The threat to Houston in denying needed visas

Houston Chronicle ^ | October 11th, 2003 | By ANN PINCHAK

[ClaireSolt]

I would certainly support building more medical schools in the US so we could have American M.D.'s we can actually communicate with when we are sick.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"Every day it gets clearer that the Houston economy has become highly reliant upon talented workers from abroad."

ie: No stupid native born Americans need apply. Isn't diversity so cute and cuddly?

1) First we lower academic standards so low for certain underachievers that any room temperature IQ is guaranteed to graduate.

2) Then when faced with testing in the real world for jobs, these same graduates are deemed totally incompetent for any position above janitor.

Isn't PC politics inserted into our educational system by liberals wonderful?

[SauronOfMordor]

On the other hand they should be required to demonstrate that the workers they hire are doing work that no available US workers can do.

If what they want to hire is a plain Java developer, they will be unable to do this.

Realisticly, it is absurd to argue that the US labor pool does not have SOMEBODY that will fit your requirement (at US prevailing wage, which is the point here). In any given year, there is only likely to be a handful of openings that MUST be filled from overseas, almost always some researcher who has been doing work in some esoteric field

[SauronOfMordor]

Apparently, we have to bring people from overseas to take jobs that would otherwise end up being outsourced overseas.

The correct way to do it is to encourage these people to come over AS PERMANENT IMMIGRANTS. No more H1B/L1 "temporary" indentured servants. If they come over, thenb the must be here as regular members of the labor pool, being paid the same wages and working the same hours as American citizens. They must be encouraged to assimulate and stay here permanently.

What we have instead is people coming over as H1B's, working a few years, then being forced to return home, but in the process taking back American trade secrets, education, and knowledge of how to work in the American market. They then can set up competitive companies over there. No, once they're here they should STAY here and become part of the US

[FreePaul]

..it is absurd to argue that the US labor pool does not have SOMEBODY that will fit your requirement...

You would think so. However, did you ever see some of the requirements written by companies to justify hiring foreign workers for higher level positions? When I was interviewing heavily I had employment agencies and immigration lawyers offer to help write job descriptions specificlly to hire foreign workers. I declined but I know others didn't. That's why I think that anyone should be able to sue a company if they can show that they can do the job of a foreign employee. Might make it less attractive to hire foreign workers. Unfortunately it would create another employment opportunity for lawyers.

[SauronOfMordor]

ie: No stupid native born Americans need apply. Isn't diversity so cute and cuddly?

Before the One WOrld government can rule, for the benefit of the internationalist oligarchs, the US must first be destroyed as a superpower

[Vigilanteman]

Often, the best job candidates in the world are discovered beyond U.S. borders.

The Japanese have an interesting approach--companies are allowed to hire and bring in foreign workers as long as they pay them 10% over the going wage for the industry. Needless to say, foreigners make up about 1% of the Japanese workforce and the Japanese language, culture and civility of the society are still largely intact.

[TheEngineer]

The correct way to do it is to encourage these people to come over AS PERMANENT IMMIGRANTS.

I'm sure the "guest workers" on H1/L1 visas would LOVE to have permanent resident status immediately. They just don't have a choice. These guest-worker visa programs were concocted in such a way as to give the employer total control over the guest worker. That's why they are able to hire them for less money.

In essence, though, I agree with you. If these people weren't indentured servants -- if they had the same rights as American workers -- then they would command American-grade wages.

Then, the incentive for bringing them in would disappear: Americans of similar skill and superior English language skills would prevail.

That's why I'd like to see these guest worker programs eliminated completely -- and replaced with something that gives immigrant workers freedom to leave their jobs for other jobs without threat of deportment. Eliminate their "indentured servitude" status, and this whole "imported worker" idea would just fade away.

[SauronOfMordor]

When I was interviewing heavily I had employment agencies and immigration lawyers offer to help write job descriptions specificlly to hire foreign workers. I declined but I know others didn't.

This is because a foreign worker, brought in as an H1B, is essentially an indentured servant. He can be told to work as many hours as the employer wants, under whatever conditions the employer wants, and not dare say a word for fear of being fired and deported back overseas

Remove H1B, and the incentive to hire foreigners disappears. Any foreigner hired would be able to quit just like an American.

[SauronOfMordor]

The Japanese have an interesting approach--companies are allowed to hire and bring in foreign workers as long as they pay them 10% over the going wage for the industry.

Companies here would just lie. They would bring in somebody with a Masters degree, say he was being hired for an entry-level job, pay him 10% over the wage for that, and put him to work writing device-drivers

[ThinkDifferent]

Eliminate their "indentured servitude" status, and this whole "imported worker" idea would just fade away.

Exactly. It's not about money, it's about control.

[blueriver]

Pinchak, principal of Houston-based Pinchak & Associates, concentrates her practice in business immigration law and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

She is an immigration lawyer, the only job she cares about is her own. Her job is to replace American workers with foreigners. The Huston Chronicle should be ashamed at putting out this kind of propaganda.

[weegee]

Those at the Houston Comical have no shame.

[NovemberCharlie]

A sure-fired way to go broke would be to open a book store in Houston!

If they opened it in my area, I'm pretty sure I could float it all by my lonesome.

[DuncanWaring]

If a company really can't find skilled workers in this country ...

If a company really can't find skilled workers in this country they should consider hiring someone over the age of 25 and paying them more than $10 an hour.

[doc30]

The article seems to focus on the head of Houston's two luing trasplant centers. I'm sure we could deny him a visa because of high unemployment, then we could put one of the laid off HP workers in his place. That's just what we need - replacing a skilled surgeon with an IT programmer. That would do wonders for Houston's hospitals.

[GOP_1900AD]

It is amazing how much the change of a few words in the text of of US Employment Laws could change the whole world. You are *definitely* onto something here!

[Paul Ross]

Actually, there is a bill pending in Congress to do precisely the same thing as the Japanese do in this regard. It will be a start. The bigger problem is of course the wholesale relocation of industry off shore. The migration of all our nation's century-long painstakingly built-up capital and technology by a ten-year sucker-play by China's scheming Communist Party... All by their long-term thinking: Artificially enforcing their own super-low labor costs to snare capitalists too foolish to worry about the long term...until it is too late. The Fixed Assets will be theirs.