Posted on 01/18/2018 6:08:48 AM PST by artichokegrower
With the debate over immigration to the U.S. as fiery as ever, a new analysis suggests that Silicon Valley would be lost without foreign-born technology workers.
About 71 percent of tech employees in the Valley are foreign born, compared to around 50 percent in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward region, according to a new report based on 2016 census data.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
H-1B SLAVES!
This is all about ZGoogle. Facebook, Microsoft and every other high tech company suppressing the wages of STEM graduates and having a complacent workforce who they can bully and mistreat!
This program is in serious need of reform.
Sure, if you are excluding those over 40 in tech... which is very common now. Plenty of highly skilled gen x out there, but alas that old age bias in tech is a problem.
Cisco?
Send them home. Hire qualified Americans of any race or gender
to replace them. America first.
The H1B program has been severely abused. I’ve heard DJT is changing some of its worst features. However, as it was a couple of years ago, it was a giveaway shared between corporations and foreign workers at the special expense of STEM Americans trying to get into the workplace.
The original idea, of allowing people with unique skills to come here, was probably OK. But after 30 years, serious problems have emerged. I’ll just hit a couple, informed by the experience of one of my boys, a real techie who had mastered out of a physical chemistry PH. D. program due to university politics, and was working his first couple of jobs as a scientific programmer.
Basically, he said that the H1B workers at the lower end of the scale were indentured servants. The original idea was to set the H1B wage high enough that the program would only apply to highly skilled and highly paid foreigners. So, for a Masters or PH. D. level person, it was set at something like 65K per year—in 1989 (more or less). It wasn’t changed since.
Now—if you are an H1B employee, you don’t have a Green Card. If you lose your job, you are supposed to leave the country. But, if you work for some period as an H1B, four years, IIRC, you can get a Green Card. That means that unscrupulous H1B shops can work these people 70 or 80 hours a week, because they NEED to keep that job. That’s a very hard and unjust thing for an American entering the STEM workforce to compete with, especially one with loans to pay off.
The second thing that happens in H1B dominated shops is that Americans are unfavored minorities—effectively foreigners in their own country. My son worked at one place that was Chinese dominated, and another that was Indian dominated. Some of the bosses were decent, others were not. But, there was a very strong tendency to favor their countrymen where promotions or desirable assignments were involved.
It seems that a number of the big Silicon Valley firms are very pro-H1B. At the higher end of the skill scale, 200K to 300K salaries, there may be some unique positions that are difficult to find Americans for. But, at the entry graduate level, that is definitely not the case. It is so discouraging to try and climb the ladder over the H1B barrier that word gets around, and many bright American students avoid these professions.
One might say that offshoring production de-industrialized the United States industrial base. Onshoring excessive H1B labor deindustrializes the US intellectual STEM base.
I suppose this explains why when I call for service help, I get a Pakistan or Indian? /s
True...the educator class doesn’t give a shi’ite and the young people lack much of a work ethic. While the H1b visa system is a mess we need it in some cases....hopefully not for long
Spot on. Granted, yes, there are companies that don’t abuse the program. But many do.
Bingo. The Visa stays with the business. If the worker leaves, they are supposed to leave the country. I understand there is an unwritten agreement among the tech companies that they will not poach each other’s employees. It helps keep down salaries.
“....I can tell you that there simply not enough Americans in STEM programs.
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Recruit kids who can pass intelligence tests with high IQs as well as psychological tests that indicate their chances of being creative are fairly high. Then get them into OJT and weed out the non-performers during a probationary period. You’d be amazed at what a productive workforce you can create as long as you’re willing to make the employee development cost investment.
Nonsense. From the University of Washington to Florida State, from UC San Diego to U Michigan to Texas Tech to Rutgers to MIT to Cal Tech to Stanford to U Virginia, to Montana State to U Carolina to Ohio State, etc, etc, etc...This is an insult to US born workers and our colleges.
Correct, but cheap labor is #1. No insurance costs, undercutting low salaries, no benefits, etc.
Lack of American STEM workers has always been a lie.
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