Charles Lawton’s May 10 column (“Drawing skilled workers to Maine hinges on paying enough to attract them”) puts the royal kibosh on the prevailing narrative, driven by employers, immigration lawyers and immigrant advocates, that Maine has a high skilled-labor shortage, resulting in the need to import more foreign workers.
The reality is that most new jobs in Maine require only a high school education and we’ve actually lost high-skilled jobs. On top of that, Maine wages for high-skilled workers are too low, which explains our brain drain of Maine graduates.
But Sen. Angus King has bought the bogus “labor shortage” narrative and he continues to sponsor S.153, the I-Squared Act of 2015, which will triple visas for foreign science, technology, engineering and math workers.
Bottom line: We don’t need more foreign workers. We need to pay competitive wages to retain our own kids and the immigrants who are already here. A nation that hires from within develops the skills and talents of its own citizens, our greatest resource.
King should stop listening to the lobbies and look at the employment data.
Jonette Christian
Mainers for Sensible Immigration Policy
Holden
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