percent of all tech workers in Silicon Valley, he said.

“This mixing of ideas inspires creative thinking and innovative approaches within the tech and business fields,” Leroe-Munoz said. The government’s actions “deprive American companies of these talented workers” and the restriction on Chinese students, based on their country of origin, is “antithetical to America’s cherished values of inclusivity and openness”, he said.

Jimmy Goodrich, vice-president for global policy at Semiconductor Industry Association, said foreign talent is “super critical”, because “without it we cannot design or run our fabs (chip-fabrication plants)”.

Among the STEM and electrical engineering graduates in the US, more than 50 percent are foreign born, according to Goodrich.

For material science, chemistry, or electrical engineering students, they go to work for companies like Amazon and Google, because it’s more interesting to them than working in a fab, he said.

Huge proportion

“We need to be able to meet those open job requirements with talented people from overseas, and Chinese make up a huge portion of that student population,” he said.

A report by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found the proportion of international PhDlevel students on temporary visas to study STEM subjects in the US has doubled in 30 years. Those students are much more likely than domestic students to major in, and graduate with, STEM-related doctoral degrees and to pursue careers in high-tech firms.

Source countries for the 464,000 foreign-born holders of science and engineering doctorates were somewhat more concentrated, with China providing the highest proportion at 22 percent, according to the National Science Board’s Science and Engineering Indicators 2018 report.

A key factor behind the US’ tech competitiveness is the country’s ability to attract global talent, but the US administration’s “xenophobia” and “nativism” are a direct attack on the principles of openness and academic freedom, said Evan Low, a California state Assembly member who represents Silicon Valley.

He is deeply concerned about a bill introduced by Republican senators Tom Cotton and Marsha Blackburn in May, which would prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the US for graduate or postgraduate studies in STEM fields.

“If it became law, almost all the Chinese students would be barred from studying in the US,” Low said.

“It would become the modern version of the Chinese Exclusion Act, having extremely adverse and far-reaching impact on Chinese students and the Chinese-American community.”