WCA March 2007

From the

Americas

Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2007

Immigration

An early start on controversy

over illegal residents in the US

Normally, a story about the first American baby born in 2007

would not find its way into the pages of this journal. But in

fact it belongs here, as demonstrating the acrimony (some

might say lunacy) of the national debate over how to deal

with the problem of illegal immigration.

There was no question, initially, of the identity of the first

baby and the validity of her claim. At New York Downtown

Hospital, a short distance from the Manhattan offices of

Wire & Cable ASIA

, a Chinese-American baby girl came into

the world at the stroke of the New Year and was declared

the winner of a $25,000 savings bond pledged by the global

toy chain Toys ‘R’ Us and its Babies ‘R’ Us division.

But very quickly the infant, Yuki Lin – a citizen of the United

States from the moment the ball dropped in Times Square

– was disqualified and the prize withdrawn. Like six out of

10 babies born in New York City, she has immigrant parents.

More to the point, her mother is not a legal resident of the

country.

As reported by Nina Bernstein in the

New York Times

Albert Wang, a corporate lawyer, read about Yuki Lin’s lost

chance on the website of the Chinese-language World

Journal. An angry Mr Wang shared his indignation in email

to such prominent Chinese-Americans as the president

of the Asian American Business Development Center and

officers of the Organization of Chinese Americans. Just

one month after the opening of the first Toys ‘R’ Us store

in China, in Shanghai, the chain came under threat of a

media campaign against it. (‘First-Baby Sweepstakes Fuels

Immigration Debate,’ 5

January)

“They want business from China,” Mr Wang told

Ms Bernstein, noting that most of the chain’s toys are made

by Chinese workers in China. “But when it comes to this

Chinese-American US citizen, she was deprived of $25,000

intended to be used for her college education because of

who her parents are.”

Toys ‘R’ Us defended its decision that Yuki Lin was entitled

only to a gift basket and a $100 bond, bestowed on all New

Year babies born in hospitals that signed up for the contest.

But within a week the company saw reason. Expressing

‘deep regret that this sweepstakes became a point of

controversy,’ it announced the award of not one but three

$25,000 bonds: to Yuki Lin and two also-rans.

Albert Wang told the

Times

he was satisfied that his

client had received justice. He also said something that

hints at a new phase in the immigration controversy in

the US. Some people were concerned that the publicity

surrounding the Toys ‘R’ Us award had exposed the

illegal-resident status of the parents – both 22-year-old

restaurant workers. Mr Wang responded, “The safest

place is actually the eye of the storm. Any politician who

says we should deport the parents, it would be the end

of that political career.”

As to the other first babies, Jayden Swain, born 19 seconds

after midnight, was described by her grandmother as black

and ‘American all the way.’

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The second runner-up was Yadira Esmeralda, born to

immigrant parents from El Salvador. It is interesting

to speculate on the family background of other close

contenders. A technicality (late reporting of the birth online)

disqualified Odunayo Muhammed, born at the stroke of

midnight to a Nigerian immigrant couple.

US tech industry pushes for more visas

for foreign workers

The specialty visas under which many workers arrive in the

United States from overseas have not figured prominently

in the heated national discussion of immigration and its

effects on American job-holders. Now, a study released on

January by a former technology executive, himself an

immigrant from India, seems likely to generate controversy

over the H-1B visas, which allow US companies to sponsor

temporary workers in such occupations as computer

programming and systems analysis.

Vivek Wadhwa, a professor at Duke University (Durham,

North Carolina) and the study’s author, found that some 25%

of the technology and engineering companies launched

in the past decade in the US had at least one foreign-

born founder. His report, based on telephone surveys with

2,054 companies and projections by university researchers,

found that immigrants – mostly from India and China

– helped start hundreds of American companies with

estimated sales of nearly $50 billion.

Mr Wadhwa said, plausibly, “[My] research shows that

immigrants have become a significant driving force in the

creation of new businesses and intellectual property in the

US – and that their contributions have increased over the

past decade.” The next day in the

Washington Post

, Krissah

Williams noted that technology-industry lobbyists had

already begun citing the Wadhwa study in their campaign

to persuade Congress to increase the annual allotment of

H-1B visas. She wrote: “The companies say they cannot find

enough Americans to fill jobs. Other proponents contend

that globalisation requires US companies to import talented

workers.” (‘Immigrants a Driving Force Behind Start-Ups,

Study Says’).

Last year, the industry raised the issue in the national

debate over immigration reform, but Congress ended its

session without acting. Tech lobbyists want to revive that

bill, which would increase the annual quota on H-1B visas

to 115,000 from 65,000, eliminate green-card caps for some

advanced-degree holders, and streamline the processing

of employment-based green cards. [These are documents

affording non-citizens certain rights of citizens, sometimes

preliminary to naturalisation.]

Ms Williams noted that such an expansion of the specialty-

worker programme, described by one industry lobbyist as ‘a

great fix for a lot of our companies,’ would draw opposition

from those who favour low levels of immigration. Jessica M

Vaughan, an analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies,

told the

Post

that an increase in the green-card cap would

amount to ‘a subsidy for business because it allows them to

bring in cheaper labour from overseas.’

The Wadhwa study looked at founders of engineering

and technology companies started from 1995 to 2005,

and analysed the World Intellectual Property Organization

Patent Cooperation Treaty database. Among its more

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