HIGH SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN TENNESSEE

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

TENNESSEE FACES A LARGE STEM SHORTAGE

• There are more STEM job openings than unemployed STEM workers: From 2009 to 2011, 2.1 STEM job openings were posted online in Tennessee for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
• As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: Tennessee will need to fill 89,810 new STEM jobs by 2020.
• The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: Researchers estimate Tennessee will be short 8,770 registered nurses by 2030.

IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN TENNESSEE 

• Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: Immigrants are 4.7 percent of Tennessee’s population, but in 2009, 36.8 percent of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from Tennessee’s research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
• Immigrants are a growing percentage of the STEM workforce: In 2010, 19.5 percent of STEM workers with an advanced degree in Tennessee 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, 16.7 percent of physicians in Tennessee had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant. 

HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP TENNESSEE’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 Tennessee between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 5,879 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 Nashville metropolitan area as many as 1,259 additional jobs and as much as $11.7 million in aggregate annual earnings by 2010.