Comments on: House politicians propose 'emergency' H-1B hike
One bill would triple number of temporary work visas--from 65,000 to 195,000--in 2008 and 2009. Another would double them. Will either become law?
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Using outsourced labor In-House instead of using the existing qualified U.S. workforce already in need of jobs.
That's why more people from abroad are needed. Otherwise, the jobs, and with them the tax base, would go abroad.
In particular in the current situation, we need to keep the jobs here.
know that the H1-B is about cheap labor and displacing people
with Bachelor's degrees, not about getting that elusive PhD in
superconductors into the US.
In the country that's been the champion of free markets, free trade and globalization in the world, you'd think that jobs belong to whoever is most qualified never mind where they come from. You can't have it both ways.
Innovation is what drives the software industry forward. In order to make that happen, you absolutely need the best people you can possibly get. It doesn't matter if they're from US or Outer Mongolia.
My wife recently completed her Ph.D from a reputable school in the US (at the cost of US tax payers - over $150,000 in fees and stipend to be exact!) and now we fear that she will not get a H1-B visa come April since the 20K quota for advanced degree holders might get depleted in the first day like it did last year with the 65K quota.
What makes more sense to all you opponents of the H1-B visa program? Deny her visa and have her leave the country or allow her to stay here and work and contribute to the economy?
The "Bible" says "Put Not Your Trust In Man"!
I totally agree with your comment. However, I believe the entire H1-B process should be overhauled to prevent the ongoing fraud committed by the so called "consulting companies".
My wife recently completed her Ph.D from a reputable school in the US (at the cost of US tax payers - over $150,000 in fees and stipend to be exact!) and now we fear that she will not get a H1-B visa come April since the 20K quota for advanced degree holders might get depleted in the first day like it did last year with the 65K quota.
What makes more sense to all you opponents of the H1-B visa program? Deny her visa and have her leave the country or allow her to stay here and work and contribute to the economy?
And what makes you think US citizens are prevented from applying for open positions? If a foreigner has the best resume and performs bests in the interview, should I hire a less qualified American citizen just to be patriotic? And then expect other countries to allow me to sell them my software? Is this not discrimination? Would you do this if it were your own business?
Preventing companies from filling their open positions with qualified people would result in the jobs being moved abroad.
That's actually Econ 101. It seems that you have skipped classes in college. That's probably why you can't find a job now...
1) Hiring H1-B people is more expensive than hiring Americans because of the fees and hurdles you have to jump through.
2) Professionals hired on H1-B visas are mostly paid the same or more as the "equivalent" American worker. We are NOT talking about Mexican illegals working on farms here.
3) Often the alternative to a H1-B worker is to offshore the entire operation, meaning the potential American colleagues of the foreign worker all lose their jobs. How is that better?
(Apparently the "protection" awarded in the defense industry is affecting quality, ref. the recent contracts for fuel planes that went to European EADS instead of American Boeing.)
Maybe they're dangling a whole lot of awesome web2.0 stock options in front of the candidates :)
I remember last time I was on the job market, I was in serious talks with about 4 different companies. The compensation ranged from a totally ridiculous $35 / hr (w/ benefits) to $150 / hr (w/out benefits) to a six figure salaried position. All positions were for a sr. sw engineer type of role.
The most ridiculous thing about the $35 / hr job was that it was a BIG multi-national company, and the job they were hiring for was definitely a position you'd need someone with real experience in application architectures and sw design. It took great effort from my part not to laugh in their faces. I have no clue what they were thinking.
Tell me. How many people have you recruited in the last 6 months? How many candidates have you interviewed for the positions? What percentage of those candidates were qualified?
If you answer the last question with anything more than single digits, you're lying.
The qualified candidates are so sought after that they typically have several job offers lined up, so you end up in a bidding war. Thankfully my company IS in a position to bid high.
PS. why you posting the same reply on multiple threads? I read you once just fine, no need to spam the boards.
glitches on submit.
Economic (Housing Markets) "SEALS" Teams next. ;-) !
Beam Us Up Scotty!
But the visa cost should be $7500 per month payable to the U.S. Treasury. Then pay their salary. We are displacing a U.S. Citizen, We should be paid for the privlege of allowing non-citizens the opportunity to work here.
You want them, YOU PAY FOR THEM.
How about this, a person on H1-B Visa contributes to the economy, pays his/her taxes under the same earning bracket as an American, adds to the Social Security Fund BUT is not allowed to collect Social Security until he/she is a naturalized citizen. It is one thing that he/she wants to stay here forever, because the visa is only granted for 5-6 years. And by the way, to become a naturalized citizen it takes a long long long time.
Sad but true, is the situation of this country; the Microsoft's, the Apple's, the Google's of this country CANNOT FIND local talent that is cutthroat and to world standards. We as a country had that, no anymore.
