USA Immigration News

Columbia on List of Top 100 U.S. Cities for High Skilled Immigration

Columbia is placed in top 100 U.S. cities for attracting foreign workers on visas to high-tech jobs in computers, science and engineering, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit, public policy organization in Washington D.C

The report shows that Columbia businesses applied for 351 U.S. visas to get computer programmers, engineers and other overseas high-skilled workers in 2011. The report also reveals that Columbia metro area is a "high demand" area for foreign workers, being placed in the top 10 nationally for communities receiving federal job training grants being tied to the U.S. visa applications.

Jill Wilson, a senior research analyst with Brookings said that they analyzed U.S. H1B visa requests for 2010-2011 in the nation's metropolitan areas in order to evaluate the demand for high-tech workers. The study is based on the number of visa applications only. The number of visas actually granted for each metro area is not available.

Ms. Wilson said that the U.S. needed a high-skilled labor force to grow and succeed. In terms of Columbia, its metro region is ranked fifth in per capita distribution of money through the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration and placed sixth in distribution of National Science Foundation grants for science, technology, engineering and mathematics scholarships.

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