A Nation of Nerds

Over the past three decades, the United States has slowly but surely shifted away from an economy based on the secondary sector and transitioned into an era in which knowledge-based service industries dominate. In this “new economy,” those with postsecondary degrees are essential to the economic wellbeing and competitiveness of the United States. But in spite of our nation’s voracious appetite for well-educated professionals, our immigration system—specifically, the allocation of H-1B visas for gainfully employed graduates of American educational institutions—is woefully out of date. By redesigning the H-1B system, policymakers from both sides of the aisle can help schools like Harvard to contribute to the future economic growth of the United States. In the meantime, Harvard should make sure its students beat the odds in the current lottery system.

Every year, thousands of international students come to the United States to study at numerous institutions, including Harvard College. According to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, the Class of 2012 is 17 percent “international;” this includes all students with either exclusively foreign or dual U.S. citizenship. But despite all the institutional advantages conferred by a Harvard diploma, many recent alumni are left out in the cold by University Hall. Harvard’s delayed commencement date—in 2009, graduating seniors will receive their diplomas on June 4—is more than two months after the deadline for entering the lottery for the much-coveted H-1B visas.

In the not-too-distant past, graduates of the College were able to leap this bureaucratic hurdle by submitting a letter from the Dean of Harvard College to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in lieu of an actual diploma. This allowed many graduating seniors with job offers to effectively compete in the visa lottery. This practice, which had been commonplace during the tenure of former Dean of Harvard College Benedict H. Gross, petered out when Gross left the office in 2007. Now that the College is benefiting from the leadership of Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds, we hope to see this practice reinstated.

On a broader level, the entire American immigration system needs comprehensive reform. The United States should adopt a totally open immigration policy for gainfully employed recent graduates of its postsecondary institutions, especially those in the hard sciences and engineering. Doing so is not merely a matter of collecting on one’s investment; it is a question of national economic security. The current system marginalizes the millions of dollars of educational investment that American schools make every year by forcing potentially productive members of the labor force to return home. And when American universities are even struggling to attract future engineers and scientists who are American-born, it only makes sense that firms in the U.S. should recruit from the best and brightest all over the world.

Moreover, if the United States does not significantly change the way that it admits new Americans, it runs the risk of falling behind other industrialized countries with more liberal immigration policies, such as Canada and New Zealand. This is a risk that we simply cannot afford. Our country is long overdue for a real debate on immigration; thanks to the gifts of American democracy, we look forward to starting one in January. Until then, University Hall must shoulder much of the burden of providing for its international alumni.