Posted on 07/05/2007 7:33:02 PM PDT by Babu
US software behemoth Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it would soon open an office in Canada, lamenting tough immigration rules in the United States that make it difficult to hire foreign staff.
"It is about recruiting the best and brightest, and right now, the majority are coming from overseas," Marc Seaman, a spokesman for the world's biggest software company, told The Globe and Mail newspaper.
"The United States has immigration quotas and some limitations for bringing in people from outside the country," he said. "That challenge is an opportunity for Canada, in the sense that this will bring the top software developers to Canada."
The development office, to be opened in Vancouver, a three-hour drive north from Microsoft's Redmond, Washington headquarters, will initially be staffed by some 300 recruits from around the world, the company said.
Eventually, it could grow to house as many as 1,000 employees.
Canada is currently the third-largest source of recruits for Microsoft outside the United States, after India and Japan.
Precisely. You read between the lines very well. Microsoft claims it's all about "hiring the best and brightest" and claim that that pool comes from 'overseas'. As you know, it's really about hiring those who will work for the closest thing to slave labor.
“The only way to beat Mr. Gates is to switch to open source software (still on a Microsoft platform in most cases) or join the Apple bandwagon and eventually suffer the same from them.”
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F#@)$- that!!!! IF I wasn’t still mad at the Chinese for Tienammen I’d go back to my abacus. I guess its just me and my slide rule.
See post #19.
Sure, like MS doesn’t have coders in other countries.
Poor poor MS. The expense of opening up a foreign office is going to break them.
Hard to reach the Internet via abacus, slide rule. I know, I’ve tried.
boo frickin hoo
I can’t argue with your perception. Free BSD/ Darwin used the noble intentions of it’s free ware contributors and exploited them. Has this changed since Al Gore took his place on Apple’s board of directors?
That is correct.
interesting seems microsoft did not pay enough campaign contributions (aka BRIBES) to the right congress critters.
“This has a lot to say about our education system”
You have it correct, here in Austin we can’t even graduate over 70% of our highschool seniors, not even counting the drop outs.
I would not hire most that do for my business.
If you had a business, would you?
I think this is grandstanding by Microsoft. They want cheap foreign skilled labor and don’t want to pay Americans salaries. It’s that simple. So, Canada will let them import cheap skilled labor.
Our education system is beyond awful. But in this case there is more to it. You ought to see the video on U tube. Make you toss your cookies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU&mode=related&search=
“Jobs Americans Won’t Do, Part DCCLXIX [Mark Krikorian]
The indefatigable Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at UC Davis, pointed me to this video of an immigration lawyer explaining to clients how to pretend to look for American workers in such a way as to make sure they don’t actually find any (it’s at about 7:55). The law firm may take the video down once it gets some publicity, so here’s the nut graf:
And our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker. And you know in a sense that sounds funny, but it’s what we’re trying to do here. We are complying with the law fully, but ah, our objective is to get this person a green card, and get through the labor certification process. So certainly we are not going to try to find a place [at which to advertise the job] where the applicants are the most numerous. We’re going to try to find a place where we can comply with the law, and hoping, and likely, not to find qualified and interested worker”
Bill Gates is not the evil one here, people!!! You talk the talk of complete socialists. Bill Gates has “way to much money, he wants to make more money, so penalize him!!!” Is this not the very freedom we all enjoy in this country? I am a firm believer in capitalism, hate greed, but c’mon, trade agreements, real education instead of 25million dollar football fields, tax incentives, etc... would probably be something to talk about instead of smashing microsoft or Bill Gates personally- since you’re smashing at American ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..... or does it read- life, liberty, and the pursuit of Bill Gate’s money?
I have drawn the line at Windows Vista. Never for me. When XP falls by the wayside, I will have to choose between a Mac and Linux. Adios, Microsoft.
>>>They could easily hire Americans. They’re just trying import cheap, educated labor that they can have total control over thru the force of a H1B visa. Increasing the H1B quota will only serve as more disincentive to American students to pursue technical fields. This is a PR move only.<<<
And you have summarized it perfectly.
There’s a lot of this that goes on with visas. A very close Romanian friend of mine came to work in the US recently on a visa, though she went through an agency that helpled her find a job in a restaurant to be “serving customers or other duties.” In other words, they make it sound like they’re waiting tables and helping them find jobs.
Well, they place them in McDonald’s. These are college-educated students with English skills. So McDonald’s gets dirt cheap, extremely dependable labor. And they have that labor trapped so that they can’t leave without giving up their visa via a contract with the agency.
Kind of sad for my friend, really. She wanted a job where she would practice her English, and they threw her into a kitchen with a Serbian, a Cuban, and a Bulgarian. Yeah, living in a new country is great.
I just think about how I found a job working in a French law firm and compare it to what she’s dealing with... Yikes!
I've been trying to explain to people that if culturally or institutionally education goes downhill hard enough.. the next generation can't expect to have the same standard of living as their parents. If a kid gets mediocre grades in school, and either flunks out of highschool.. or takes a fluff course and gets a degree like women's studies or african history major.. They won't add the same economic value to society as their father who was a power engineer.
Even imo if we had the best politicians who made the most pro-economy legislation.
Agree, this old bucket of bolts will be dying soon … my next computer will be a Mac or a pure Linux system … no more Microsoft. Have been patient sense Window 3.0 … no more. Dummy me.
Go with a Linux.
I’ve noted in the past that if Gates didn’t care about America he’d simply open more development studios in foreign nations when they wouldn’t allow him to bring in workers. Looks like Microsoft did just that this time. But if he didn’t care he wouldn’t even complain, he’d just shrug his shoulders and open wherever the talent was.
“Bill Gates is not the evil one here, people!!! You talk the talk of complete socialists. Bill Gates has “way to much money, he wants to make more money, so penalize him!!!” Is this not the very freedom we all enjoy in this country? I am a firm believer in capitalism, hate greed, but c’mon, trade agreements, real education instead of 25million dollar football fields, tax incentives, etc... would probably be something to talk about instead of smashing microsoft or Bill Gates personally- since you’re smashing at American ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..... or does it read- life, liberty, and the pursuit of Bill Gate’s money?”
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Geez- take it easy- I was just interested in doing his wife and taking a joy ride on his yacht.
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