Fairfield County employers say they need more H-1B visas to fill job openings with highly skilled immigrants, especially in technology fields.
For one Greenwich-based technology company, it”™s so difficult to find skilled employees in Connecticut that the firm has several international offices to help it meet its workforce needs.
“I”™m struggling to find the talent here,” said Liwen Yaacoby, CEO of TechWuli L.L.C. “A lot of people think offshoring is for the cheaper labor and for money purposes. But that”™s not necessarily the case.”
Roughly a dozen Fairfield County business representatives met at the Stamford Innovation Center April 3 to discuss immigration policy and how it could better work in their favor.
An H-1B visa allows a company to hire a foreign employee with advanced skills for six years. A total of 85,000 visas are allotted every year, including 20,000 visas for immigrants with U.S. college degrees.
The event was held in part by U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a Greenwich Democrat, who also attended to get a better sense of the business community”™s needs and concerns. The message he received was loud and clear: businesses want Congress to make it easier to both hire immigrants and for immigrants to become citizens.
Yaacoby said as a startup company she can”™t afford the salaries to lure skilled software programmers away from their current jobs. Their skills are too high in demand and there are not enough of them, she said. Often she”™ll work with college students, but the relationship isn”™t long term. After they graduate, they may leave the state and in other instances, they too leave for higher-paying jobs.
Offshoring usually comes with the benefit of paying lower wages, but Yaacoby said she doesn”™t save any money with the amount of time it takes to manage and train the employees, often on subjects as simple as American customs.
“The challenge of managing overseas workers is a nightmare,” she said. “It”™s not really a money issue.”
Yaacoby and other attendees agreed the long-term solution to the shortage of skilled technology workers lies within the nation”™s education system, but that in the short-term, employers needed to be able to hire from abroad. Many said they need to hire more highly skilled immigrants than they”™re currently allowed.
“Inventors really don”™t discriminate by country of birth,” said Philip Strassburger, a vice president at Purdue Pharma L.P. in Stamford. “We absolutely rely on being able to get the best around the world. If we can”™t get the best inventors they”™re going to go somewhere else or the inventions are going to take place somewhere else and we”™re just not going to be able to compete.”
Other employers expressed frustration over the process of becoming a citizen and securing a green card for permanent residency. Representatives from Pitney Bowes Inc., the Innovation Center and smaller startups noted the stress it causes employees and the cost it has on productivity.
Jennifer Leahy, human resources manager at etouches Inc. in Norwalk, said the company is currently at risk of losing a developer who”™s been learning and working in the country for six years and hasn”™t yet secured a green card. The employee”™s wife is unable to work and with the economic scene improving in India, the couple is considering moving back.
“It”™s really creating a hardship for this gentleman and his family to stay here,” Leahy said.
Given the current shortage of skilled workers in technology and students coming out of the education system, Himes said he understood the employers”™ argument, but added that the policy changes would be hard to sell to some in Congress.
“The barriers that we”™re talking about are not solvable overnight,” Himes said. “They”™re cultural, they”™re aspiration, they”™re nothing that”™s going to go away overnight.”
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