HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN IOWA

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

IOWA FACES A LARGE STEM SHORTAGE

• There are more STEM job openings than unemployed STEM workers: From 2009 to 2011, 3.4 STEM job openings were posted online in Iowa for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
• As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: Iowa will need to fill 61,500 new STEM jobs by 2020.
• The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: Iowa ranks 40^th in the United States when it comes to the number of doctors per capita.

IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN IOWA

• Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: Immigrants are 4.3 percent of Iowa’s population, but in 2009, more than 42 percent of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from Iowa’s research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
• Immigrants are a growing percentage of the STEM workforce: In 2010, roughly one in ten STEM workers with an advanced degree in Iowa were foreign-born – almost double their share of the STEM workforce 10 years earlier.
• Immigrants play a critical role in the healthcare industry: In 2012, 18 percent of physicians in Iowa had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant.

HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP IOWA’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 Iowa between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 2,620 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 Davenport, Iowa was one of nine metropolitan areas to experience an H-1B shock of 10 percent or more, causing the metropolitan area to lose out on creating hundreds of computer jobs for U.S.-born workers by 2010.