(3/2011) FirstLook: Brain Gain By Darrell West

Review By Loyd E. Eskildson

Most books on U.S. immigration policy are filled with seriously biased material from either the left or the right. Darrell West’s “Brain Gain” does the best job avoiding those traps that I’m aware of. He believes U.S. immigration policy went seriously off course in 1965 when legislation was passed making family unification the prime factor in our immigration policy. West believes this costs us opportunities to find the next Albert Einstein, Andrew Grove (Intel co-founder), Sergey Brin (Google co-founder), Pierre Omidyar (eBay founder), Jerry Yang (Yahoo founder), etc. or tourism visas – that proportion includes 65,000 for high-skilled workers (H-1B) and another 66,000 seasonal workers in agriculture, construction, or tourism (H-2A, H-2B). They’re allowed to stay for up to three years.
 
Brain Gain covers why past reform efforts have failed, and provides suggestions for future efforts, as well as providing important statistics. Only 2-3% of our immigrants come here through temporary work.
 
About one-third of all immigrants are illegal (12 million), with 97% coming from Mexico. Another 75% of their children (4 million) are born in the U.S. and therefore U.S. citizens - complicating matters considerably whenever their parents are caught and sent back to Mexico. Only about 1% of illegals receive cash benefits, per West, using false documents; this compares well with the approximately 5% of native-born recipients. (West’s data, however, would be skewed in favor of illegal immigrants by the participation of their ‘anchor babies’ in welfare programs.) Of course, illegals and their progeny are major recipients of both education and health care services – especially since they generally require ESL training and have a considerably higher birth rate. As for taxes, West contends that between 50-67% of illegals pay income taxes, while all pay sales and property (incorporated in rent) taxes. Finally, on wages, West reports studies have concluded that illegals have only created a 1.1% decline in wages for those with limited education.
 
Only 17% of American businesses use e-verify – West states some employers “do not want to know the nationality status of their workers because they prefer to use low-paid employees who receive few, if any health or pension benefits.” This directly contradicts his assertion that illegals only create a 1.1% decline in wages – no sane businessperson is going to hire potentially illegal workers, risking fines and disruption in the event of an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raid, as well as the problems associated with limited/no English-language capability workers. My guess is that their impact on wages is close to a one-third decrease for those affected.
 
Regardless, employment raids create public-relations disasters for ICE because of the resulting separated families; West also asserts that employer sanctions are few and mild. Only 5,208 illegals were picked up at work sites in 2008. On the other hand, a pilot program found that about 10% of U.S. prisoners, when checked, were found to be illegals; an across-the-board focus on deporting them would greatly increase the number of prisoners sent back to Mexico – only 117,000 in 2008.
 
Continuing, West cites a study that found about 25% of tech/engineering businesses started in the U.S. from 1995-2005 had a foreign-born founder. Within Silicon Valley, the proportion rises to 52%. Another study also reports that 24% of 2006 international patents filed in the U.S. were based on the work of foreign-born within the U.S.
 
About 38% of Korean students earn degrees in science and/or engineering, 33% of Germans, 27% of English, 26% of Japanese, and only 16% of Americans. Thus, we need those foreign-born scientists and engineers.
 
The ‘bad news,’ per West, is that nearly two-thirds of all visas are now issued on the basis of family ties, and the law even allows aunts, uncles, cousins, and adult children to use ‘family unification’ as their justification for entry. Of the 1.1 million legal immigrants in 2008, 64% were family sponsored, 15% employment based, and 19% refugee/asylum. Since the 1965 ‘reform,’ the mix has changed towards Hispanics, Asians, and Africans, away from Europeans. (West provides no word on the likely future impact of Mexico’s drug wars and the numbers seeking asylum within the U.S.) 
 
The author points out that economic purposes dominate Canada’s immigration policy – 58% enter that nation under provisions aimed at improving its economy, vs. only 6.5% in the U.S. West’s recommendations include using immigration policy to help improve our economy by expanding the ‘O-1′ program that provides visas for those with extraordinary abilities in arts, education, business, science, or sports – only 9,000 in 2008. He’d also like to expand the EB-5 visa that allows those investing $500,000 in designated ‘distressed’ areas, and of course the H-1B program. Systematically combing our jails and prisons for illegals to deport, as well as requiring verification of one’s legal ability to work in the U.S. prior to employment are also recommended.
 
Bottom-Line: “Brain Gain” provides a good structure for reforming our immigration system.

Loyd E. Eskildson is retired from a life of computer programming, teaching economics and finance, education and health care administration, and cross-country truck driving.  He’s now a blogger and reviewer for Basil & Spice.  Visit Loyd E. Eskildson’s Writer’s Page.

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