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Harsh US immigration rules force Microsoft to open shop in Canada
Breitbart.com ^ | July 5, 2007

Posted on 07/05/2007 7:33:02 PM PDT by Babu

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To: Myrddin

You must be very proud of your son. However, don’t give up on the other two. My daughter played around with crappy jobs. Then one day, she announced she was serous about school, went back to school and earned her degree. Some kids take longer than others to ‘find’ themeselves.


181 posted on 07/08/2007 6:19:39 AM PDT by nyconse
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To: mjolnir

The sad truth is that these students are subsidized by their government and can afford grad school more easily than an American can. If Gates was serious about the best and the brightest, he would offer scholarships to talanted American students-invest in this country. This is what disturbs me about the globalists, they are not concerned at all with this country. They sneer at America and her people while making billions in the American markets


182 posted on 07/08/2007 6:28:09 AM PDT by nyconse
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To: Babu
"It is about recruiting the best and brightest, and right now, the majority are coming from overseas,"

Thanks to government sponsored school systems, Americans have been sufficiently, socially, dumbed down. They continue to spiral down also every day.

183 posted on 07/08/2007 6:33:51 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (Jorge Bush & his Marxist's Dim friends are enemies of the Republic with their amnesty Bill.)
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To: dennisw

Well you better believe me. Not only four years in IT at MIT, but PhD, MS or BS students in Ivy Leagues or otherwise in all disciplines get in only through the H1B program. That’s the American system. My roomate, a PhD in electrical engineering got approved for his H1B this year. Incidentally, he’s making six figures.
The American system is heavily skewed towards family based immigration.

The Canadian system, on the other hand, allows for self petition, where a person does not need an employer to sponsor. The applicant is evaluated on skills, education, language, age, whether a person completed school in Canada etc. and based on all these, a green card is awarded (or rejected), usually within 6 months to 18 months. The need for an H1B is eliminated. A person could apply from anywhere in the world. I personally know of two foreign students in US universities who applied during their studies and are now permanent residents of Canada.

I guess Microsoft is hoping to tap into foreign graduates from Canadian and American universities who may have been given Canadian green cards. And they’ll do it without the attendant bureaucratic hassle of getting an H1B first. At least, they are right on one count - foreign students, no matter how talented, (or not, depending on your view)cannot be hired in the US at the moment - which to some Americans is a great thing.


184 posted on 07/08/2007 6:48:06 AM PDT by fmkl
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To: mjolnir
To train people from other nations in skills that could add to our domestic economy, yet then keep them from doing so is dumb.

And doing so will also have a dumbing down effect on the rest of the nation.

185 posted on 07/08/2007 7:58:26 AM PDT by TopQuark
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To: dennisw
You come here every few years to post a bit.

Not that it is important any longer, but boy, how quickly we forget...

As far as what you posted about the American people I have a great idea. Keep it to yourself and your friends and don't put it out here

Thank you once again. It is discussions such as these that are so enriching...

You seem to have become really bitter over the last year or so. Hope this is not a sign of any hardships in your life.

186 posted on 07/08/2007 8:03:34 AM PDT by TopQuark
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To: nyconse
The sad truth is that these students are subsidized by their government and can afford grad school more easily than an American can. If Gates was serious about the best and the brightest, he would offer scholarships to talented American students-invest in this country. This is what disturbs me about the globalists, they are not concerned at all with this country. They sneer at America and her people while making billions in the American markets.

I disagree.

If Bill Gates was an example of a “globalist” who hated America, the EU wouldn’t have attacked Microsoft the way it did and Gates would have moved out after the trumped-up antitrust case against Microsoft in the US.

Gates is a businessman-— his duty is to his shareholders. When businessmen stop thinking of shareholders and start imagining that “stakeholders” supersede the former, they abuse their trust and their mission as surely as if doctor imagined that his patient’s interests were superseded by those of “stakeholders”.

It’s just not the case that foreign students are uniformly subsidized by their government is some way that U.S. students are not by our own. The fact is, just as in-state students get a better deal at our public universities and out-of-state students get a worse deal at our universities, out-of-country students get the very worst deal and constitute a great source of revenue for our universities. This only makes sense-— U.S. universities are far and away the best-— no country is even capable of mildly competing with us in that area, not Japan, not Germany, not the EU combined.

As a private citizen, Gates funds an insane amount of US students-— the Millennium Scholarship was funded by a billion dollar grant from his foundation, for instance.

187 posted on 07/08/2007 8:19:05 AM PDT by mjolnir ("All great change in America begins at the dinner table.")
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To: nyconse
I do know that Mirant fired their accounting staff and hired Indian workers.

I have a question, please: would you feel better if they closed up the shop and moved it to India? You would not have to face the change, but would this be better?

Probably not.

And yet, this is precisely what American business was doing for almost as long as America exists. Were the workers of oil companies American? Mostly not: it was management that was American. IBM had divisions in Switzerland, Ireland, Israel and other countries for years. It's a myth that "outsourcing" is a new phenomenon.

Conversely, when BP comes to America and hires American workers, is it doing outsourcing? Of course it does. Should the British accuse the company of betraying the U.K.?

The sole explanation is that all of us must be worth our keep. When we progress individually and as a nation, our wages and standard of living rise. When we stagnate in our development, our wages drop. This is particularly pronounced in IT, where wages were high due to shortage of labor. But all this happened before: companies analyzed the cost of operations domestically and abroad, adjusted for risk, and chose the least costless route.

