EoW March 2008

EuroWire – March 2008

resident) for high-skilled foreigners already residing in the

United States. But bottlenecks in the green card system (eg, per-

country limits for countries such as India and China, long waiting

periods, a costly and time-consuming application process) force

many employed high-skilled workers to leave the US once their

temporary visas expire.

Meanwhile, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France,

and Germany have rapidly revamped their immigration

systems, turning the US into only one of many destinations for

high-skilled immigrants.

And countries such as China and India, which traditionally have

supplied high-skilled emigrants to the US, have actively begun

to induce their nationals to return home.

The Peterson Institute believes the Kirkegaard study verifies

that concerns for the plight of American high-skilled workers

in the face of significant inflows of foreign high-skilled

workers are unfounded. Kirkegaard investigates empirically

the labour-market situation faced by US software workers

– the group that is usually depicted in American media as

facing the greatest risks from globalisation – and reveals that

these occupations enjoy full employment at record levels in

the US economy of today.

❈

Telecommunications

First on the President’s last wish list:

legislation protecting companies from

lawsuits for aiding warrantless eavesdropping

As President George W Bush began his eighth and final year in

office, Dan Froomkin, who writes the ‘White HouseWatch’ column

in the

Washington Post

, declared that Mr Bush is aiming for one

last major domestic legislative triumph: permanent expansion

of government spying powers, including retroactive immunity

for telecom companies that assist in warrantless surveillance.

In an impromptu briefing aboard Air Force One on New Year’s

Day, as Mr Bush returned to Washington from his Texas vacation,

White House counsellor Ed Gillespie told reporters that a bill to

amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is Mr Bush’s top

priority. (‘Bush’s Final Year,’ 2

January).“FISA is front and centre,”

Mr Gillespie said, according to a press pool report.“If it is allowed

to lapse we will be less safe as a country.”

Deferring (some would say caving in) to the President, Congress

in August 2007 authorised continued warrantless eavesdropping,

but only until 1

February.