WCA March 2007

From the Americas

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 3 rd 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 ❖

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 th 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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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2007