Gates warns on US immigration curbs

FT ^ | March 7 2007 | Kevin Allison in San Francisco

[fishhound]

Bill Gates, the chairman of Micro­soft, on Wednesday warned that restrictions on the number of skilled workers allowed to enter the US put the country’s competitiveness at risk.

The comments marked the latest attack on restrictive US immigration policies by the technology industry, which is facing a shortage of skilled workers even as demand for their skills is increasing.

Speaking before the Senate committee on health, education, labour and pensions, Mr Gates said that tighter US immigration policies – governed partly by concerns over terrorism – were “driving away the world’s best and brightest precisely when we need them most”.

“It makes no sense to tell well-trained, highly skilled individuals, many of whom are educated at our top colleges and universities, that the United States does not welcome or value them,” Mr Gates said. “America will find it infinitely more difficult to maintain its technological leadership if it shuts out the very people who are most able to help us compete.”

Mr Gates said that other countries were taking advantage of restrictive US policies by catering to highly skilled workers who would otherwise choose to study, live and work in the US.

“Our lost opportunities are their gains,” he said. “I personally witness the ill effects of these policies on an almost daily basis at Microsoft.”

Mr Gates’s comments on immigration were part of a broader warning over the state of US competitiveness.

Mr Gates said he felt “deep anxiety” about the US’s ability to remain competitive if it did not act quickly to improve education, invest in basic science research, and reform its immigration ­policies.

[Jake The Goose]

WOW - damn scary thought - but I suspect you may be on to something.

Good lord - give me an ass-kicker for POTUS in 08' - PLEASE

[Czar]

"It is a trough of endless cheap labor, which only exists because of government policy. That is not a free market. That is what destroys economies."

I see you refuse to drink the free trader's koolaid.

[sick1]

Why is that a difficult concept? I've worked for a number of businesses (including Sun Microsystems) that was founded by foreign labor.

[Tax Government]

Nonsense, Bill Gates. You have every right to locate facilities abroad to avoid visa curbs. You offshore aggressively. You care not one little bit for the welfare of Americans in technical occupations.

[crz]

I am wonder how the hell he could hire these "H" visa people when he has to prove he could not find the workers already here? I thought that most of the "H" visas were for ag workers and those coming over for education etc.

I do know that to hire an immigrant to work in a profession here that, as an employer, I had to apply to the state employment labor agency for permission to hire and then had to prove that I could not find any acceptable people here to fill my needs. I.E. after filing, I had to advertise on the UC web site for workers as well as advertise in the local newspaper for at least one month (I think) and then only after that, if nobody answered the add, could I go ahead to hire. AND experience in the trade was no excuse for hiring foriegn nationals. I was expected top hire here and train them in the job.

There is only one way Gates could get around this...by greesing palms.

[fishhound]

Funny .........cheap labor...
...and we wonder why his software s*cks. Quick I need another patch...LOL

[avacado]

"But it's far more capitalist in nature than the protectionist cries for restricting H-1Bs across the board. After the contractual 6 years are finished, it's purely free market."

Actually, it's more communism than anything to restrict a worker to 1 company for 6 years without the ability to access the free market by accepting better job offers. That's not how America works.

[fishhound]

"After the contractual 6 years are finished..."

Why aren't they obligated to leave?

[Anti-Bubba182]

Bill Gates wants cheap labor too. It is also lot easier to deal with visa slaves than paying more attention and money to Prima Donna American programmers.

Gates would fit right in with Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller as a 19th century robber barron.

[Dante3]

Exactly. Don't also most of his donations go to foreign countries?

[fishhound]

I think he has a big contraception program in Africa.

[RightWhale]

Seeing BG invest billions in India indicates that he doesn't need to import skills at all since he can employ them where they are. Still, his expertise at foreign policy is probably at least as good as the average programmer's.

[amchugh]

I've worked with a lot of H1-B visa guys in the computer software field. They are just as good or bad as American workers, but some of them have told me horror stories about abusive companies that use the H1-B process to abuse their staff. The salary, time worked, etc... change after they come here (paying their own relocation costs), and then they cannot easily afford to quit and fly back home.

