MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
NYC mayor blasts US visa policy: turning away skilled workers ‘national suicide’
“The American dream cannot survive if we tell the dreamers to go elsewhere” said Bloomberg The United States needs to allow more visas to help the economy and should let highly skilled engineers who study in US universities stay in the country, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in Washington.
Turning away skilled workers is “national suicide,” Bloomberg said in remarks before the US Chamber of Commerce. The US will be unable to compete if it doesn’t attract talent globally, he said.
The Chamber called the session to discuss how US immigration laws should be changed to make the US more competitive. Democrats and Republicans need to find ways to work together on immigration, Bloomberg said.
“The American dream cannot survive if we tell the dreamers to go elsewhere,” he said.
Bloomberg has pushed for easing US visa and citizenship requirements for foreign students and entrepreneurs, and he favours giving more than 10 million illegal immigrants a chance to become lawful residents.
Last year, he joined mayors and business leaders, including News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch and Microsoft Corp. CEO Steven Ballmer to create the Partnership for a New American Economy. The group seeks “to raise awareness of the economic benefits of sensible immigration reform,” according to its website.
The immigration debate has been pushed to the background since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009 and said an overhaul was a priority.
“We need to overcome misinformation” Tom Donahue, the president and chief executive officer of the US Chamber, the largest US business lobby, said before Bloomberg’s remarks.
While immigration can boost economic growth, many Americans are concerned that jobs will be taken from US citizens, he said. The US needs to ensure that doctors and engineers who are educated in the US stay to foster innovation, he said.
US lawmakers fell short in December 2010 in efforts to provide legal status for certain younger immigrants. The legislation known as the Dream Act would let people who were brought to the US illegally before age 16 and remained for at least five years gain legal residency after going to college or serving in the military for at least two years.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
-
-
Read all commentswhat a group of jackasses there. The US has plenty of skilled unemployed people. They don't need to import more from outside. Something else going on, some who can leave the nation are leaving because of lack of jobs in all sectors.
Oct 01st, 2011 - 05:22 pm 0Those jackasses (bloomberg and his gang) claimed that people are protesting against bankers who are trying hard to make ends meet.
This shows the arrogance of that elite.
I am seeing extremely bright postgraduate choose to NOT go to the USA for their PhDs and subsequent employment.
Oct 01st, 2011 - 05:46 pm 0The lure of the Big Apple has been replaced with 'The WORLD is my oyster',
and they are more than happy to choose Geneva or Cambridge instead of Silicon Valley or Boston.
Yes, the mind-set really has shifted.
There are several errors here.
Oct 01st, 2011 - 08:01 pm 0Really, what we need in the USA is to improve the level of education from kindergardes to College/Universities to reinitiate new innovation generation to satisfy local and global demand on new services and products.
Currently, we are exploring other planets knowing that in our planet marine life has not been explored more than 28%.
World medicine technology is short of cure paralysis patients and unable to revive or reactivate dead brains.
We are living the XXI century and psychologists have not founded yet any prevention nor detect incoming /earlier diagnostinc on how to gaing the 90% of human brain that is not currently in use.
Science have dark and deep difficulties to read minds or to get pictures/blue prints from criminals minds yet, which would privented us from sending innocent people to dead row or wrong sentences.
World clime is is jeopardy and innocently we believe that producing less CO2 to earth and other combustions factors somehow will generate indices of alliviate to iur current and future generations , when in deed the problem is how to expulse it over our atmosphere or beyond it .
Americans are capable of generate all and more than that, but our education system must be changed to 360 degrees, otherwise our society will become a consumer one instead of produce one.
Kirk Nelson,
New York, USA
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!