We as a country (I hope we are not) giving out H1-B visa for strippers, because we have abundant local talent to satisfy that.
We as a nation have completely misunderstood the teachings of our forefathers. I'm sure they are turning in their graves that what has GREED done to our nation.
America, a population of 300 million which happens to be only 4-5% of the entire world, is the largest goods consuming nation - while the rest of the world is the producer of those goods.
I am sure someone, somewhere has done this economic analysis and seen this horror story we as a nation have created for ourselves.
nitute posted this link - check it out.
http://www.nfap.com/pdf/080311h1b.pdf
Whatever.
Let the marketplace decide. If this bill passes, MSFT, etc. better make it work. If not, they will face a far harsher judge than the posters here. The investors will not countenance the continued slipshod "management" that is currently begging for "talent".
You've been served notice.
I completely accept that you need the best. American companies should be allowed to source the very best in their fields - and there is no doubt that a star in that field will generate more jobs for American workers.
In practice though, H1Bs are hardly the "best". What you have in practice is a Microsoft saying "hmm.. it costs me $60 per hour to hire this american programmer - why not just go with a $50 H1-B. After all the technology is not that hard, and the H1-B will be much more desperate and will work 70 hours a week". Managers in most US companies love H1Bs - it is really invaluable to have those H1Bs who are willing to work long hours and cover up management errors in basic stuff like planning and estimating.
"Hiring the more desperate" would be closer to the truth.
During all of my student and professional life - I have always worked very hard if you measure it in the hours. I also believe I did (and continue to) work very hard when it comes to the intensity of my effort.
I am from a very economically disadvantaged region and community in India. I got pretty much two choices in life - either become a schoolmaster and earn $300/month (which is considered quite respectable where I come from), or become "desparate" (as you described) and try to compete for something better. I chose the second. Why are you holding that against me and others like me??
Well.. but you have reason in all the rest! Im glad to hear it... There should be Equality in hiring anyone who has the Best Skills, no matter where is that person from... that-s discrimination, and that-s not fair.
We as citizens have a right to protect our jobs and to protect our country from overpopulation. Companies would be wildly in favor of improving education if they could not skip that problem and go right to hiring those that will work for less. It is a lottery system for those that get to come here on an h1b. Would you want your income to be based on a lottery. If the best and brightest have to stay home, they will quickly figure out ways to make it better at home instead of leaving the problem behind.
h1b's don't fix the problems in American education.
h1b's rob developing economies of their best and brightest.
h1b's are a security risk in terms of allowing possible terrorists into the country, giving foreign nationals access to military secrets and making the US dependent on foreigners for help with defense. Being dependent on foreigners for defense has worked okay for the pope, for most others throughout history, that has not gone so well.
So far - all of these articles/testimonies/comments and videos I have seen suggesting this will not meet the qualification for well researched positions. The only good effort I noticed was from NumberUSA I think - but they started with the wrong data. They used the labor filing data to guess the wages of people instead of the actual wages. To tell you how ridiculous this is - my original H1 stated that I will get paid ~36,000/year. I actually earn a few times that amount. The numberUSA research used the $36,000/year and not my actual salary. As you can guess - the conclusions were way removed from reality.
It will be great if you could please point out one single well-done research/article which tells us that H1's are grossly underpaid.
It also is not about indentured labor. People on H1 can change jobs quite easily.
And there clearly is a shortage of qualified people.
My suggestion to you: go and get an education.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords floated this same proposal last year:
http://giffords.house.gov/press/press-releases/2007/07/High-TechVisaReformLegislation.shtml
If you read the article at the link, notice that she only talked to high-tech employERS and "executives": there's no mention of talking to any high-tech workers.
From the press release: ?More than 40 percent of H-1B visa workers possess graduate or doctorate degrees.? Even if this percentage is correct, then what about the other ~60%? Why would we need 78,000 (her proposed 130,000 x 60%) Bachelor?s degreed-only foreign workers flooding in to take low to mid-level computer programming and engineering jobs? These workers primarily just lower wages for the American workers doing the same thing... and now her cap on just these lower-level workers would exceed the previous 65,000 base cap!
Most of Rep. Lamar Smith's web site deals with his opposition to an ethics resolution!
Read the two papers at the following links to learn more about the H-1B visa program:
http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp187/bp187.pdf
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/PrevWage.pdf
Most of the Indians and other Asians speak English and college Educated.
There is enough Educated, English speaking people already in USA. What USA needs is lot of Uneducated spanish speaking Mexicans.
Excuse me Bill, but shouldn't the Gates Foundation should be educating American Kids.
- its all
- by mgilbo1 March 15, 2008 9:10 AM PDT
- crap. Gates just wants cheap labor. Indians come here, learn and go home in 5 years to bring any new tech with them. I don't blame India, I blame our gov't for believing Gates and his sad story.
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