Bear in mind that the alternative for most employers to hiring immigrants is outsourcing. Even though outsourcing is often a disaster, companies look at the cost per hour of labor and think that is all the analysis they need to do.

I think the H1-B process needs some reform though.

[muawiyah]

Gates is pointing to a problem little understood ~ that is, as we allow millions of unskilled people to enter the country in violation of the law for the sole purpose of mowing the lawns of the rich and cleaning public restrooms, there's little interest by anyone to INCREASE quotas on lawful, but otherwise highly skilled immigrants.

I'm in favor of giving up the lawns and such and bringing in the guys with PhDs and special skills.

Now, concerning "training Americans", we are doing that. However, abortion has reduced the number of young Americans to train.

This is where Gates loses the argument. He favors even more abortion.

That's why thinking people everywhere consider him to be a worthless punk with too much money.

[muawiyah]

Unusual company if they didn't lay off the H-1Bs. Around here they all went first.

[fishhound]

I have seen...
people come in and the firm lets them slip by without certain desease screening...like tuberculosis.

Universities do this.

[Herakles]

It's time fat ass Bill Gates and his buddies take some of their money and entice the sons and daughters of US citizens to develop the skills they want for nothing.

The following is a letter I sent to my congress man;

RE: Gates warns on US immigration curbs


Dear Sir,

The riches man in the world made the following statement on Wednesday;

Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, on Wednesday warned that restrictions on the number of skilled workers allowed to enter the US put the country’s competitiveness at risk.

I do not agree with this statement and I know you do and request you consider voting to limit quotas for skilled workers.

I’ve just spent in the neighborhood of $40,000 a year for my son’s education, and this pompous fat rich business man wants the Congress to limit my son’s future earnings because he claims that the golden ox of technology (his ox) will be gored.

Well this totally ticks me off! Listen, if bill (the riches man in the world) Gates wants my son to be slave labor, then I suggest he and the RICH PEOPLE like him give up their wealth just to be fair.

Furthermore, why would ANYONE in this country in his right mind even think of spending $40,000 a year to get an education so they could get slave wages to help out our good old buddy Bill Gates or anyone like him? I suggest good old bill spend his money building a university and recruiting the sons and daughters of US citizens to get the eduction and skills he wants the rest of us to provide for free.

I’m really tired of these clowns wanting something for nothing while at the same time making money off the backs of people like my son! I’m also tired of the Republicans buying into these hollow and lame arguments.

If the Republicans continue this course, they will even become more irrelevant with future elections.

IF BILL GATES AND HIS BUDDIES WANT SOMEONE TO DO THEIR WORK, IT’S TIME HE PAID AMERICAN PEOPLE TO DO IT IN ORDER TO CREATE THE SKILLS HERE AND NOT ABROAD.

I URGE YOU NOT TO LISTEN TO THIS CLOWN AND VOTE TO RESTICT SKILLED IMMIGRATION QUOTAS.

[jetson]

Bill Gates = jackass...he's out!

[fishhound]

Great Letter!

[etraveler13]

You are quite correct, I work in engineering. We have people coming in from across the pond, and they do so legally. I do not see the abuse in my industry. And their work is appreciated. However, they are here for a specific time. After their visa expires they have to go back home, reapply, get accepted, and then aquire a new visa. They make sufficient money for this to be profitable for them. Most professionals do not come to the US without funds to get back home if the need arises. What Gates skates past, is that he wants immediate jobs for college grads at US Universities, without going thru the process that other professional have to go thru. Often they apprentice in the summers at Microsoft, so know the system. He wants, or seems to want a separate set of rules for himself. Not gonna happen. Also, illegal immigrant is illegal immigrant. No thinking person wants to stop legal immigration, its Illegal immigration that needs to stop. Those same people can follow the rules and come into the country. Companies are already in place to find jobs for legal work permits, and the department of immigrations already provides visa's for skilled labor, and there are national databases for their skill sets. Most folks do not know this, so chomp on the Gates hook, line and sinker. As usual, the MSM tells only 1/2 the story, and sometimes not even that much.