How many skilled workers is too many?
US tech firms want to change visa rules so they can hire more workers from abroad.
An employee of Art+Com Technology GmbH demonstrates the "Touchmaster" at a stand for the world's biggest IT fair, CeBIT, in Hanover, March 1, 2009. Tech firms say the U.S. will fall behind other countries if quotas on visas for skilled workers are not raised. (Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. technology lobby is hoping lawmakers will soon tackle an immigration overhaul that would include measures to make it easier for tech firms to hire talent from abroad.
Tech firms want it to be easier to hire college-educated workers from abroad and also want to reform the green card process to make it easier to convert the temporary visa holders they hire into permanent residents.
The H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations but caps the number of workers who can obtain these visas.
Tech interests argue that the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union all have more favorable rules on the entry of skilled foreign workers, putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.
“We have catching up to do,” said attorney Bo Cooper, a former senior official in the U.S. immigration bureaucracy and now an adviser to Compete America, a lobby of high-tech and business interests. “Other countries have realized that it's in the national interest to bring talented people into your economy.”
The H-1B program has long been dogged by complaints that imported tech workers take jobs from domestic engineers. There have also been reports of high tech migrants being abused by companies that sponsor their employment visas.
During the Clinton era, when tech was booming and unemployment was low, Congress twice passed bills authorizing temporary increases in the number of H-1B visa holders that U.S. firms could hire.
By the time those increases expired under the Bush administration, the dot.com bubble had burst and tech employment had softened. Lawmakers decided that any immigration bill had to address an entire range of issues including undocumented immigration and not just the tech interest in skilled workers.
After a comprehensive immigration reform proposal died in U.S. Senate two years ago, the tech agenda entered a dormant period. Some hope was rekindled when President Barack Obama mentioned immigration reform in April and June, although he focused on the undocumented issue.
Compete America recently issued a press release noting that applications for basic H-1B visas had not reached the annual quota of 65,000, as it had in past years when the economy was stronger — evidence, the group said, that the market regulates demand and that a numerical cap is unnecessary.
Why does Compete America not highlight recent overseas policy changes such as those covered in the articles at the following links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/22/immigration-limits-jacqui-smith
http://www.blonnet.com/2007/12/12/stories/2007121253121000.htm
Tech firms are keeping a secret from you: they can legally discriminate against talented US citizens and family-based green card holders - and they want to keep it this way. Companies now routinely post want ads for "H-1b only", use these programs to outsource American jobs and force us to train our foreign replacements.
These tech CEOs are part of a long string of American naysers that argue discrimination will advance America. What this article fails to reveal is how out-of-step this is with the Obama administration.
But four federal agencies and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) are not only revealing this diabolical manipulation of immigration law— they are doing something about it.
First among the stellar crew is the Department of Justice, filing criminal charges against an Indian body shop – derisively called “bully shops” by Indian IT H-1bs – on visas fraud and wire tapping arguing that the company “substantially deprived U.S. citizens of employment." The DOJ brief argues "in January of 2009, the total number of workers employed in the information technology occupation under the H-1B program substantially exceeded the 241,000 unemployed U.S. citizen workers within the same occupation.” This case is groundbreaking. It will document the lengths that IT employers use in order to bypass local talent – and make it illegal to bypass US citizens and green card holders.
Next comes the Department of Labor, headed by Hilda Solis and USCIS, headed by Janet Napolitano. Both agencies, under previous administrations, rubber stamped corporate requests to fill US job openings with foreign citizens. No more. Both agencies are examining applications with a fine tooth comb – including sending investigators to the company’s site.
Finally, the IRS’s investigation of corporations using the H-1B program is another example of the heightened scrutiny the H-1B program has undergone in recent times.
Black Computer Science grads are now at parity with the US population. 4th and 8th graders in Massasschutes and Minnesota now out perform many of their Asian counterparts in math and science.
American tech firms can't remain competitive until they adhere to EEO recruiting and hiring practices and give us a chance to compete for job openings in our own country.
The answer, of course, depends on how bright and
talented and "skilled" they are, and how over-
crowded the USA already is.
On a scale of 0 (a rock) to 200 (Einstein, Dirac, Curie,
Marilyn Vos Savant, Auguste Rodin, Ludwig van Beethoven,
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson...)
with an average of 100,
if they're 200+ we should accept 100K per year,
if they're 190+ we should accept 50K per year,
if they're 160+ we should accept 1K per year,
if they're 130+ we should accept 100 per year,
if they're 115+ we should accept 30 per year,
if they're 100+ we should accept 10 per year,
plus two by lottery, once each has passed proper
background investigations, of course.
It's not a nice, clean log scale, but you get the idea.
Silicon Sweatshops: The strange death of Li Liang
What killed a Chinese technology worker at the center of a supply chain firestorm?
Hot water for Chile's slums, courtesy of the sun
A public housing project aims to improve the quality of life of Chile's poor, while also lowering emissions.
Nuclear Japan: A pox on MOX?
Quake-prone Japan upgrades its nuclear power plants. Anti-nuke activists go radioactive.
.jpg)
Silicon Sweatshops: Another black eye for Apple supplier
Wintek admits 62 workers fall ill from chemical exposure.
Dragon Watch: Taiwan's rusty air defenses
Analysis: A new report shows that Taiwan may not be as protected against a Chinese attack as first thought.
Watch GlobalPost videos:
Reporter's Notebook
The non-profit group that helps hold the internet together by overseeing the domain name system has faced the diplomatic problem of loosening,...Read more >
France's Constitutional Council has struck down the most onerous provision of a new law meant to combat digital copyright violations by ruling that...Read more >
I took off today to celebrate my wife's birthday which coincides with the inauguration of Barack Obama. We watched together this morning in one of...Read more >
Featured: Special Projects
Oceans:
Assessing their health
After the Fall:
20 years since the Berlin Wall came down
Life, Death and the Taliban:
Videos and stories
Study Abroad:
Students report from the road
Living in the Shadows:
An intimate look at China's migrant workers
A World of Trouble:
The global economy in 20 hotspots
Login or Register to post comments