TECH VISA TREACHERY; THE IMMIGRATION PROGRAM THAT'S COSTING US JOBS

NY POST ^ | 4/13/09 | ROBERT X. CRINGELY

[Liz]

.......the Obama Admin said it's getting ready to tackle immigration......whether to allow in up to 85,000 foreign technical workers under the H1-B visa program when hundreds of thousands of American engineers and programmers are losing jobs. H1-B visas shouldn't be eliminated, as some protectionists suggest, but shouldn't be made unlimited, as industry leaders like Microsoft's Bill Gates once requested of Congress. The idea behind H1-B visas is that companies sometimes need to hire foreign techs when there are no qualified US citizens to do a job. In practice, however, the program has been used to lower overall labor costs....as a form of age discrimination. If a US employer said out loud, "Gosh, we have a lot of 50-something engineers who are going to kill us with their retirement benefits so we'd better get rid of his some," they would be violating a long list of labor and civil rights laws. But if they say, "Our cost of doing business is too high, so we'll be importing a few thousand engineers from India," that's just fine -- even though it means exactly the same thing.

[Salo]

Tech Ping.

[cripplecreek]

I equate this to the events that led to the original Boston tea party.

Back then the Brits cut taxes for the British east India tea company in an attempt to undercut the colonial smugglers. The colonial smugglers were funding a growing resistance and that money was power.

In today’s terms, the cheap labor is the tax cut meant to keep Americans poor and powerless.

[TSgt]

I think you would be surprised at some of our pro-H1B Benedict FReepers....

H-1B Want Ads Show that American Corporations are Giving 1st Crack at US Jobs to Foreign Workers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2219914/posts
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I make no excuses for conditions created by ill-conceived laws. There is much room for debate on how to control the availability of skilled workers. However, I will not expect a business owner to pay a higher salary for less skill when his competition is not required to do the same. Any American that thinks they are entitled to a domestic job better get used to being unemployed.

48 posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 2:55:52 PM by Niteranger68
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Don’t blame me for foreigners beating you out of a job, perhaps, they found those foreigners more attractive while you appeared closer to “The Ugly American”, metaphysically speaking, of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_American

43 posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 2:20:28 PM by A. Morgan (Every night I pray that Rezko and Blago roll over on Obama!)
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I refuse to believe that Americans cannot be retrained or that there is simply not enough technology and engineering types available to fill these positions.

Then you are living in denial. I’m an IT recruiter at one of the largest software companies in the world. There are nowhere nearly enough US citizens to do the work we need. Most American college students are majoring in liberal arts.

50 posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 3:17:10 PM by Rocky Mountain High
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“using FORIEGNERS BEFORE QUALIFIED AMERICANS to boost their lines”

These anti-capitalist rants seem to get more common in this forum. Maybe it is time to merge with anarchist & Michael Moore fansites? Clearly, there is a lot of common ground.

The purpose of any company is to make money. End of story. Otherwise, they are doomed. No, corporations do not exist to make “social good”, “combat climate change” or “generate jobs for americans” etc. At least profit-generating corporations don’t. Maybe Obama will change that. All corporations exists for the State and report to the State.

I have no idea where you have worked abroad. Since you refer to World Cup, take a look at English Premiership. Most coaches and players in top teams are foreigners.

There are a lot of americans working abroad. Typically, they are the most qualified americans. In other words, if they have to return home (because similar anti-foreigner mood abroad), they will often take jobs for current US citizens. I’ve seen this first hand, ie returning US expats taking jobs away from current less senior US workers.

This socialist ACORN-crap does not really help anybody.

49 posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 3:05:15 PM by heiss
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[bcsco]

This is a ping list promoting Immigration Enforcement and Congressional Reform.
If you wish to be added or removed from this ping list, please contact me.

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[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. I saw a lot of H1-B visa employees in my automotive job AND incompetent American management (mid & top-level). It was a recipe for disaster. The company went bankrupt.

[avacado]

"The idea behind H1-B visas is that companies sometimes need to hire foreign techs when there are no qualified US citizens to do a job."

Actually the original idea behind H1B visas wasn't to fill jobs. It was originally implemented to have exchanges between developing nations for technicians, nurses, and whatnot to come to the USA to gain experience in a first world country to take back to their third world country.

[algernonpj]

Actually the original idea behind H1B visas wasn’t to fill jobs. It was originally implemented to have exchanges between developing nations for technicians, nurses, and whatnot to come to the USA to gain experience in a first world country to take back to their third world country.”

.
I suspect that’s how the H-1B was originally sold. But it didn’t take long to morph into ‘jobs American won’t/can’t do.’

[avacado]

You’re right! It didn’t take long for business executives to turn the H1B visa into a cheap labor pool deal.

[Liz]

Thanks for the realtime report.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the realtime report.

You're very welcome.....AND...nobody asked for a bailout. I'm just getting on my feet again after 2 years of low/non-existent earnings.

[Liz]

Many prayers for your soon-to-be success.

[KC_Conspirator]

Just selling out American high tech jobs that Americans won’t do!

[sleepwalker]

Well....

I hire contractors for Java development in a web-sphere environment. I also hire them to perform business analysis or testing of java code.

The large majority are Indians. They have the skills, the training, and the motivation to do the job.

Perhaps it is because they work for the contracting company at lower rates than US born developers, thus giving the contracting companies a better margin. I pay the same hourly rate regardless of who the person is or where they are from.

I believe we would be hard pressed to find qualified workers if we were restricted to US only applicants. Perhaps it is the training/college coursework that is lacking. We just do not see that many qualified US born candidates.

This is not hiring a laborer type of work. Steel workers do not become Java (or COBOL) programmers.

Additionally, I have found that only about 10% of the older COBOL programmers make the jump to light speed (Java). I am an older COBOL programmer/ BAL programmer and I understand the problem, it is a paradigm shift in thinking.

If we train our young people in new development languages, new testing techniques, and new business analysis techniques than we can have more native born technical folks and less need to import talent.

[HiJinx]

ping!

[cripplecreek]

If we train our young people in new development languages, new testing techniques, and new business analysis techniques than we can have more native born technical folks and less need to import talent.

And if we weren't importing talent our young people might not see such training as a waste of time and money.

[HiJinx]

We turned the tables on them, a bit - there is a training component to H1B that we took advantage of to provide advanced technical training to our citizen workforce at a local university.

[PGalt]

Thank you very much, Liz. Appreciated.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

I believe the rush to Java has had some unfortunate side effects. My SONY blu-ray player uses Java for firmware, and frankly it is a lot buggier than older models based on assembler or C. It appears to me that Java people have a mindset that they nobody has to understand how software works now, and nobody knows how to fix it when it has bugs.

Additionally, I have found that only about 10% of the older COBOL programmers make the jump to light speed (Java).

Java and COBOL are not the only languages (fortunately). You can't find any assembler, C, pascal, etc. programmers?

I have found that some employers are prejudiced against US citizens and older workers.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

And if we weren't importing talent our young people might not see such training as a waste of time and money.

I agree, but IMO the problem goes beyond economics. Using Chinese electronic components, device drivers, etc. in critical systems (e. g. the national power grid) is a risk to national security.