Personally, being British, having looked at the sheer diversity of jobs in the US job market for software developers, the UK job market really doesn't seem that exciting.
The main issue with H1B is gross misuse of it by outsourcing companies like Infosys, Wipro and body shopping firms that pimp out low quality talent at higher rate and pocket the difference.
Just ban these companies from applying for H1B. For outsources, create a separate and temp visa category for them and tax them at higher rate or have increased fees whatever.
Increase penalty for these body shopping firms. Right now the risk associated with running a body shopping firm is so less that it makes business sense to flout all H1B regulations. USCIS is definitely getting better at cracking down but still lots need to be done.
I guess they forget a lot about immigrant entrepreneurs. I am currently trying to immigrate in the US, I have a working business in my home country with a few employees and I am applying to an entrepreneur Visa. But, OMG, the paperwork is so boring and huge, I don't understand why I have to go through this. It's already hard to create your business and to change your home country but to also have to be dealt like a * criminal or something, that's unfair.
Nothing like the CEO's of the top tech firms saying Americans are unfit for the job, lets bring in the younger cheaper labor. Still waiting to see the boatload of 35+ H1B's at top tier salaries to come in, since frankly there are no 35+ American developers ready to do the job. Free trade or we die. Hey Manufacturing, how lucky are you that NAFTA was passed 20 years ago?
I want to thank Ruchi for this testimony. Like Ruchi, I feel extremely fortunate to be able to work in US.
US will continue to be 'the' destination for engineers of all kind for many years to come. Right now, a sheer number of open engineering positions and superior pay alone are attracting qualified engineers around the world. But other countries around the world are closing the gap slowly. In order to continue the domination in attracting engineers, it would be in US's best interest to simplify immigration process for qualified engineers.
Couldn't agree more. But why does that have to be tied up with a bill to normalize illegal immigrants? I don't see a connection between the issues that isn't largely political.
I might be wrong here, but is not their reason to be strict on VISA so that they give better chance to actual Americans to try and land the jobs which would be normally be taken up by people coming in from outside US as students and staying back ?
Obviously this is something good for the millionaires and billionaires and heirs in the US, and bad for workers. Workers are in an economy which is still at a historically high unemployment rate that has not been seen since the summer of 1992, and before that 1984. In a profession with a mass of data of age discrimination over the age of 40, with plenty of able older programmers looking for work. With interviews where candidates with necessary programming experience and necessary language experience and even necessary API experience are nixed because they're not so familiar with the specific areas of the job required API that people need. Unemployment is at a historic high, and they want tens of thousands of more open jobs on the market to be whisked away. Means more unemployment, lower wages, longer hours.
There is no argument here, there is nothing to argue about. It is not like some scientific enquiry where scientists sit around and argue a matter all honest and searching for the truth. This is a struggle over how the pie is divided up. The heirs who provide the majority of money to VC funds and the public markets are the ones who created and wrote this legislation. It is for their benefit and against your benefit. If one makes "arguments" against this in this struggle over money, in this carving up of the pie, it all basically boils down to the statement "I am, or on the benefiting side of, the billionaires looking to profit off your labor". Those opposed are those doing the work like myself. There's no real arguments, just declarations of which side of the fight you're on.
As for maudlin, mawkish comments about the dreams of immigrants and the like - fine, we will keep the H1-B cap where it is, and make a lottery of all people who seek to immigrate, of any skill level, and let more people in that way. I'm sure immigration will mean more to some poor Guatemalan then some Indian IIT graduate who can live a decent life in India with his CS diploma. These mawkish comments about how the H1-B visa is for foreigners never mentions that these people making maudlin comments are blocking the poor people who could really benefit the most from immigration from immigrating. Some "humanitarian" move.
> It is for their benefit and against your benefit
Because immigrants just "take jobs" and add no value to the world, right? You can't think of any Americans who have become wealthy thanks to companies founded by immigrants?
> This is a struggle over how the pie is divided up.
This is economically illiterate. The economy is not "a pie", because it's not a zero sum game. The pie can grow, leaving more for everyone.
While you are correct that H-1B visa's benefit employers of tech workers, and harm American tech workers, you are wrong to claim that this means it is a matter of billionaires vs "workers".
Most of these companies are public, and therefore pay money to shareholders, and also pay taxes. The distribution of wealth is a separate issue, that could be dealt with by changes to the tax system.
Both sides on the H-1B debate come up with bad arguments for their cause, but the economics is very simple: labor is like any other commodity, and free trade is optimal, ignoring externalities. In this case the main externality is having a bunch of foreigners living in the US, and possibly staying: it's up to Americans how costly (or beneficial) they think this is.
[+] [-] lucian1900|13 years ago|reply
Vote with your feet, as the Americans say.
[+] [-] smiler|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hpagey|13 years ago|reply
Just ban these companies from applying for H1B. For outsources, create a separate and temp visa category for them and tax them at higher rate or have increased fees whatever.
Increase penalty for these body shopping firms. Right now the risk associated with running a body shopping firm is so less that it makes business sense to flout all H1B regulations. USCIS is definitely getting better at cracking down but still lots need to be done.
[+] [-] hartator|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zpk|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DanielRibeiro|13 years ago|reply
[1] https://twitter.com/RonConway/status/332334439084478464
[2] http://www.fwd.us/senate
[+] [-] jsnk|13 years ago|reply
US will continue to be 'the' destination for engineers of all kind for many years to come. Right now, a sheer number of open engineering positions and superior pay alone are attracting qualified engineers around the world. But other countries around the world are closing the gap slowly. In order to continue the domination in attracting engineers, it would be in US's best interest to simplify immigration process for qualified engineers.
[+] [-] twoodfin|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaseemabid|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xsuie|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CleanedStar|13 years ago|reply
There is no argument here, there is nothing to argue about. It is not like some scientific enquiry where scientists sit around and argue a matter all honest and searching for the truth. This is a struggle over how the pie is divided up. The heirs who provide the majority of money to VC funds and the public markets are the ones who created and wrote this legislation. It is for their benefit and against your benefit. If one makes "arguments" against this in this struggle over money, in this carving up of the pie, it all basically boils down to the statement "I am, or on the benefiting side of, the billionaires looking to profit off your labor". Those opposed are those doing the work like myself. There's no real arguments, just declarations of which side of the fight you're on.
As for maudlin, mawkish comments about the dreams of immigrants and the like - fine, we will keep the H1-B cap where it is, and make a lottery of all people who seek to immigrate, of any skill level, and let more people in that way. I'm sure immigration will mean more to some poor Guatemalan then some Indian IIT graduate who can live a decent life in India with his CS diploma. These mawkish comments about how the H1-B visa is for foreigners never mentions that these people making maudlin comments are blocking the poor people who could really benefit the most from immigration from immigrating. Some "humanitarian" move.
[+] [-] davidw|13 years ago|reply
Because immigrants just "take jobs" and add no value to the world, right? You can't think of any Americans who have become wealthy thanks to companies founded by immigrants?
> This is a struggle over how the pie is divided up.
This is economically illiterate. The economy is not "a pie", because it's not a zero sum game. The pie can grow, leaving more for everyone.
[+] [-] mc-lovin|13 years ago|reply
Most of these companies are public, and therefore pay money to shareholders, and also pay taxes. The distribution of wealth is a separate issue, that could be dealt with by changes to the tax system.
Both sides on the H-1B debate come up with bad arguments for their cause, but the economics is very simple: labor is like any other commodity, and free trade is optimal, ignoring externalities. In this case the main externality is having a bunch of foreigners living in the US, and possibly staying: it's up to Americans how costly (or beneficial) they think this is.