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.
I would say mostly immigrants, children of immigrants and grandchildren of immigrants. By the time you get to great grand children, I think they get lazy.
Oh yea, AND the real engineers out-produce them by factors of 5:1 to 10:1 notwithstanding the quality issue.
As thoughtomator alleged, they're functionally lazy. They're AT work at all hours but that doesn't equate to producing anything.
Americans are becoming fat and stupid....
No Child Left Behind was aimed at exactly that, improving the education for the laggards. And if you look at the statistics, it succeeded. It made no attempt at improving the performance of the middle and upper level students.
If you want more engineers, No Child Left Behind was not the program for you.
It's true. As a consultant in the IT business I have had the opportunity to work with (and often around) these folks. They are always punctual, respectful, and appropriately dressed, but God help you if you need to actually get something done!
When I was doing employee benefits in the Silicon Valley a few years ago, our engineers were making $100K+ with every benefit free and stock options. Indians were doing the same job for $60K. Which choice is better for the stock holders?
No Child Left Behind is or should be a feeder program for engineers as well as mnay others, if you will, and if successful as you state, then in a few more years we should see the numbers of worker visas going down, not up as being proposed, as we come online with our own educated students that should be up to the task we now seek so many offshore folks to perform now..
And a chance for a skill or a design to be introduced right here at home for us to sell abroad.
And they wonder why Americans don't study science and engineering. It's basic economics folks. When you artificially drive down a professions wages that profession becomes less attractive to prospective workers. If they want American IT professionals and engineers then they need to make sure those fields are lucrative and attractive to college students.
I'd be happy to take a lower 'quality of life' (if its only measured by how much plastic cr@p we can buy) if it meant I no longer had to listen to the constant negativity and complaining about the US I hear from various H1B holders I encounter in the course of my day.
Boomers are going to be retiring in droves soon.
Unemployment is sitting @ 4.8 %.
Where are these workers going to be coming from ?
Nobody really has this answer.
It's all supply and demand. If the demand is there (and the compensation is there), more Americans will stop majoring in things like Hotel Management if they think its worth their while (for the amount of effort they need to expend). Many kids have been told that CS/IT jobs will be outsourced, so they think there is no future in it. Meanwhile, we import the talent instead of nurturing our own, so that perception is reinforced by reality. These kids are not dumb--they want to maximize gain while minimizing effort. You can call it laziness, but it is also shrewd.
We have 300+M people in this country. It is crowded ane expensive enough where I live. Its very hard for me to understand why we need more people--its a vicious circle.
Oh, horror.
I'm going to take a wild guess and say you've little first-hand experience with H1-B workers, yes? These are not innovators we're importing, these are functionaries.
Bump
Americans won't work 24/7 for $0.15 a day and no bathroom breaks.
And who will be able to buy those products?
Not Americans, not anymore.
Competition in the global economy, fine.
But inside this country, work is for Americans, by Americans, or there is no point in this country at all.
THE US DOESN'T GRADUATE ENOUGH MATH AND SCIENCE STUDENTS BECAUSE THE BEST STUDENTS KNOW THEY'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO MAKE A LIVING AT THEIR CHOSEN FIELD AND ARE GOING TO LAW SCHOOL BECAUSE LITIGATING THE WEALTH OUT OF THE COUNTRY IS THE LAST GROWTH INDUSTRY WE HAVE!
Loud enough for you?
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