Proposed EU program would "fast-track" skilled foreign workers.
In the CNet news blog (10/25), Anne Broache wrote, "The European Union's new proposal aimed at fast-tracking the immigration process for workers in 'highly skilled' is making some U.S. technology heavyweights nervous." The EU's proposed "blue card," which "would 'fast-track'" the immigration system and provide "card holders all EU social benefits," aims to "bring 20 million additional workers from Asia, Africa and Latin America over the next 20 years." It would also have a processing time of "one month to three months." CNet noted that a recent Senate proposal for "U.S. green cards, whose processing time averages 5 to 10 years," would raise "by $3,500 the filing fees for employers seeking H-1B visas." While nothing has yet passed in the U.S. or the EU, the Information Technology Industry Council called the EU's program "a challenge to the United States Congress," and warned that the U.S.'s ability to compete would be reduced if it did not keep up.
"Robert Hoffman, Oracle VP pf government and public affairs" said that the blue card program "will allow Oracle's European competitors to "beef up [their] talent base more quickly," according to a story in the Information Week blog (10/25) by Marianne McGee. As a result, Hoffman said, Oracle, which does the majority of its "R&D...in the United States" but is having problems getting enough workers via the H-1B visa program, might have to "consider moving or expanding operations outside the U.S." However, worker advocates in the U.S. say they "doubt, with all the problems of ethnic assimilation in Europe, that [the blue card] proposal will be enacted," and added that they "would not even be surprised" if the proposal was a publicity stunt to promote immigration reforms in the U.S.
Australia's Sydney Morning Herald (10/25, Maley) added that Europe's immigration population consists largely of "the world's migrating unskilled workers" and asylum seekers, and Europe accepts much larger percentages of this type of immigrant than "countries such as Australia and the U.S". As a result, many EU countries are opposed to increased immigration measures of any kind, and the U.K., "Ireland, Austria and Denmark have been named as...possible objectors" to the blue card program. The Herald also noted that the EU is currently "losing [against] the U.S., Canada and Australia for the brightest staff in high-tech industries."
