From: danr@ais.org (Daniel Romanchik)
Subject: A Press Release from the American Engineering Assn.
Followup-To: misc.jobs.misc
Keywords: shortage, immigration
Organization: UMCC
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 22:54:35 GMT

With all the talk about engineering unions in m.j.m., I thought
this item might be appropriate.  The American Engineering
Association is not a union, but a group of engineers that feel
they are looking out for the interests of American engineers.
I'm not so sure I agree with the strident views on immigration
expressed below, but I do agree that all the talk about the
"engineering shortage" is just propaganda and using the
"scientific data" presented by the NSF is misguided.
 
 
 
From: American Engineering Assn.
      PO Box 820473
      Fort Worth, TX 76180-0473
 
Aug 10, 1992
Contact: Billy E. Reed, President
(316) 526-0788
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
                 ENGINEERS SEEK IMMIGRATION RELIEF
 
The American Engineering Association's president, Billy E. Reed,
announced the association is seeking relief to the unemployment
problems of the enigneering profession through neew immigration
legislation.  Reed is asking the House Subcommittee on
International Law, Immigration, and Refugees to re-examine the
Immigration Reform Act of 1990 which tripled the number of visas
available to foreign engineers ans scientists as well as gutting
the labor certification process.
 
In 1987, the National Science Foundation issued a study, "Future
Scarcities of Scientists and Engineers: Problems and Solutions,"
which indicated there would be a "shortfall" of 675,000 engineers
and scientists by the year 2010. This report was widely quoted by
the press, by Congress, industry, academia, and everyone with a
vested interest in having a shortage (sic) of engineers.  The
study was used to influence various policy stances favored by NSF
including immigration policy.
 
After five years of the NSF study being the "authorative source"
on the subject of engineering shortages, the Subcommittee on
Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Science, Space,
and Technology held hearings on the report early this year.
Witness after witness described the study as "flawed"   and
should not "be taken as serious scientific work."
 
The author of the NSF report was asked in the hearings if he had
done anything to prevent the report from being misused or
misquoted. His answer was "no." Rep. Howard Wolpe who chaired the
hearing indicated, "The agency's drive for an increased education
budget drove the shortfall study..."
 
The NSF study was not the first instance of Engineering Shortage
Propaganda, or ESP, to be debunked only after major immigration
legislation was passed. Typical of the ESP was the American
Electronics Association survey of a few years ago. This report
was as widely quoted as the NSF study.
 
Only after several years of quoting their survey did AEA admit
their survey only indicated a "shortage of electronic engineers."
In early 1986, Pat Hill Hubbard of AEA finally admitted "the
electrical engineering shortage no longer exists." Ms. Hubbard
described the article in the AEA publication Update which still
maintained there was a shortage of engineers as an "unfortunate
editorial misrepresentation" and a problem of semantics.
 
According to Reed, "We now have immigration laws based on reports
characterized as 'flawed' and should not 'be taken as serious
scientific work,' as 'unfortunate editorial misrepresentations'
and problems of 'semantics.' To be blunt they were based on lies
and fraud! Since the passage of the 1990 immigration law
engineering unemployment has reached record highs."
 
Estimates indicate as many as two million civilian and military
jobs will be lost by 1996 if the proposed cuts in the defense
budget do not go deeper than proposed by President Bush.
Approximately fifteen to twenty percent of all workers in a
high-tech industry are engineers. There is no plan for conversion
of these jobs, skills, and resources to civilian purposes.
 
Reed said, "The hearings by Rep. Wolpe were both very helpful and
necessary, but they changed nothing from the engineers'
perspective. Though there are several immigration proposals which
we can and will support, we do not believe they provide adequate
solutions to the problems we face. We now need to revise the
current immigration laws to vastly lower the levels of
immigration in our technical professions and to offer real
protection, with teeth, to those professionals."
 
House Report 98-115 on HR-1510, the 1983 immigration bill, stated
"In providing for high technology fields, the Committee seeks to
address some of the short term needs in these areas. With the
expectation they will meet the challenge of future decades with
US workers." Clearly, the intent of Congress in 1983 was to
provide some temporary relief to the "perceived" shortage of that
era.
 
"For the sake of our nation's technical leadership, we must have
meaningful immigration reform. Reform which has as it's top
priority the citizen engineer. To do less will make the reports
of the purveyors of Engineering Shortage Propaganda
self-fulfilling prophecies," said Reed.
 
END