As the presidential election and debates approach, now is the perfect time to consider what the next four years will look like with respect to recruiting foreign workers.

After all, the National Foundation for American Policy pointed out in a study that “the reality of the global economy is that employers and their capital will follow the talent – wherever that talent is permitted to work and flourish.”

Bob Meltzer, CEO of VisaNow, says the current immigration system is based on premises that made sense throughout the 1970s, at best. As a result, he says, restricting the hiring of highly skilled foreign nationals actually limits job creation and innovation in the United States.

The globalization of sectors such as the manufacturing industry makes filling the vacancies for top-level executives more challenging than ever.

As more companies are outsourcing their customer service and manufacturing work to foreign countries such as China, Brazil, and India, the demand for talent is escalating. The main reason, of course, is cost. The salary of an employee in China can be a sixth to an eighth of what it is in the United States.

For example, an engineer who earns $6,000-$7,000 per month in the United States would only earn between $250 and $500 per month in China. Big savings like that are hard to ignore, but there are other factors to consider.

While outsourcing components of a business may seem like a cost-effective plan, finding the right top-level talent to lead those overseas efforts can make the recruiter’s job much more difficult. There are a number of reasons why top-level executives aren’t ready to trade in that corner office with the great view of Manhattan to work in a foreign country.

Finding an employee in the field who is familiar with another country’s customs and traditions is hard to come by. Did the employee previously live or work in this foreign country?

In Japan, for instance, there are a number of differences in the way in which business is conducted.