PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina
AU  - Furtado, Delia
TI  - Settling for Academia? H-1B Visas and the Career Choices of International Students in the United States
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.54.2.0816.8167R1
DP  - 2017 Dec 05
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0816-8167r1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2017/12/01/jhr.54.2.0816.8167R1.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2017/12/01/jhr.54.2.0816.8167R1.full
AB  - The yearly cap on H-1B visas became binding for the first time in 2004, making it harder for college-educated foreigners to work in the United States. However, academic institutions are exempt from the cap and citizens of five countries (Canada, Mexico, Chile, Singapore, and Australia) have access to alternative work visas. We exploit those exemptions to gauge how immigrant career choices have been affected by the binding visa cap. Among other impacts, the binding cap raised international students’ likelihood of employment in academia, even outside of their field of study, a result consistent with the notion of “settling” for academia.