Visa restrictions seen blunting US tech sector

Experts call squeeze on program used by Chinese xenophobic and damaging

Hostility by US policymakers toward a type of work visa popular among Chinese and other Asian technology workers is xenophobic, and is undermining the United States’ innovation economy, figures in Silicon Valley said.

The administration of former US president Donald Trump took a series of measures to crack down on the program, under which H-1B visas are issued, even though technology industry leaders complained at the time that they rely on it to recruit for positions that do not have a deep applicant pool among US citizens.

Former US vice-president Mike Pence, who served under Trump, on Wednesday called on US President Joe Biden to immediately prohibit the issuance of H-1B visas to Chinese citizens employed by US technology companies “to protect American intellectual property and national security”.

But such calls worry Peter LeroeMunoz, general counsel and vicepresident of innovation and technology at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

“The rhetoric in and of itself is xenophobic, nationalistic and ultimately only undermines the work that we’re doing, given our reliance on immigrants as a whole, and in particular, Chinese and Asian Americans,” Leroe-Munoz said.

“Skilled immigrants are the golden goose, so we have to make sure that our rhetoric and our mindset reflect just how important that relation is.”

In Silicon Valley, nearly one in six workers with expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — collectively known as STEM — are born in China and many more are of Chinese descent, he said.

The 2019 annual STEM survey by Emerson, a technology and engineering company in Missouri, shows that only 39 percent of US citizens have felt encouraged to pursue STEM careers as industries report they can’t find enough people with the skills required for today’s advanced workplaces.

“H-1B is critical to Silicon Valley companies as a way to fill skill gaps and supplement the brain power deficit from the domestic labor pool,” said George Koo, a retired international business adviser in Silicon Valley.

H-1B visas are issued with an annual cap of 85,000, including a limit of 65,000 under a broad category and an exemption for 20,000 H-1B visa holders with a master’s degree or higher from a US university. About two-thirds of the H-1B petitions are in computing related occupations.

Sustained outcry

Before Trump left office in January, his administration finalized a new rule that would end an H-1B lottery and replace it with a system that awards H-1B petitions by salary level — starting from the top.

Despite the tech industry’s sustained outcry and calls to rescind the rule, the Biden administration only delayed the regulation until next year’s H-1B cap selection.

The rule would make it more difficult for international students to obtain an H-1B petition, because choosing H-1B petitions by salary level favors individuals with the most experience.

As for alleged intellectual property theft supposedly linked to the program, Arthur Bienenstock, co-chair of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Committee on International Scientific Partnerships, said the economic, scientific and technological benefits coming from foreign students far outweigh those from university generated IP.

Data from the National Science Foundation show that foreign students earn more than 50 percent of the master’s degrees and doctorates in computer science, mathematics and engineering, and about half of those students are from China, according to Bienenstock.