Crossing the H, rounding the B, ignoring Grassley.

The April deadline for H1-B visa applications is around the corner.  Immigration lawyers have stacks of applications ready for submission, or they are finishing up the paperwork.  Given the economic downturn, it will be interesting to see if demand for H1Bs slackens at all, or if the usual suspects maintain demand.  But for the big guys, at least, it sounds like they're going full steam ahead.  After all, the H1-B program allows American companies to reduce R&D costs by importing some fantastic science and engineering talent from abroad.

Naturally, the H1-B program involves some interesting political dynamics.  Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa in particular likes to complain about bringing in foreign workers to take "American" jobs.  Grassley seems to forget, however, that using immigrant labor for R&D helps companies keep down the cost of innovation.  By the same token, he also likes to vote against funding education, so it's amusing to see him stumping for American science and engineering talent when he tends to undermine it in the Senate.  

Perhaps someone should point out to Grassley that 24-47 percent of scientists and engineers in the United States come from overseas, and that foreign talent accounts for most of the increase in science and engineering headcounts in the United States since the mid-1990s.  And given that Grassley's been in the Senate since 1981, you would think he'd put two and two together.  Instead, I suppose that he's too busy pandering to the Pro-Lifers back in Iowa and trying to stay in office.