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Anger Grows in India over U.S. Visa Rules
Business Week ^ | 24 Feb 2009 | Mehul Srivastava

Posted on 02/26/2009 2:30:52 PM PST by BGHater

It's protectionism, say Indian critics, that Congress has banned companies receiving bailout money from hiring foreigners on H-1B visas

With the economies in the U.S. and India both struggling and with unemployment rising,the outsourcing of American jobs to Indian workers has become an even more explosive issue. That's leading business leaders,politicians,and ordinary citizens in both countries to focus on a controversial visa program,the H-1B, that allows a limited number of foreigners to work at U.S. companies for up to six years. Critics have long claimed the program allows high-paying software-writing and engineering jobs at companies and state governments to go to foreigners.

On Feb. 23,the H-1B critics got a new round of ammunition. Data released by the U.S. Citizen & Immigration Services showed that in 2008,for the second year running, many of these visas went to Indian IT services companies that were sending engineers to the U.S. temporarily to work. In effect, a visa that had been designed for U.S. corporations to remain competitive at a time of talent shortage had become a blessing for the U.S. operations of global Indian companies, allowing them to send engineers from India, rather than hiring locally.

The news comes at a time when many Indians already suspect the U.S. is trying to put a squeeze on the country's successful outsourcing industry. Each year, the American government hands out 65,000 H-1B visas, and Indian engineers receive many of them. However, as part of President Obama's economic stimulus package, Congress passed provisions to bar any U.S. company that receives bailout dollars from directly hiring workers on these H-1B visas.

Fueling India's Diaspora

In India, there has been a swift outcry. "This is just irrational protectionism," says Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's Planning Commission. "It makes no economic sense at all."

(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: economy; h1b; india; offshoring; outsourcing; visa
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To: dljordan
As I mentioned, I am writing for a friend who is to afraid to speak for her self. She is a full certified level 3 PSIA instructor and works for Vail Resorts.

Vail hired 409 Q-1 visa ski and snowboard instructors this past fall. The “Q-1’s” are still working while American instructors are being sent home!

When she complained to management at a ski school meeting. She was told that if she didn't like things the way they are, she can walk out the door. The room was told that no one was allowed to speak to ANYONE about this issue. If they did complain to the press, they would be FIRED!

How the Hell can this story get out without this nice girl getting FIRED and black listed by Vail Resorts.

21 posted on 02/26/2009 3:27:47 PM PST by WellyP
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To: WellyP

They did the same in the Catskills at Hunter and Windham. Most of the instructors are Q-1s from Chile, Argentina, and Slovakia.


22 posted on 02/26/2009 3:29:59 PM PST by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: Clemenza

Here it is Australians with most of the S. Americans in on J-1 Student visas. They gre not the real issue as they mostly handle lower level classes. The truth is, the S. American girls do a GREAT job with the younger kids.


23 posted on 02/26/2009 3:37:01 PM PST by WellyP
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To: WellyP

Q-1 is a totally bogus visa as it is applied to ski and snowboard instructors. It is for “meet and greets” at places like Disney World.


24 posted on 02/26/2009 3:39:07 PM PST by WellyP
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To: WellyP

I have great knowledge of the resort industry and I am willing to help this girl but I don’t know anyone in CIS. Is there a Freeper out there who has a contact who would not be in the pocket of the resort companies?


25 posted on 02/26/2009 3:41:26 PM PST by WellyP
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To: brytlea
It really is frustrating that they think they have a right to tell us what to do.

Welcome to dealing with Indians. The lower caste people are generally just fine, but the upper tiers of their social order are arrogant bastards in the extreme. They see us as relative savages who have only had civilization for a scant few centuries and they despise us for not recognizing what they see as India's inherent right to rule the world. You haven't lived until you've had to do business with one of these f**kers telling you exactly how to do something when they have no clue how to do it themselves, but see they have to establish their superiority over you so getting you to kiss their ass is the point. I refuse to play their game and I've had my firm drop contracts in India when the local pukes get too big for their britches. Once they think they can dictate to you it becomes impossible to get anything out of them anymore. If I had my way my firm would not do any business at all in India but the dumbass accountants are convinced that doing business in India looks good on a spreadsheet.

Like I said, most people over there are genuinely nice folks, but it's that upper tier of their caste system that's the real pain in the ass.

Oh, and if anyone tells you they don't have the caste system anymore they're full of it to their eyebrows. Families over there will kill their sons and daughters before allowing marriages to people who are lower on the caste system totem pole. And they also discriminate against fellow Indians with darker skin.

India sucks ass. Sorry for the rant, but there it is.

