Posted on 03/14/2006 8:24:36 PM PST by nickcarraway
US Congress is likely to take up a giant immigration bill this month, which recommends nearly doubling the number of H-1B skilled-worker temporary visas to 115,000.
The measures include not just increasing the number of visas but also add an option of raising the cap 20 per cent more each year.
If passed, the provisions buried in the Senate's giant immigration bill, would open the country's doors to highly skilled immigrants for science, math, technology and engineering jobs.
The provisions were sought by Silicon Valley tech companies and enjoy significant bipartisan support amid concern that the United States might lose its lead in technology.
They would broaden avenues to legal immigration for foreign tech workers and would put those with advanced degrees on an automatic path to permanent residence should they want it, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
H-1B visas were highly controversial in the Bay Area when their numbers reached a peak of 195,000 in 2003.
The new skilled immigration measures are part of a controversial 300-page bill by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa, now being rewritten by the committee with the goal of reaching the Senate floor by the end of the month.
Other provisions include a new F-4 visa category for students pursuing advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
These students would be granted permanent residence if they find a job in their field and pay a $1,000 fee toward scholarships and training of US workers.
Congress had increased the visas during the late 1990s dot-com boom, when Silicon Valley complained of tech-worker shortages, although native-born engineers complained that their wages were undermined by cheap labour from India and China.
With the tech crash and the revelation that some of the September 11, 2001, hijackers had entered the country on student visas, the political climate for foreign workers darkened, and Congress quietly allowed the number of H-1B visas to plummet back to 65,000 a year.
The cap was reached in August -- in effect turning off the tap of the visas for 14 months. A special exemption of 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees was reached in January.
"We're in a bad crunch right now," said Laura Reiff, head of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a business umbrella group backing more immigration. "We are totally jammed on immigrant visas, the green card category, and totally jammed on H-1B visas. You can't bring in tech workers right now."
The provisions for highly skilled workers enjoy support in both parties in the Senate and in the Bush administration after a raft of high-profile studies have warned that the United States is not producing enough math and science students and is in danger of losing its global edge in innovation to India and China.
However, opponents of broadening immigration for skilled workers said doing so would defeat efforts to get more Americans interested in science, math, engineering and other technological fields.
What I see are immigrants like my parents who work three times as hard as the native american and I see children of immigrants who work 50% harder than native americans and I see grand children of immigrants like my niece who seems lazy to me.
By the way, Tiger Woods is a child of an immigrant and part of the reason why he is great is that he works harder at his game than any golfer I've ever seen.
There's nothing like spoiled rich white collar workers crying that they're only paid in the low six figures.
Perhaps if the federal government got out of the UNCONSTITUTIONAL education / entitlement business, students would have the incentive to do better in these subjects?
If that was sufficient to counter the drawbacks of imported labor, then it would make sense to replace every American worker possible with low-cost overseas labor. But while that one company may be able to bring a product to market slightly cheaper, for many other companies their market will become slightly smaller, as foreign workers send their money back home rather than spending it here.
Let's say it one more time. Of course we will be labeled here as isolationist for our stance,
The immigrants who work hard are the ones who have to start from the bottom... H1-B workers are pretty damn lazy in my experience. The last one I worked with managed to complete a week's worth of work in six months.
Its as anti-american as anything you'll hear out of a liberal.
It has nothing to do with the level of work. It's all about money with you folks. Quality doesn't matter, the bottom dollar is all that counts, the cheaper, the better.
Im big on capitalism myself, except Im having a hard time understanding it these days.
Help me out if you can. Im going to post these questions on these types of threads and see if someone can get me some answers.
Lets consider the following countries....
US
China
India
Israel
Ireland
Poland
Now, using the Smith / Ricardo paradigms of Free Trade and Comparative Advantage, in what areas of trade do each of those countries have a Comparative Advantage relative to the others, as of today.
Do you see that changing in five years?
Of course not all of them stay. Some go home, armed with valuable trade secrets with which they bring a product or service to market at an even lower cost and an even better chance of success, having escaped R&D costs.
I just love being a consumer.
And, don't forget the anxillary benefits for the home country: applications that will improve defense (or offense) posture on the world stage.
Is this a great country or what? By the way:
You know, I'm wondering what happened to all that concern about domestic security that was so much in evidence just a few weeks ago, on capital hill.
But even at the elite private college I went to, students tended to gravitate toward fuzzy studies rather than math and science.
There's nothing wrong with that -- individuals made their judgments about what was best for themselves, and a lot of them weren't really chasing the biggest dollars (and if they were most of them headed to Wall Street).
Who in the world do you think built this great country?
Immigrants built a good chunk of it. Name a great American undertaking that didn't include immigrants, from the transcontinental railroad to the atomic bomb...
I know it's early on the latest education program but didn't we just pass No Child Left Behind not so long ago, toss more money than ever at schools, and didn't the Cabinet get a Dept of Education Secy almost 30 years ago?
If these are the kind of results we have to look forward to,, Ouch!
This nation is hell-bent on globalism whether the "lazy" students and their parents realize it and mighty fast, it would appear.
It's obvious what the gubamint can't deliver at any cost , they can just as easily steal from other countries.
Nothing new there, that's where our space program came from, for the most part.
I'm just being too critical ,, I've worked with quite a few H1-B holders and others in my time in Silocon Valley.
It's a shame, the cost to level a playing field sometimes is a lot more steep than we can ever imagine.
MAYBE CONGRESS OUGHT TO "OUTSOURCE/H1B-VISA" THIS WAR TO THE INDIANS!
If these people are so lazy, why the heck are all the slots filled up about 2 minutes after they are available ?
These lazy H1b's are in such hot demand, I think I have a better shot at getting a low level 50 yard line seat for the super bowl than getting one of these guys in.
"Every H1-B visa is an opportunity for an American business to bring a product to service to market at a lower cost with a better chance of success."
Accurate translation: Every H1-B visa is an opportunity for short-sighted American managers to screw their own employees to bring a sub-standard product to market at a lower cost, while the few young Americans who still think about entering these skilled areas bolt for whatever jobs aren't yet seen as ones where employees are expected to work 20% more than the average for 20% less pay.
I tell ya, I've been working alongside these types for 5 years now and maybe, maybe 1 in 10 produces reasonable work. The other 9 put in lots and lots of hours and look so very productive but produce shoddy work on top of the fact that for all their vaunted knowledge they have a command of the English language which makes publik skool students laugh and therefore do not really understand what it is you want of them or the assistance you gave them for the sixth time this week.
H1-Bs are the employment equivalent of buying a Yugo. Sure, it's cheap, but so? "So" means nothing, though, if you produce fictional ROI as a manager and bug out to a new job and promotion before it's time to assign blame for the defects.
At least that would be up to individual States, not the federal government!
Comparative advantage is an obsolete concept in a world where the factors of production can move across national borders.
Because it's a way to get into the US. When their visas expire, they don't leave.
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