Let's Really Reform Immigration -- To Encourage High-Skill Immigrants

Townhall.com ^ | November 21, 2014 | Michael Barone

[FlingWingFlyer]

Here’s an even greater idea. Let’s get the child molesters, condom wearing cucumbers and sexual deviancy curricula out of our schools and train our own “high-skilled” workers! How’s that sound?!

[pluvmantelo]

“according to the Pew Hispanic Center.”

---

And we trust this organization why, exactly?

[zeestephen]

Re: “Encourage high skill immigrants”

I’m sure all the American citizens who are software engineers support that idea.

Their median pay, adjusted for inflation, has not gone up for 15 years.

I have a better idea:

America should open its labor market to ANY foreigner who contracts for a job paying more than $250,000 a year.

That’s called “meritocracy.”

Everyone else in the world, please stay home and vote Socialist in your own country.

[zeestephen]

Re: “All they have are all the tech billionaires.”

Plus, the universities who charge them full tuition, so they can get their Green Cards.

Plus, the non-profit laboratories, who can hire them on the cheap, and in unlimited numbers, while the immigrants wait 5 years, or more, to get their citizenship.

Plus, the corporate labs, who do the same thing, but have some hiring quotas the non-profits do not have.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Good job.

[zeestephen]

By the way, the PR blitz that claims immigrants are also huge high tech entrepreneurs and huge patent filers is completely bogus.

When you read that an immigrant has “founded” some well known tech firm, what they don't tell you is that those firms almost always have MULTIPLE founders, most of whom are Americans.

In fact, native born Americans start businesses at a slightly higher rate than immigrants.

As to patents, native born Americans file patents at a clearly higher rate than immigrants.

Why?

For another reason that is deliberately concealed.

Foreign born Ph.D's who attend elite USA universities are almost all from countries in Western Europe, Japan, the oil rich Middle East, and English speaking countries.

Almost all of them return to their native countries AFTER they get their Ph.D's because the pay and standard of living is identical to the USA.

The Ph.D's who stay in America are usually from China, India, Russia, Iran, and Eastern Europe.

Most of them did not attend elite USA universities, and their limited patent production explains why.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” Foreign born Ph.D’s who attend elite USA universities are almost all from countries in Western Europe, Japan, the oil rich Middle East, and English speaking countries.

Almost all of them return to their native countries AFTER they get their Ph.D’s because the pay and standard of living is identical to the USA.”

Bingo!

[zeestephen]

One more thing.

The PR blitz that claims more immigrants have a college education than native born Americans is also completely bogus.

Most “college educated” immigrants received a degree from a Third World university.

Those degrees are not accredited by American corporations.

I recently worked with 4 immigrant college grads, who were being paid $10 an hour.

Their “degrees” came from Algeria, Ukraine, and Iran, and all of them worked for their government or for a government sponsored “business” before coming to the USA.

Their work experience and degrees are useless for competitive American businesses.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Good point.

[clearcarbon]

How are American citizens suppose to pay off their student loans for technical degrees if their potential jobs are being usurped by cheap imported labor?

[DuncanWaring]

Their median pay, adjusted for inflation, has not gone up for 15 years.

Can't argue with that.

If there was actually a shortage, the median pay would have increased.

I saw a want-ad on dice.com about three years ago that looked to be for an engineer to develop/test the software that runs GPS receivers - not the part that says "turn right in 100 yards", the part that actually determines the position from the satellite signals.

They were willing to pay $33 (no benefits) per hour.

In Los Angeles.

That's not even new-grad pay.

They were clearly working on building a case to bring Apu in from India on an H1-b visa.

[zeestephen]

I live in the actual heart of Indian H1b country, east of Seattle.

Is “Apu” a comical reference to “additional processing units?”

I had a good laugh at that, even if I misunderstood.

[DuncanWaring]

I was under the impression it was a character on The Simpsons.

[Pelham]

Let’s don’t.

FUMB

[WilliamofCarmichael]

The need for high-skill workers with the potential to increase overall productivity has increased . . . Obama is itching to effectively legalize millions of mostly low-skill illegals -- one aspect of the 2006-07 and 2013 bills that the nation clearly doesn't need in 2014.

Foreign born are doing pretty well most everywhere.

FOREIGN-BORN WORKERS: LABOR FORCE CHARACTERISTICS — 2013

Table 4. Employed foreign-born and native-born persons 16 years and over by occupation and sex, 2013 annual averages [Percent distribution]

The foreign born include legally-admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants.

Occupation		Foreign born			Native born
	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
Total employed (in thousands)	23,582	13,677	9,905	120,348	62,675	57,672
Occupation as a percent of total employed
Total employed	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
..Management, professional, and related occupations	30.3	28.2	33.2	39.5	36.3	43.0
....Management, business, and financial operations occupations	11.7	11.7	11.7	16.6	18.0	15.1
......Management occupations	8.0	8.9	6.8	11.8	13.9	9.5
......Business and financial operations occupations	3.7	2.8	4.9	4.9	4.2	5.7
....Professional and related occupations	18.6	16.5	21.5	22.9	18.3	27.9
......Computer and mathematical occupations	3.9	5.1	2.3	2.5	3.6	1.4
......Architecture and engineering occupations	2.2	3.2	0.9	1.9	3.2	0.5
......Life, physical, and social science occupations	1.1	1.1	1.1	0.9	0.9	0.9
......Community and social service occupations	0.8	0.6	1.1	1.8	1.3	2.3
......Legal occupations	0.6	0.4	0.8	1.4	1.3	1.5
......Education, training, and library occupations	3.4	2.0	5.4	6.5	3.2	10.1
......Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations	1.3	1.2	1.5	2.1	2.2	2.1
......Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations	5.2	2.9	8.5	5.8	2.7	9.1
....Service occupations	24.8	19.0	32.9	16.7	13.8	19.8
......Healthcare support occupations	2.7	0.7	5.6	2.4	0.5	4.5
......Protective service occupations	1.0	1.4	0.5	2.4	3.6	1.1
......Food preparation and serving related occupations	7.7	7.5	8.0	5.3	4.3	6.4
......Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations	8.6	7.7	9.8	3.0	3.9	2.1
......Personal care and service occupations	4.8	1.8	8.9	3.5	1.5	5.7
....Sales and office occupations	16.5	12.2	22.4	24.4	17.6	31.8
......Sales and related occupations	8.5	7.5	9.9	11.2	11.0	11.3
......Office and administrative support occupations
8.0	4.7	12.4	13.2	6.5	20.5
....Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations	12.9	21.2	1.5	8.3	15.2	0.8
......Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations	1.6	2.1	0.9	0.5	0.7	0.2
......Construction and extraction occupations	8.3	14.1	0.3	4.3	8.0	0.3
......Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations	3.1	5.1	0.3	3.5	6.5	0.3
....Production, transportation, and material moving occupations	15.4	19.4	10.0	11.1	17.1	4.6
......Production occupations	8.3	9.1	7.4	5.2	7.6	2.7
......Transportation and material moving occupations	7.1	10.3	2.7	5.8	9.5	1.9

NOTE: Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.