Of the 17 recipients of the Eckert-Mauchly Award, given for advances in computer hardware, none has been an immigrant. He recently had a startling experience when he interviewed for a position with a software firm in New York. First, Ivanov was surprised to find that almost all of the company's technical staff were foreign-born. He was even more taken aback when the employer, expressing interest in hiring him, began to explain how the company would sponsor Ivanov for immigration. When Ivanov replied that he was already a naturalized U.S. citizen, he was told that the company was no longer interested in him.
Foreign nationals are quite happy to accept lower salaries in exchange for green cards.
There is no shortage of domestic labor. Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Softpac of Austin, Texas estimates that the software industry needed approximately 40,000 new workers in 1994. This is less than the 51,000 new computer science graduates our universities produced. Softpac notes that though these numbers are only approximations, they certainly call into question the 30,000 work visas granted to foreign computer programmers in 1994. What this means is that the employers have overdefined job requirements, insisting on experience with specific software technologies.