26 posted on 02/26/2009 3:47:35 PM PST by MahatmaGandu (Remember, remember, the twenty-sixth of November.)
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To: BGHater
Heck. All they need to do is move to Gaza and join Hamas. Then come into the U.S. along with the thousands of others essentially “invited” by oscumbo.
27 posted on 02/26/2009 3:48:45 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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To: SuperLuminal

Couldn’t happen...they have foreskins!


28 posted on 02/26/2009 3:52:13 PM PST by WellyP
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To: WellyP
"Couldn't’t happen...they have foreskins! "

Oops! Point well taken.

I thought they "were" foreskins...not that they "have" foreskins.

29 posted on 02/26/2009 4:07:01 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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To: SuperLuminal

An interesting point (no pun intended)

This is why it is easier for an Israeli to get inside a Muzzie operation and Indians generally can not. The vast majority of Indians do not “snip”.


30 posted on 02/26/2009 4:12:24 PM PST by WellyP
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To: BGHater

There’s an outsourcing industry?


31 posted on 02/26/2009 4:13:08 PM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: BGHater

Wow. Looks like I finally found something in Porkulus I can support!


32 posted on 02/26/2009 4:27:22 PM PST by zeugma (Will it be nukes or aliens? Time will tell.)
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To: BGHater
"It makes no economic sense at all."

Except to the American citizen that gets a job.

33 posted on 02/26/2009 6:17:16 PM PST by glorgau
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To: BGHater

Classic misdirection.

No names, just unnamed sources, ‘critics say..’, ‘experts say...’.

The Indians aren’t dumb. They know better than to push America on an issue on which they really have no locus standi. The farticle is suspicious and reads like a hit job.


34 posted on 02/26/2009 6:19:39 PM PST by voletti (There's no place, I can be, since I found, serenity.)
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To: voletti

In other news, Obama picked a pro-China Commerce Secretary. While the well-educated FReepers vent their anger on Indian H1B’s taking their jobs hundreds more will lose their jobs to the Chinese factories. The sad thing is people here can put a face on the people they hate (H1Bs) because they work beside them, closely with them and when in America, pay their taxes. But outsourcing production to China doesn’t seem to be a concern for Obama.

Well, we are watching America bending so China can do it’s job. The end of America’s global dominance will happen under Obama. And in the process, Americans will lose their true allies - the Indians, the Israelis and the Japanese.

Time to write encomiums I guess.


35 posted on 02/26/2009 8:55:44 PM PST by MimirsWell (Scipio Pakistanus)
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To: MahatmaGandu

And you know when someone is lower caste and another is upper caste because....??

Or is it PC to direct your insults and “observations” on upper caste people only? I think its getting fashionable to target people on the top - maybe its the Socialist winds that are blowing in America of late.


36 posted on 02/26/2009 8:57:16 PM PST by MimirsWell (Scipio Pakistanus)
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To: MahatmaGandu

Yeah, I knew they still had the caste system. It really has no place in a modern world.


37 posted on 02/27/2009 6:57:26 AM PST by brytlea (Proud descendent of Andrew Kent, Alamo Defender)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi
I've traveled on business to India twice in the last three years and have had to have a Visa to enter India and stay for the week or so that business demands. And I really wouldn't want to live in that sh*t hole anyways, but I have to have a Visa.

Duuh -- they're not questioning the need for a visa for them to enter the US, rather they're asking why the number of visas issued will be reduced.
38 posted on 02/27/2009 11:09:43 AM PST by Cronos (Ceterum censeo, Mecca et Medina delenda est)
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To: MimirsWell
And you know when someone is lower caste and another is upper caste because....?? Or is it PC to direct your insults and “observations” on upper caste people only? I think its getting fashionable to target people on the top - maybe its the Socialist winds that are blowing in America of late.

Oh, my Lord. You know nothing about India, do you?

Caste =/= class

Poor people in the USA can move socially and economically while poor people in India are still mostly expected to keep to their place. It has NOTHING to do with socialism, you silly git, it has to do with 6,000 years of Hindu cultural tradition.

For the love of God, study up on things before you go launching half-cocked, ignorant insults at people.

39 posted on 02/27/2009 11:11:26 AM PST by MahatmaGandu (Remember, remember, the twenty-sixth of November.)
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To: AreaMan; swarthyguy; brytlea

If they cut all the H1Bs and cut off the means for legal immigrants to enter the US, then the companies can just hire in legal entities outside the US. This will help them, but the US will lose intelligent migrants. Of couse, the democrats wiould love unskilled illegals...


40 posted on 02/27/2009 11:20:20 AM PST by Cronos (Ceterum censeo, Mecca et Medina delenda est)
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