Do Foreign IT Workers Affect the Wages and Employment of the Natives?

In today’s knowledge-based economy and fast growing world, it is the countries with workforces that are creative, adaptable, and skillful that will gain competitive advantage; therefore countries worldwide are designing and implementing policies to attract “the best and brightest” talents that are essential to their success. Highly skilled immigrants or foreign workers have made significant contributions to the U.S. At the same time, it has been noted that highly skilled immigrants can crowd out native workers, lower their wages, and influence their career choices. This research in progress focuses on one prominent category of skilled foreign workers, the information technology (IT) workers, and examine whether foreign IT workers have affected the wages, employment, and career choices of the native IT workers. We present some preliminary findings obtained from a large scale U.S. national survey. The results of this study can potentially bear important theoretical and practical implications.