How foreign-born workers affect the domestic labor market has been a long-standing debate in the history of the United States. Occupations in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are a fast-growing segment of the U.S. labor market. The purpose of this thesis is to answer three questions: (1) Do foreign born workers with H-1B visas workers impact native employment within the STEM sectors? (2) Does the prevailing average wage of an H-1B visa worker have an impact on the wages of native born employees? (3) How is international student enrollment affected by employer’s demand for the H-1B visa. After analyzing the available data, my findings suggest that H-1B workers are used as a complement to native workers and there is no significant impact on the wages of native workers, however international enrollment is negatively affected by an increase in demand for the H-1B visa.
