Immigration policies in the United States have decreased the number of workers, causing concern among experts who believe that the lack of labor is increasing inflation in the country.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide economy has been in decline, which has experts concerned that there is a labor shortage in the United States.
They believe that the country needs immigrants to recover the pace of the post-pandemic economy.
However, according to statements made by Giovanni Peri, professor of economics at the University of California, at a press conference organized by Ethnic Media ServicesFrom mid-2019 to the end of 2021, there was basically zero net emigration in the United States, there was no income.
He also noted that in late 2021 and early 2022, these figures began to increase again.
There are many reasons why the number of workers has decreased, lack of college students, retirement and change in work mode are some of them, however, not only that, but since 2019 the restrictions for obtaining visas intensified, which had already reduced the amount of income.
Since the beginning of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, numbers have declined, further affecting the health, education, food and other service sectors.
It should be noted that there is a backlog of immigration cases with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), leaving more than 8 million people waiting for a resolution to obtain a green card, which will give them the opportunity to reside in the country.
"In July 2022 there were, 10 million job vacancies and before COVID-19 there were 6 million, it has increased by four million and immigrants would have filled at least 50 percent of these," Peri noted.
Thus, on August 23, the USICS reported that they have already reached the maximum number of H1-B work visa applications ?for professionals with specialized jobs, cooperative research with the Department of Defense, development project workers and high fashion models?
Shortage of workers in the health sector
The COVID-19 pandemic had among its effects a decline in the health care workforce. According to Julie Collins, director of the academic program in cardiovascular perfusion at Rush University, "as COVID-19 declined, nurses changed careers due to fatigue and others died".
He also pointed out that, due to this decrease in the number of people, the burden on health workers has been greater, which has caused stress and does not allow patients to receive better care, in addition to the greater possibility of making mistakes, "the level of fatigue is increasing," he said.
As a result, Collins pointed out that there are at least 194 vacancies in the United States for nurses that can be filled by immigrants and made it clear that this does not mean that American nurses are being deprived of their jobs because there are not enough of them.
"This is not the first time in history that nurses from other countries have helped us fill these positions," he clarified.
He also noted the importance that the visa approval process should be faster in order to provide employment to immigrants who apply for visas.
Call for changes in immigration policies
"In the last seven years we have seen long delays in the immigration processes in the country," said Gregory Chen, director of Government Relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), who pointed out that with the administration of former President Donald Trump, the time it took to complete these processes doubled.
He also pointed out that the increase in the processing time for asylum applications was 318 percent, which has caused the procedures to take at least 8 months, as there are no clear deadlines for the documents to be granted.
In this regard, Chen stressed the importance of reducing the time it takes to complete the procedures.
"It is no secret that immigration policy has often had a racial connection," Chen pointed out, noting that speeches promoted by Donald Trump have greatly influenced the polarization of immigration policy.
Finally, Collins emphasized the importance of changing perspectives about immigrant workers in the media in order to bring about change.
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