Family Immigration: The Long Wait To Immigrate

Family immigration quotas are inadequate and result in separation and long waits for Americans, lawful permanent residents and close family members. Approximately 4 million people are waiting in family immigration backlogs, according to data obtained from the U.S. Department of State and Department of Homeland Security. The wait time for a U.S. citizen petitioning for a brother or sister from the Philippines exceeds 20 years. A U.S. citizen petitioning for either a married (3rd preference) or unmarried (1st preference) son or daughter (21 years or older) can expect to wait 6 to 17 years, depending on the country or origin. Research shows legal immigrants experience faster wage growth than natives, are more likely to start businesses and have higher median years of schooling. Raising family immigration quotas would serve both the humanitarian and economic interests of the United States

Immigrants and Billion Dollar Startups

Immigrants play a key role in creating new, fast-growing companies, as evidenced by the prevalence of foreignborn founders and key personnel in the nation's leading privately-held companies. Immigrants have started more than half (44 of 87) of America's startup companies valued at $1 billion dollars or more and are key members of management or product development teams in over 70 percent (62 of 87) of these companies. The research finds that among the billion dollar startup companies, immigrant founders have created an average of approximately 760 jobs per company in the United States. The collective value of the 44 immigrant-founded companies is$168 billion, which is close to half the value of the stock markets of Russia or Mexico.The research involved conducting interviews and gathering information on the 87 U.S. startup companies valued at over $1 billion (as of January 1, 2016) that have yet to become publicly traded on the U.S. stock market and are tracked by The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource. The companies, all privately-held and with the potential to become publicly traded on the stock market, are today each valued at$1 billion or more and have received venture capital (equity) financing

H-1B Visas Essential to Attracting and Retaining Talent in America

H-1B temporary visas have been an essential avenue for allowing high-skilled foreign nationals to work in America. The "Gang of 8" Senate immigration bill would dramatically change employment-based immigration policy, attempting through a variety of means to discourage or, in some cases, prohibit the use of H-1B visas, while providing more employer-sponsored green cards (for permanent residence). Research indicates measures to restrict the use of H-1B visas are not based on sound evidence and would represent a serious policy mistake that would shift more work and resources outside the United States and harm the competitiveness of U.S. employers

Compound Perfect Squared Squares of the Order Twenties

P. J. Federico used the term low-order for perfect squared squares with at most 28 squares in their dissection. In 2010 low-order compound perfect squared squares (CPSSs) were completely enumerated. Up to symmetries of the square and its squared subrectangles there are 208 low-order CPSSs in orders 24 to 28. In 2012 the CPSSs of order 29 were completely enumerated, giving a total of 620 CPSSs up to order 29.Comment: 44 pages, 10 figures. For associated pdf illustrations of enumerated compound perfect squared squares up to order 29, see http://squaring.net/downloads/downloads.html#cps

iNaturalist: Understanding Biodiversity Through a Digital Medium

Much of the current excitement about citizen science is due to the innovative use of internet-based media platforms. These are designed to enable data production while seeking to be instructive or even entertaining for its users. The present thesis demonstrates how these two distinct uses can be in a tension, and how users seek to resolve it. It draws on an ethnography of uses of iNaturalist, a digital platform promoted to document biodiversity by BioBlitz Canada, at the Ontario BioBlitz at Rouge National Urban Park in Toronto, and the rare Community BioBlitz in Cambridge. Through interactions with the diverse members of these events, I have found that the opinions surrounding new media and citizen science vary significantly and that users adopt specific techniques to circumvent the challenges they experience with a given medium.

The Contributions of Immigrants to Cancer Research in America

The report discusses the contributions of immigrant researchers and details the immigration difficulties experienced even by top cancer researchers. The study analyzed biographies of approximately 1,500 cancer researchers at the top cancer institutes. In "The Contributions of Immigrants to Cancer Research in America," the NFAP research shows that cancer researchers often wait years for permanent residence and endure the same long wait for green cards as other highly skilled immigrants and their employers. The study shows immigrant scientists have played an important role in improving the cancer survival rates experienced by Americans, and thus stresses the importance of allowing immigrant cancer researchers and others in medical-related fields access to additional green cards in future immigration legislation. The report includes profiles of leading immigrant researchers, as well as a historical look at the contributions of immigrants to cancer research

Commercial Law on the Beach: Shore Whaling Litigation in Early Colonial New Zealand: Macfarlane v Crummer (1845)

During the 1844 whaling season John Sangster Macfarlane supplied provisions to a new shore whaling station at Wairoa which, unusually, had been established by whaling hands themselves. In probable breach of contract their chief headsman sold some of the station's produce to a passing trader, Thomas Crummer, whom Macfarlane then sued for conversion. The litigation in the Supreme Court at Wellington in 1845 established a baseline rule for the benefit of mercantile outfitters of whaling stations. The special jury of merchants heard evidence from other merchants about local custom and probably based their decision upon that, reaching a conclusion not otherwise open to them under the general rules of common law. But they tempered their verdict to acknowledge that the custom deeming Macfarlane to own the station brought responsibility too. The episode illustrates one way of adapting common law to local circumstance in a young colony, and is congruent with an earlier shore whaling case, Harris v Fitzherbert, where custom played a similar role