Socialists in our schools and the media taught you to think about management as if they were royalty that does what it wants ("voting" themselves raises, drinking expensive water, etc.). As any management course will tell you, they are hired hands just as you are, but more expensive. Just because you cannot see fully the benefits of their work, it does not mean that they are not worth every penny of their salaries.

Corporations are merely legal notions. In real economic life there are people --- owners, employees, customers of a corporation. It is the owners that pay your salary and that of your CEO. In the present-day America, unlike in XIX century, large corporations are owned by common folk, especially the retirees. These are teachers, nurses, plumbers --- and you, too, if you have a savings account or at least one share of a mutual fund. Why should these people pay you or me more that they already do? How is a programmer more deserved of income than they are?

188 posted on 07/08/2007 8:20:04 AM PDT by TopQuark
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To: Babu
but have no interest in expanding legal quotas for educated immigrants who would pay lots of income taxes.

You sound like one of the people who wants to see a population of 1 billion people in the US.
189 posted on 07/08/2007 8:22:35 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer (I'm a billionaire! Thanks WTO and the "free trade" system!--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: quiverfull
Bill Gates is not the evil one here, people!!!

Oh, come on! Every Mac user in the country knows he's the Borg!
190 posted on 07/08/2007 8:23:56 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer (I'm a billionaire! Thanks WTO and the "free trade" system!--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: TopQuark
In the present-day America, unlike in XIX century, large corporations are owned by common folk, especially the retirees.

Who owns a transnational corporation? For example, a corporation that operates in China?
191 posted on 07/08/2007 8:31:14 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer (I'm a billionaire! Thanks WTO and the "free trade" system!--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: Babu
I spent the last two months working as a senior systems analyst at Microsoft's campus in Issaquah and left last week to work for another employer. Here are my observations regarding Microsoft.

Any problems that Microsoft has with a "shortage" of employees is a problem that they have themselves created.

192 posted on 07/08/2007 8:36:56 AM PDT by Guns of Seattle
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To: Guns of Seattle
Microsoft has a policy in place in which these workers must leave the company after one year of employment.

This has been a state law in California for more than a decade. I don't think Microsoft made this one up.
193 posted on 07/08/2007 8:42:43 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer (I'm a billionaire! Thanks WTO and the "free trade" system!--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: weegee

That sounds dangerously close to Congress looking out for Americans instead of Corporations. Perish the thought.


194 posted on 07/08/2007 8:44:48 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: Babu

I cry for Bill Gates. The thought that he has to hire Canadian-Pakistani’s breaks my heart.


195 posted on 07/08/2007 8:51:31 AM PDT by Minutemen ("It's a Religion of Peace")
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
only provides scholarships to African American, American Indian/Alaska Native...

So Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, or Michael Jordan's children would all qualify, but some dirt-poor Caucasian in Appalachia wouldn't? That is racism, not an effort to "counteract more broadly occurring trends of systemic racism".

The way you counteract racism is to even the playing field, not tilt it one way or another from time to time. The biggest challenge facing most kids today, regardless of their race, is poor parenting, single parent homes, parents who both work to make ends meet, and a public school system that has lost its way.
196 posted on 07/08/2007 11:26:53 AM PDT by JayNorth
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To: hedgetrimmer

Microsoft is located in the State of Washington — not California.


197 posted on 07/08/2007 12:48:44 PM PDT by Guns of Seattle
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To: JayNorth

>>The way you counteract racism is to even the playing field, not tilt it one way or another from time to time.<<

I agree. Gates has received criticism for this. It’s his money, though. He can give to “Lesbian Gangster Rap and Hip-Hop Studies” programs if he wants to. And probably does.


198 posted on 07/08/2007 1:01:31 PM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Illegals: representation without taxation--Citizens: taxation without representation)
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To: Guns of Seattle

I realize that. Check Washington state law to see if they have a similar regulation.


199 posted on 07/08/2007 1:24:30 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer (I'm a billionaire! Thanks WTO and the "free trade" system!--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: fmkl
Well you better believe me. Not only four years in IT at MIT, but PhD, MS or BS students in Ivy Leagues or otherwise in all disciplines get in only through the H1B program. That’s the American system. My roomate, a PhD in electrical engineering got approved for his H1B this year. Incidentally, he’s making six figures.
The American system is heavily skewed towards family based immigration.


I am on your side here. I'm against family based immigration, also called chain immigration. We have done it too long that way and get lots of uneducated 3rd worlders who happen to be relatives of US citizens
We should be giving work visas green cards to top notch foreign science and engineering students who pay tuition to US Universities

The Canadian system, on the other hand, allows for self petition, where a person does not need an employer to sponsor. The applicant is evaluated on skills, education, language, age, whether a person completed school in Canada etc. and based on all these, a green card is awarded (or rejected), usually within 6 months to 18 months. The need for an H1B is eliminated. A person could apply from anywhere in the world. I personally know of two foreign students in US universities who applied during their studies and are now permanent residents of Canada.

Canada, Australia have skills based immigration. Gotta speak English too!

I guess Microsoft is hoping to tap into foreign graduates from Canadian and American universities who may have been given Canadian green cards. And they’ll do it without the attendant bureaucratic hassle of getting an H1B first. At least, they are right on one count - foreign students, no matter how talented, (or not, depending on your view)cannot be hired in the US at the moment - which to some Americans is a great thing.

America cannot open its labor markets to the entire world. But we should be liberal about letting foreign students who have gone to school here work here if they are in science and engineering. Not enough hi IQ Americans are doing this. They want to be lawyers and investment bankers

200 posted on 07/08/2007 1:52:58 PM PDT by dennisw
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