HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN VIRGINIA

Learn more about the need for high-skilled immigration reform at www.LetPJStay.com

VIRGINIA FACES A LARGE STEM SHORTAGE

• There are more STEM job openings than unemployed STEM workers: From 2009 to 2011, 3.3 STEM job openings were posted online in Virginia for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
• As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: Virginia will need to fill 329,290 new STEM jobs by 2020.
• The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: Researchers estimate Virginia will be short 32,464 registered nurses by 2030, and according to the Virginia Department of Health Professionals, the state is expected to be short almost 2,700 of the full-time physicians it needs by 2030.

IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN VIRGINIA

• Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: Immigrants are 11.1 percent of Virginia’s population, but in 2009, almost 40 percent of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from Virginia’s research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
• Immigrants are a significant percentage of the STEM workforce: In 2010, 10.7 percent of STEM workers with an advanced degree in Virginia were foreign-born.
• Immigrants play a critical role in the healthcare industry: In 2012, 20.9 percent of physicians in Virginia had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant.

HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP VIRGINIA’S COMPANIES COMPETE AND CREATE AMERICAN JOBS

• High-skilled visa holders create jobs for U.S.-born workers: The new H-1B visas awarded to Virginia between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 20,171 new jobs for U.S.-born workers in the state by 2020.
• Our visa system is costing jobs and revenue: Firm-level data from the 2007 and 2008 H-1B lotteries shows that the H-1B caps from those two years alone cost U.S.-born tech workers in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, which includes parts of Virginia and Maryland, as many as 30,222 additional jobs and as much as $519.5 million in aggregate annual earnings by 2010.