HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRANTS IN KANSAS

Learn more about the need for high-skilled immigration reform at www.LetPJStay.com

KANSAS FACES A LARGE STEM SHORTAGE

• There are more STEM job openings than unemployed STEM workers: From 2009 to 2011, two STEM job openings were posted online in Kansas for every 1 unemployed STEM worker in the state.
• As STEM fields grow, this problem will likely get worse: Kansas will need to fill 66,850 new STEM jobs by 2020.
• The healthcare industry in particular will be affected by a shortfall of STEM workers: In Kansas, more than a quarter of the state’s physicians are age 60 or older and more than 40 percent of all medical school trainees are leaving the state.
• Kansas’ healthcare industry fairs poorly when compared to other states: Kansas ranks 39^th in the United States when it comes to the number of doctors per capita.

IMMIGRANTS ARE FILLING STEM SHORTAGES IN KANSAS

• Immigrants are more likely to study STEM than the native-born: Immigrants are 6.7 percent of Kansas’ population, but in 2009, more than half of the students earning master’s or PhD degrees in STEM fields from Kansas’ research-intensive universities were foreign-born.
• Immigrants are over-represented in the STEM workforce: In 2010, 15.4 percent of STEM workers with an advanced degree in Kansas were foreign-born.
• Immigrants play a critical role in the healthcare industry: In 2012, 17.2 percent of physicians in Kansas had graduated from a foreign medical school, a population that is overwhelmingly immigrant.

HIGH-SKILLED IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD HELP KANSAS’ COMPANIES COMPETE AND CREATE AMERICAN JOBS

• High-skilled visa holders create jobs for U.S.-born workers: The new H-1B visas awarded to Kansas between 2010 and 2013 will translate into 2,604 new jobs for U.S.-born workers in the state by 2020.
• Our visa system is costing jobs and revenue: Firm-level data from the 2007 and 2008 H-1B lotteries shows that the H-1B caps from those two years alone cost U.S.-born tech workers in the Kansas City metropolitan area, which is split between Missouri and Kansas, as many as 1,932 additional jobs and as much as $20.9 million in aggregate annual earnings by 2010.