Posted on 06/18/2007 6:38:12 AM PDT by BornInASmallTown
Despite the Senate's failure to act on sweeping immigration legislation, the technology industry still sees comprehensive reform as the best way to get more H-1B visas for foreign engineers and computer programmers, and to reduce the backlog for green cards.
Demand for H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled foreigners to work in the United States for six years, dramatically exceeds supply. The federal government received 150,000 petitions for fiscal 2008's allotment of 65,000 H-1B visas on the first day it accepted applications.
This visa shortage hurts companies like Google Inc., where H-1B visa holders account for 8 percent of its U.S. work force, and helped lead the development of Google News and orkut, Google's social networking site. "Each and every day we find ourselves unable to pursue highly qualified candidates because there are not enough H-1B visas," said Laszlo Bock, vice president of people operations for Mountain View, Calif.-based Google.
The original version of the Senate immigration bill would have raised the annual cap on H-1B visas to 115,000, gradually increasing up to 180,000 a year if needed. But the bill failed to include exemptions, passed by the Senate last year, for foreigners with advanced degrees. An amendment restoring these exemptions, and addressing other alleged flaws in the bill's H-1B visa provisions, was pending when the Senate stopped work on the legislation. The amendment also calls for an employer-sponsored pool of green cards. The original bill would have ended employer sponsorship of individuals for green cards, which enable foreigners to live permanently in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at triad.bizjournals.com ...
Lol...I have one too and I agree. I have no idea what “toe the left leaning line” means in terms of math principles. Hell, my advisor was a staunch republican.
The bottom line— most of the American high school kids come out with below standard applied math and science knowledge. We spend billions of dollars a year training foreign born kids who work hard and are smart. Why not allow them to stay here (and become Americans), rather than sending them back to where they came from. They will help our economy with their R&D, rather than their countries of origin — if they stay.
“H1B visa represent jobs Americans can’t do. Our public schools have done a terrible job teaching applied math and science...”
Sometimes. Just sometimes. I’ve worked in Silicon Valley for 30 years and have spent plenty of time in the high-tech trenches. I sat in conference rooms and listened to the first sales pitches for outsourcing, well before the word made it into the mainstream vocabulary. Every sales pitch had one thing in common: money. There were no panicked discussions of running out of skilled workers. All of the enthusiasm centered around sending a project to India and getting it done for pennies on the dollar.
The belief that we can only get skilled tech workers from India and China is a myth. I’ve known Chinese and Indian slackers, people who couldn’t tell their posterior from their elbow, who made promises they never intended to keep, that left me high and dry on the day that a project was due and in the position of explaining why THEY didn’t do THEIR work.
I’ve known skilled, talented, educated, U.S.-born tech workers who were replaced with people who would do their job a lot cheaper. If you asked for their help you would GET it, no matter how busy they were. They would MAKE time for you.
I respect your opinion, but the statement “H1B visa represent jobs Americans can’t do” doesn’t reflect 30 years of reality I’ve seen as a man working in Silicon Valley.
Universities will many times allow a foreigner in before an America.
__________________
Not true. The faculty treated me like a god — because, gasp — I was an American kid who wanted to major in math.
Again — I am not talking about technicians and build out. I am talking about R&D. The foreign workers here, in R&D, are making well into 6 figures. They are based here, in the states. They are getting MARKET rate.
If an American kid graduates with an advanced degree in applied math or science, he or she can write their own ticket in development and research. Period. There is more demand than American supply and that is the bottom line.
Yeah. I finally gave up on the job market. A former boss and I are starting our own company. So far it's been six months of expenses without any income.
Still, it's much much better than trying to even get an interview at 54.
Oh, and BTW, I was replaced on my last full time job by three H1-Bs...
We can't find American tech workers who will work for 1/3 to 1/2 the prevailing wage.
And what variety of logic did you use to come up with that? ~ JamesP81
Off hand, I'd guess the same reasoning our 'betters' use to promote shamnesty.
“I am talking about R&D.”
That might be a different market than the IS&T background I come from, so I acknowledge and defer to your experience in this area.
I know that in the companies I worked for, market rate was not being paid, and management had tunnel vision about funneling in as much cheap Bangalore labor as possible. Once again, this is from my own admittedly limited experience. I sat in those conference rooms and heard VPs and Directors say things they would NOT say on the other side of those closed doors.
Anyone interested in outsourcing needs to check out the “Tata Consultancy Services” Web Site...the #1 outsourcing firm in India. They’ve had representatives on TV many times, crowing about how many positions they’ve filled in U.S. companies.
On their home page, under Press Releases on the left, you will see “Tata Consultancy Services’ “First-Rate Strategy for Future Dominance” in Global IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Described by Independent Research Firm
Mumbai, India – June 15, 2007.”
So in the R&D arena it might be about supply and demand, but in the IS&T arena I come from, it’s about cheap labor and “global dominance.”
Try offering more than comparable wage. You'll be amazed how well that works in hiring good workers away from other companeis.
Or are the laws of supply and demand only allowed to work for companies and not employees?
H1Bs are indentured servants - paid sub-par wages and unable to negotiate for better or leave the employer they’re enslaved to.
If we want more skilled labor, raise the cap on regular visas.
I hope you have a good Plan B.
You'll need it.
I've got plenty of friends. What are your needs?
Would you hire a 58 year old for any of those positions? Where are you located? I'm willing to relocate.
BTW, besides my degree in computer info systems, I also have a MBA...
HARumpf!
Engineering is satisfying, challenging, interesting, and good for one's soul.
What a crock. The entire H1-B visa program is predicated on there being a shortage of labor.
You just proved my point - the shortage is of low-cost foreign labor. What a weasel.
The myth thrown around by protectionists is that companies often pay 1/3 or 1/2 of the prevailing wage... that’s just not true.
Protectionists? Yeah, we're protecting American jobs from the amoral likes of you.
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