IEEE-USA Seeks to Substantiate Information in the H-1B Guest Worker Visa Policy Debate

1/30/2003

From: Chris McManes of IEEE-USA, 202-785-0017, ext. 8356 e-mail: c.mcmanes@ieee.org

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 -- The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-USA) is concerned about the rash of recent misinformation helping to shape the H-1B guest worker visa policy debate.

"The public-policy debate over the state of the U.S. technical workforce and the purported need to import foreign labor through the H-1B guest worker program is increasingly being shaped by substantially incorrect statements," IEEE-USA President Jim Leonard said. "This misinformation is offered by H-1B proponents and is widely propagated by the media without verification."

Two recent examples of how news releases and industry pronouncements are misleading the public and its elected representatives include the following:

National Science Foundation Documents Drop in Science and Engineering Ph.D. Degrees

In a January 6 release entitled, "National Survey Documents Drop in Doctoral Degrees in Science and Engineering," the National Science Foundation (NSF) reported a significant decline in science and engineering (S&E) doctorates and a rollback of total Ph.D.s to pre-1994 levels.

The text of the release and the report on which it is based, however, tell a different story with respect to engineering. Total engineering Ph.D. degree awards increased from 5,320 in 2000 to 5,502 in 2001, more than the 5,438 Ph.D.s awarded in 1992. Moreover, the release and the report point out that graduate engineering enrollments have also been increasing in recent years, which means that even more Ph.D.s will be graduating in the future.

While the increases are not large, the trend is positive, not negative as the NSF and subsequent media reports suggest. Long-term trends demonstrate that the number of Ph.D.s granted rise and fall in response to changing labor market conditions, prompting IEEE-USA's Leonard to question whether government intervention is necessary to boost the supply of technical labor, if market forces can be counted upon to correct temporary imbalances.

See NSF news release at http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr0304.htm. See NSF study at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf03300/htmstart.htm

According to IEEE-USA's president, the media need not only to report the trends accurately, but also to question why the number of engineering Ph.D. graduates widely cited by H-1B proponents in support of higher H-1B visa quotas, is relevant given that the great majority of visas go to non-Ph.D. candidates.

Industry Executive Contends that China Produces Six Times as Many Engineers as United States

Last October, Cadence Design Systems CEO Ray Bingham announced at a major software conference that "China produces 600,000 engineers a year, and 200,000 are electrical engineers."

Bingham's alarming statistics were immediately reported by Fortune Magazine (29 Oct., 2002), and have been subsequently cited in several national publications' op-ed pieces. The statement is significant because H-1B proponents use it to argue that American universities aren't graduating enough engineers to compete with countries like China, hence the need for more H-1B guest workers increases.

IEEE-USA staff, however, can find no reliable support for the accuracy of Mr. Bingham's statement. According to information NSF collected from the China National Research Center for Science and Technology for Development, China graduated less than 200,000 engineers total in 1999 (195,354 bachelor's degrees and 3,269 doctorates). Furthermore, no engineering discipline breakdown is recorded.

See the NSF's Science and Engineering Indicators 2002 at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/toc.htm. Tables 2-18 and 2-42 contain the specific information: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/append/c2/at02-18.pdf and http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/append/c2/at02-42.pdf

H-1B visas are issued to foreign nationals for temporary employment in certain specialty occupations. The workers can stay for up to three years and then reapply for an additional three years. Applicants are supposed to have a bachelor's degree or higher and possess highly specialized knowledge. In October 2000, Congress raised the annual H-1B visa cap to 195,000. When this authorization expires on Sept. 30, 2003, the cap will revert to 65,00 unless Congress takes further action.

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers created in 1973 to promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 235,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. For more information, go to http://www.ieeeusa.org.