A Threat to the US? The Controversy Continues
How much of a threat will the European Union's Blue Card be to the supply of highly skilled workers for the US?
Currently, US Green Card applications can take up to 10 years, averaging 3 to 5 years. The proposed EU Blue card on the other hand will process applications in 30-90 days. For a highly skilled immigrant wanting to work abroad, why wait up to 10 years for a Green Card when you can get a Blue Card within 90 days? If US Immigration cannot get its act together before the Blue Card is made a reality (which is highly unlikely), then it's likely that the new European Union proposal will lessen the pool of foreign talent the US has to draw from.
In this Information week article, Marianne Kolbasuk McGee asks the same question. It's obvious from the comments that a great many people in the US are against immigrant workers for various reasons...lowering US salaries and unfair competition with US workers being the primary two. It seems that the root of these concerns in the US is due to abuse of the H1-b visa. Similar concerns are voiced by MCW regarding the Blue Card in Britain.
I have disagreements with the comments from US citizens and MCW's concerns with the EU Blue Card. First, it's not the H1-b or the US Green Card that creates income disparities and unfair competition. It's the companies that pay the foreign workers less than US citizens. Additionally, it's not that an H1-b visa is a bad thing...what's bad is the government allowing them to be abused. Regarding MCS's concerns, I fail to see how highly skilled workers being paid an appropriate salary and paying into the social systems, will put a strain on those social systems. Because these immigrants will be filling "higher level" jobs, they'll be paying more into the system than the average British residents. They may in fact bring family members into the country with them, but so do working British residents also have non-working family members. If each individual member state decides how many workers it needs to fill various positions, that are not able to be currently filled by native workers, I also fail to see how this will deepen competition for local jobs among native workers.