Fed limits on H-1B under fire
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., take aim at U.S. immigration policy at a Library of Congress panel discussion.
Credit: Declan McCullagh
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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., take aim at U.S. immigration policy at a Library of Congress panel discussion.
Credit: Declan McCullagh
spent here. Let them stay home to do the same work and our
dollars help their home economy. India is already home to the
equivilent of programming and tech support sweat shops
connected by telecommunications that make them seem as if
they are sitting in our own back yards. The visa limits don't
work.
say this is a technology issue? The rules on VISAS clearly state
that the company must show that there is nobody in the U.S.
who could perform the work.
With the number of IT employees out of work in the U.S. do they
really want us to believe they need to bring in more foreign
workers to be competitive? This is about paying lower salaries
for the same jobs.
Gates gets my vote for "Most likely to be pulling a fast one." yet
again.
I suspect MS's problem is that it's flat stock price has limited upside and it's image is tarnished in the tech world. When coupled with their low wage levels MS is finding trouble finding competent techies.
Rather than fixing the underlying problems they're instead trying to import people who don't know any better and who -- once they're here and learn -- can't quit without losing their visa.
However, this story features Democratic Party Senator, Patrick Leahy. He's advocating the H1B visa limits be abolished.
Wasn't it the Democratic Party that during the elections of 2004 was accusing the republicans of favoring outsourcing at the expense of the American people? Weren't they the party that was so concerned about job losses because of outsourcing?
Now that it's not an election year, is it okay to outsource jobs because the Anerican voter is not listening as closely?
Further, most of the jobs I have personally seen taken by H1-Bers were mundane jobs such as, build engineer, IT technician, junior programmers. Most that I have worked with possessed only a BS degree.
For the most part the design and management was done by US IT workers. And by design I mean everything from programming achitecture, user-interface, database structure... and so on.
The out-sourcing and H1B effect is to reduce the number of full-time starting positions. It does not create opportunity in the US.
Further it perpetuates a second myth, that the US is losing it's technological competitiveness.
Most IT work (programming, design, development) is learned on the job. This is evidenced by the large number of developers that do not possess Computer Science degrees or who have been in the business since before the widespread adoption of modern programming techniques (Object Oriented Programming, IDE's and alike).
For the most part what I read in the press seems to be based lobbyist hype. Lobbyist hype that is geared toward fooling Congress into thinking we need more IT workers.
Although it is possible for H1-b worker to switch jobs. I have never seen an H1-ber do this. I have worked with about 100+ h1b workers in the last 10 years, not 1 ever switched. At the same time I have seen about half my US co-workers switch jobs.
- Unbelievable
- by August 7, 2005 1:17 PM PDT
- I can't believe that these people can go up to the world, keep a straight face and spout this garbage about the lack of a qualified American workforce. I mean when is our governemnt EVER going to get it that there is NO SHORTAGE of SKILLED LABOR, just a SHORTAGE OF CHEAP LABOR?
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(13 Comments)Didn't the crash of 2000-2001 and the loss of millions of Americal tech jobs teach these money hungry hogs a lesson?