Subj : Re: Industry Calls for More Foreign Programmers
To   : comp.programming
From : Scott Moore
Date : Mon Aug 15 2005 12:54 pm

Although I am also for completely freeing up the Visa program, for
good reasons, this statement includes the standard distortions:

Ivan Mascovich wrote:
>  August 12, 2005 03:30 PM US Eastern Timezone 
> 
> 
> AeA Calls for Changes in Immigration Laws for Highly Educated Workers as 
> H-1B Visa Petitions Reach Cap for 2006 
> 
> 
> WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 12, 2005--AeA, the nation's largest 
> high-tech trade association, today called for reforms in the current 
> immigration laws regarding highly educated workers in reaction to today's 
> announcement by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) 
> that the H-1B Visa Cap has been met for 2006. 
> 
> 
> 
> "Today's announcement by the USCIS further solidifies the fact that we 
> need to take a serious look at immigration reform," said John Palafoutas, 
> AeA's Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy. "America's well-kept 
> secret is that it has rarely produced enough American-born workers with 
> the requisite science and engineering background to support its knowledge 
> economy. Our safety valve has been the H-1B Visa program, which was 
> designed to augment the workforce. The current system is failing its 
> original intentions. 

Demand as defined by who? Virtually all employers want to hire the cheapest
workers to do the job, and its well understood that H-1B visa workers are
a gold mine in this respect. They can be hired cheaply, and the requirement
that a worker must remain with a single employer to "run the clock" on their
green card requirement amounts to virtual slavery for workers. I have known
several Indian workers who were trapped in dead end, low paying jobs because
they didn't want to void their green card time.

Most foreign workers who get in through the H-1B visa program move rapidly
up the pay scale after their first entry position. Employers know this,
and there is virtually no interest in reforming the system as far as
increasing worker freedom. However, there is plenty of push to issue more
H-1B visas, as this statement shows.

The H-1B visa program requires that companies hire an "equivalent" US
worker by advertising the position in a local paper or similar. But this
is a standard system to "game". H-1B visa "ads" can be found that state
extraordinarily specific job requirements (must be familiar with xycon,
zircon and zelnich programs), and low pay for any job in that field,
especially considering the specific experience requirements. If you know
the particular company involved, it would be apparent that the skill
requirements and pay were taken from a H-1B visa applicant who has already
agreed to the job, and is just waiting for the formalities.

> 
> 
> "Denying entry of the world's most highly educated talent into the United 
> States is taking its toll. We should be stapling Green Cards to the 
> diplomas of every foreign national who graduates from a U.S. educational 
> institution with a masters or PhD, and we should keep the world's best 
> and brightest here in the U.S. to help strengthen our economy." 
> 
> 
> About AeA 
> 
> 
> AeA, founded in 1943 by David Packard, is the largest nonprofit high-tech 
> trade association in the United States with nearly 2,500 companies, 
> representing all segments of the industry and 1.8 million employees. 
> Currently, AeA has 18 offices in and around the United States, as well as 
> offices abroad in Brussels and Beijing. Our primary purpose is helping 
> our members' top and bottom lines by providing the following services: 
> Access to Investors; State, Federal & International Lobbying; Insurance 
> Services; Government Procurement; Business Networking; Foreign Market 
> Access; Select Business Services; and Executive Education.
>  

Certainly visas need to be issued more broadly. During the boom years of
the late 1990s, there were widespread complains about influxes of foreign
engineers to the USA, then after the crash, complaints about "outsourcing".
After the crash, many Indian workers I know simply went home. Why not ?
The jobs were no longer here, and although the pay in the USA is high,
so are living expenses. Combine that with the inconvenience of staying
away from family and friends, and India became much more attractive to
many indian workers here in Silicon Valley.

Would it be too much of a stretch to assume that many of those departed
workers are now doing outsourced jobs back in India ? That's right, the
jobs simply followed the workers out of the country. All of the politicians
who were yelling about the influx of foreign workers, instead of being
grateful that the "bust" sent them home, are now complaining about
outsourcing.

The H-1B visa program distorts the true immigration picture for engineers
in the United States. Because these visas are considered a stepping stone
to the hard to get green card, they encourage workers to come here and
attempt to hang on to jobs even if the pay and opportunities are low.

In a visa program with more flexibility to get the visa, and come and
go freely without penalties, foreign workers would demand higher pay,
and would return to their home countries sooner and more often than now.
Increasing the ability of visa workers to come, go AND acquire time with
US employers toward green card status would, itself, decrease the demand
to GET a green card at all costs, since many Indian and other workers
REALLY just want the effect of dual citizenship, and the freedom to
take knowledge back to their home countries, and improve conditions
there. This is not bad for anyone, and especially not for the USA.

.