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 ...
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.
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That is a load of BS, unless you consider the $150,000 salaries some of the younger chemical scientists are making at various pharma cos. You thinkg Eli Lilly wants to pay six figures to someone who isn’t a citizen and might leave Indianapolis to go home? Much chaeper turnover to get an American kid—the problem is, there aren’t enough.
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.
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That is a load of BS, unless you consider the $150,000 salaries some of the younger chemical scientists are making at various pharma cos to be slave wages—if so, I want your job. You think Eli Lilly wants to pay six figures to someone who isn’t a citizen and might leave Indianapolis to go home? Much chaeper turnover to get an American kid—the problem is, there aren’t enough.
What part off the Twilight Zone has homes for sale at $150K???
See his post 36. He slipped up and told the truth. "Comparable wages" means "H1-B comparable wages".
I bet they have the H1-B bait-and-switch down pat as well.
Oh, and welcome to FR...
BULL!
Don't buy that line anymore than the "jobs Americans won't due" crap.
I work around H1b visa holders, their tech education is not as good as ours. It's a matter of big business saving money. I know, I'm there.
Most american kids (and their tuition paying parents) are smart enough to know that they can skip the advanced math and science courses, a five year PhD program, and get a law degree to make that “market rate” as their starting salary.
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There is probably a lot of truth in that.
“Plus, the H-1B will generally work harder and for longer hours, because he’s working scared. As I understand it, switching jobs is extremely difficult for H-1Bs, and if they lose the job, they have to go home quickly.”
Hey Moose!
Well, they work for longer hours, anyway. “Work harder” is harder to prove IMO since what matters isn’t time-at-console but working, functional code.
Also, the rule for H1-Bs is *no* job switching. They’re directly tied to the employer. Only if they get a regular visa can they switch, otherwise it’s straight home.
H1B is just a high-tech version of the old coal mines. Ya write 1600 lines, and what do ya get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Shiva don’t ya call me ‘cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store...
:p
Ah. I guess we need to raise the minimum wages in the third world.
I will confess to feeling a little schadenfreud when an H-1B finds out just how far that huge (by third world) salary goes in Fremont.
A month in a one room apartment is a whole lot more expensive than a year’s worth of rent on a hut...
Comparable because of years of importation of H1-B visa labor - including hundreds of thousands during the 2002 IT slump. The job market is just getting to the point where folks like you might have to hire back older tech workers.
Do some research before repeating the standard labor union talking points. The problem isn't foreign workers or low wages, the problem is American citizens failing to keep up with the education of foreigners.
Like heck. Those older workers have very good educations. Plenty of younger Americans are doing just fine as well, educationally.
The funny thing is, Indian labor has increased in price, so companies are outsourcing from there as well.
However, according to Democrats.com,
Wrong. We do not produce enough CHEAP scientists and engineers in non computer fields. And if we import more H1-B visas, the numbers trained will go down. They just don't want to pay us.
From a highly trained physicist/engineer.
The HORROR!
Still waiting on an answer to my post #38...
Sen. Lamar Alexander phone 202-224-4944 Fax 202-228-3398
Sen. Bob Corker phone 202-224-3344 Fax 202-228-0566
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