As a side effect of the federal stimulus bill passed Feb. 17, some international students may have a difficult time finding post-graduation jobs with select U.S. businesses.
The Employ American Workers Act is nestled in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and prevents firms that have received bailout funds from replacing American workers with foreign nationals working in the United States with H-1B immigration status. H-1B visas typically are issued to foreign workers temporarily employed in speciality occupations.
Since the bill’s passage, at least two students in the Darden School have had job offers from major financial firms rescinded, said Jack Oakes, director of the Darden School’s Career Development Center.
Oakes said Darden does not support this kind of legislation.
The act “creates the image internationally of America being closed to international students,” Oakes said, adding that it could impede Darden’s abilities to be “global in an effective way.”
After hearing about the act, Oakes said the Career Development staff offered to individually meet with each student whose career plans might be affected. Two students, he said, have been in contact with his office, and both have found alternate positions.
“These are highly skilled workers,” Oakes said. “This act directly contradicts what this nation was built upon.”
Darden Director of Admissions Sara Neher agreed with Oakes’s assessment of the legislation.
“In the current state of the global economy, we need to be attracting the best talent possible with knowledge about how the economy works all over the world,” she said, adding that sending a negative signal to international students could prevent the most qualified individuals from finding employment. The act is intended to protect American workers and limit their displacement during tough economic times.
Oakes, though, said he felt this policy “has become well-known in a variety of other international countries and therefore is having an effect on applicants to business schools.” These applicants, Oakes said, might be hesitant to apply to American business schools because they might not be able to obtain a job with an American firm after they graduate.
Any impact on the number of international applicants to the Darden School remains to be seen, though, as the legislation came into effect after most students already submitted their applications, Neher said. A drop-off in the number of international applicants might not become evident until the next application period, she said.
Furthermore, the legislation’s 2011 expiration date ensures that the act only will impact a limited number of people, Neher said. Because of which companies received bailout funds, international students intending to pursue a career in the finance industry generally will be more affected by the act than students pursuing other careers.
At an undergraduate level, meanwhile, the Commerce School has yet to see the effects of the legislation, said Jeannine Lawrie, the associate director of McIntire Career Services. She said she does not know of any Commerce students whose job offers have been rescinded because of the act.
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