In The News

US Tech Firms Look Abroad for Engineers

Kim Gittleson June 27, 2013
US tech companies have long complained that most slots in some US university math and tech programs are filled by foreign students, many of whom cannot stay in the country to work. The US reserves 65,000 H-1B visas for workers deemed “highly skilled” – covering not just engineers but teachers, telemarketers and outsourcing staff – and another 20,000 for foreigners with graduate degrees. Conducted...

Mixing Sushi and Samba

Milena Veselinovic June 19, 2013
Brazil is home to 1.8 million people of Japanese descent, the largest Japanese immigrant population in the world. The first Japanese immigrants came to Brazil in 1908 to work as coffee laborers after the abolition of slavery, and most had the opportunity to achieve an education and relative wealth within one or two generations. Nowadays, Japanese Brazilians have had an influence on Brazilian...

The New New World

June 13, 2013
As the debt crisis lingers in Europe, many countries cease to be magnets for mobile hands and brains. Confronting high unemployment rates at home, Europeans are shedding a fear of relocation, and new talent is heading toward developing countries with fast-growing economies like Mexico and Brazil. According to the World Bank, remittances from Brazil to Portugal are now greater than those from...

Limits of Saudi Oil Power

Fahad Nazer May 30, 2013
Saudi Arabia is facing multiple fronts for potential destabilization. A modern society and wealthy citizenry have depended on millions of skilled and unskilled foreign workers to build infrastructure and keep homes, banks and, restaurants running smoothly. Oil money is also behind tremendous investment in education and other social benefits. Yet fossil fuels are limited. Competition is keen as...

Temporary Immigrants Mean Temporary Loyalties

Ratna Omidvar May 23, 2013
The lingering effects of global recession contribute to high unemployment rates and immigration policies favoring temporary guest-worker arrangements over an eventual path toward citizenship. Canada has reduced emphasis on family reunification, treating parents and grandparents as tourists and imposing a two-year period of “conditional” residence on sponsored spouses. The country still offers a...

US Senate Plans Crackdown on Visa “Abusers”

Anna Fifield April 24, 2013
Proposed US immigration reform may include tough rules to weed out IT sourcing companies that are believed to abuse the H-1B visa system for skilled scientists and researchers. Program abuses include undercutting wages and hiring workers with skills that duplicate those already available among US workers. Top recipients of H-1B visas include Indian firms, with a bulk of their employees based in...

US Could Be World’s Most Populous Country

Joseph Chamie April 15, 2013
Nations that manage to satisfy a large population politically, economically, socially can become beacons of hope for the rest of the world. The US is the world’s third most populated country, trailing China and India, but could aim to become most populated by the end of the century: An eightfold increase in annual immigration would lead to a fivefold increase in the US population, explains...