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Another Wave of H-1Bs on the Way

businessweek.com — Amid rising joblessness, does America need more 'skilled' foreign workers?

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  • dolphus, on 04/01/2008, -3/+9Meanwhile, the comments on the page contain three pro-H1B comments about India, and none from U.S. citizen tech workers. And, at:
    http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/110_HR_5 ...
    It's the same, one neutral comment and three grammatically incorrect comments in support of the issue. American tech workers need to act now. Everyone else is.
    • palmer, on 04/02/2008, -1/+4This entire issue is a smokescreen and a fraud. THE H-1B POPULATION IS TINY COMPARED TO THE JOBS U.S. COMPANIES HAVE SHIPPED OFFSHORE. But heaven forbid we tackle that truly significant problem, when it's easy to fiddle with quotas and pat yourself on the back one way or the other. But nobody wants to take action to solve the REAL problem.
      Talk about wallowing in cowardice while pretending to care. HALLIBURTON MOVED OVERSEAS TO AVOID TAXES. What did we do about that? Do you see that in the papers anymore? NO.
      • stretch611, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1You're correct; However, in many cases they use H1B's to learn systems as a prelude to offshoring them. Or companies use H1B's as a liaison offshored teams. The problem is companies are using lower paid workers or workers that they can exploit to suppress wages.
  • jboitnott, on 04/01/2008, -5/+3good story here. I think I need one of those Visas.
  • alexolah, on 04/01/2008, -5/+4Maybe is a good idea to check twice before offering these visas. It's frustrating to be an American citizen and remain unemployed while many jobs are occupied by foreign workers. Or, maybe those citizens don't REALLY want to work...
  • pentupentropy, on 04/01/2008, -5/+3I can't seem to get hired by anyone either way I've had people tell me they didn't need to give me technical interviews because I knew that much more than them and still not gotten the job. We need a job for me, then I don't care who has what job.
  • stretch611, on 04/01/2008, -3/+6Time to call our reps in congress. Hopefully enough people will be outraged to make them forget about the lobbyist money that the companies are offering to get the cap increased.
  • InfamousAtheist, on 04/01/2008, -7/+8Restricting H1-B visas harms competition, which subsequently harms innovation and technology industries. Any libertarian-thinker should know this. Techdirt does a much better job of summarizing it than I do:
    http://www.techdirt.com/blog.php?tag=h1-b+visas
    • wynja, on 04/01/2008, -4/+3No, a libertarian would argue for a raise in the green card cap not a raise in the cap of uncompetitive H1-B visas. Considering H1-B visas are used to treat employees like slaves, since the company can fire them and have these individuals deported.
  • dolphus, on 04/01/2008, -0/+2There are lots of ways to keep tabs on the bill and contact your reps in congress on the web. For a summary see:
    http://digg.com/tech_news/H_R_5642_Proposes_to_Dou ...
  • Ell3, on 04/01/2008, -9/+6Considering that American cities are producing mostly idiots, I would say "yes", America needs more 'skilled' foreign workers.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344190,00.html
    • gravityboard, on 04/02/2008, -0/+3...says the guy who links to fox news...
    • gravityboard, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1sorry, girl. fox still sucks though.
  • sgiffy, on 04/01/2008, -4/+5Yes, becasue most of the unemployed in this country are unskilled. Not to mention that our unemployment rate is still quite low.
  • wynja, on 04/01/2008, -1/+14There is no tech shortage in this country. I work in the IT field. The problem we have is employers not willing to pay competitive wages and therefore not receiving competent applicants.
  • DogWithHiv, on 04/01/2008, -9/+2Hey guys, I'm not Ameican. Is Ron Paul president yet?
  • PATSCRU, on 04/02/2008, -2/+7I think the real issue here is the decline of math and science proficiency amongst american students. While we're here debating evolution, other countries are churning out skilled workers to fill our proficiency gap.
  • amdahlj, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1Yes. It's a non-issue that gains traction mainly because people don't understand basic principles of economics. Attempts to treat economics as a zero-sum game result only worse outcomes.
  • swordedge, on 04/02/2008, -0/+4There are plenty of American workers that can do the job. HR can't find them because it's been years since they actually read a resume. They are called search engine jockeys.
    • stretch611, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2You got that right. In the past I have been turned down for development jobs because I did not have SQL Server experience even though I have had 14 years of generic SQL experience including Oracle, DB2, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Finally, last year I got my first job with SQL Server; I learned most of the differences I needed to know as a developer in under 5 hours.
      Nobody wants to provide even the most basic on the job training. So many skills easily transfer over into different skillsets. If they do not match the requirements exactly, they ignore you.
  • mystarhill, on 04/02/2008, -1/+0america might not need foreign workers, but they should ask their citizens to do work... even though it is low income..
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