This is where I'll be Thursday and Friday

It's not an open conference, unfortunately. But a conference report will be published with unattributed discussion notes. They're also publishing short pieces by invitees that choose to submit one, so I'll try to get a few thoughts down for that. The immigration side of the S&E workforce is one I've been less involved with, so I'm hoping to learn a lot! There are a lot of good people on the participant list, and it's a nice mix of academic, think tank, private sector, and government

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DYNAMICS OF THE S&E LABOR MARKET AND MIGRATION MANAGEMENT

Institute for the Study of International Migration

Georgetown University, Washington D.C. and the

UC Comparative Immigration & Integration Program, UCD

Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

ROUNDTABLE AGENDA
(As of July 6, 2012)

The Science and Engineering workforce is, arguably, the backbone of a modern information-age economy, prompting a global competition for S&E workers. Unsurprisingly, controversy surrounds S&E workforce issues, raising questions such as how many domestic workers are available and how many immigrants should be admitted? Today’s methods of setting numbers for immigrant admissions are ad hoc and inflexible. What approaches should the United States consider in pending immigration reforms?

THURSDAY JULY 12th

9:00 –10:30 THE SUPPLY PIPELINE AND THE DEMAND FOR S&E WORKERS
How robust is the supply of domestic students and workers? How will tomorrow’s demographics affect the outlook?
Chair: B. Lindsay Lowell, Georgetown University
Hal Salzman, Rutgers University
Nicole Smith, Georgetown University

10:45–12:15 INNOVATION BOOSTERS OR THE DEATH OF SUPPLY & DEMAND
Many stakeholders either implicitly or explicitly dismiss concern about a possible over-supply of S&E workers, since and especially immigrant S&E workers are believed to spur innovation and create jobs. Do they? How many innovations and jobs?
Chair: Michael Teitelbaum, Wertheim Fellow, Harvard Law School
Mark Regets, National Science Foundation (NCSES/NSF)
David Hart, George Mason University

1:30-3:00 MANAGEMENT BY SMART REGULATION
Regulations shape the supply of immigrants; say testing the market with attestations compared with certification. Are Singapore’s high wage requirements a better alternative? What about pre-screening employers and workers?
Chair: Pia Orrenius, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Barry Chiswick, George Washington University
Francis Cissna, Director, Immigration Policy, DHS
David North, Center for Immigration Studies

3:15-5:00 MANAGEMENT BY INDICATORS OR MARKETS
Wage and employment growth are among the top-down indicators that can be used to determine if there are labor shortages. How viable are such top-down indicators? What are the alternatives, including auctioning of visas?
Chair: B. Lindsay Lowell, Georgetown University
Phil Martin, University of California at Davis
Pia Orrenius, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Burt Barnow, George Washington University

FRIDAY JULY 13th 9:00-10:30 MANAGEMENT BY COMMISSION
The notion of a Commission that sets admission numbers is not new, but it has gotten a lot of currency in the past few years. What should a Commission look like? What facts would it consider? How would it interact with Congress?
Chair, Phil Martin, University of California at Davis
Ross Eisenbrey, Economic Policy Institute
Madeleine Sumption, Migration Policy Institute

10:45-12:15 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS
The final session is a forum for an open discussion of the issues discussed during the day. What is the play of supply and demand in today’s and tomorrow’s S&E workforce? What means offer the best opportunities for better regulation of immigrant admissions?
Chair: B. Lindsay Lowell, Georgetown University
Michael Teitelbaum, Wertheim Fellow, Harvard Law School
Bruce A. Morrison, Morrison Public Affairs Group (MPAG)
Phil Martin, University of California at Davis

PARTICIPANTS / INVITEES
Burt Barnow, George Washington University
Barry Chiswick, George Washington University
Francis (Lee) Cissna, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Ross Eisenbrey, Economic Policy Institute
Heather Gonzalez, Congressional Research Service
Daniel Goroff, Sloan Foundation
David Hart, George Mason University
Xiaochu Hu, George Mason University
Daniel P. Kuehn, Urban Institute
B. Lindsay Lowell, Georgetown University
Philip Martin, University of California, Davis
Stephen A. Merrill, Science, Technology, and Economic Policy, The National Academies
Elisabeth Midgley, Writer, Washington D.C.
Bruce A. Morrison, Morrison Public Affairs Group (MPAG)
David North, Center for Immigration Studies
Irena Omelaniuk, Global Forum on Migrationa and Development (GFMD)
Vin O'Neill, IEEE-USA
Pia Orrenius, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Rebecca Peters, American Council on International Personnel
Mark Regets, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics at NSF (NCSES/NSF)
Hal Salzman, Rutgers University
Andrew Sherrill, US Government Accountability Office
Audrey Singer, Brookings
John D. Skrentny, University of California-San Diego
Nicole Smith , Georgetown University
Madeleine Sumption, Migration Policy Institute
Michael S. Teitelbaum, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School