Its no fun

An New Zealander  has posted a personal story on Vox.com that emphasizes the unintentional complexity of the immigration system. William Han writes that he has been here strictly legally for 15 years, while acquiring 2 Ivy League degrees, but still found the system too dense for the US to allow this talented resource to remain in the country. If you doubt his talent, just read the excellently told story.

Much of the story revolves around Han's status as the holder of an H1-B visa. I learned a little more about these a few years ago as part of a research team working on the Eagleton Institute's RIIM project. As part of the project we mapped out where the H1-B employers in New Jersey are (almost everywhere) and where the the heaviest users are (the Northeast Corridor). But as Han raised questions about how H1-B workers are treated, I realized the this map might also be a map of posible employer abuses in New Jersey. Check out the entire report, “Meet the Neighbors: Organizational and Spatial Dynamics of Immigrant New Jersey.”