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Immigrant brain drain in Silicon Valley
MSNBC ^ | March 30, 2006 | George Lewis, NBC News

Posted on 03/31/2006 6:25:17 AM PST by adorno

In California's Silicon Valley, the superstars of the high-tech industry are all immigrants:

* Pierre Omidyar, born in France, founded eBay * Andrew Grove, born in Hungary, helped start Intel * Sergey Brin, from Russia, co-founded Google

Siva Singaram, from India, would like to follow in their footsteps.

"Currently I've got an idea for a startup company," says Singaram. "It's in the field of Internet advertising."

But because he has no green card, he'll have to return to India to start his company. Singaram and his wife Sangeetha, expecting a baby in May, are here on temporary skilled workers visas. By law, only 65,000 people a year can get those visas and it's difficult for them to become permanent residents.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: h1bvisa; immigration; india
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My question is: If these people are so talented, why do they need to be in the U.S. to start their dream business? Wouldn't their respective countries be better off having those people start businesses in their native countries? India, as an example, has a huge IT sector and I'm sure would be willing to welcome those 'entrepreneurs".

Mething that some of their complaints are retitless and more than likely are just looking for excuses for staying in the U.S.

1 posted on 03/31/2006 6:25:19 AM PST by adorno
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To: adorno

OK - let us keep 12 million illegals in case one of them has a good idea and starts a business...


2 posted on 03/31/2006 6:26:23 AM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - They want to die for Islam, and we want to kill them.)
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To: adorno
"It's in the field of Internet advertising."

Perhaps he should be deported really soon...
3 posted on 03/31/2006 6:27:16 AM PST by P-40 (http://www.590klbj.com/forum/index.php?referrerid=1854)
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To: adorno

India has lots of IT folks, but generally in my experience their calibre is far lower that most US engineers. I have met some that are amazing.. but most are just bit pushers that will never be more than individual contributors.


4 posted on 03/31/2006 6:29:44 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: adorno
But because he has no green card, he'll have to return to India to start his company

darn

5 posted on 03/31/2006 6:29:53 AM PST by jjw
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To: adorno

H1-B visas are supposed to be temporary. I don't see the problem.


6 posted on 03/31/2006 6:31:13 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: adorno

The legal immmigrants working in Silicon Valley in the technical sector are quite different from those streaming in from Mexico. How many high-tech jobs are held by illegial immigrants from Mexico? Yeah, that's what I thought. None.


7 posted on 03/31/2006 6:33:01 AM PST by TommyDale
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To: adorno

Mething = methinks


8 posted on 03/31/2006 6:33:02 AM PST by adorno
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To: adorno
* Pierre Omidyar, born in France, founded eBay * Andrew Grove, born in Hungary, helped start Intel * Sergey Brin, from Russia, co-founded Google, Juan Garcia (an illegal) published "Gardening for Dummies".
9 posted on 03/31/2006 6:34:04 AM PST by umgud (12 gauge, the original pepper spray)
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To: adorno

Perhaps if we did not have 20 to 25 million illegals here we could allow more illegal immigrants.


10 posted on 03/31/2006 6:34:10 AM PST by jpsb
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To: adorno
"Currently I've got an idea for a startup company," says Singaram. "It's in the field of Internet advertising."

Gee, what a unique idea...
what would the internet be like without advertising?

11 posted on 03/31/2006 6:34:24 AM PST by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!!)
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To: adorno

He could always just stay here. It's not like the ICE is gonna knock on his door tomorrow or the next day or the next decade.........or century...........


12 posted on 03/31/2006 6:34:28 AM PST by Red Badger (I must not fear.Fear is the mind-killer.Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.....)
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To: adorno

Maybe because we have a free market in this country and a higher standard of living?


13 posted on 03/31/2006 6:34:59 AM PST by Clemenza (I Just Wasn't Made for These Times)
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To: Clemenza

bttt


14 posted on 03/31/2006 6:35:17 AM PST by Clemenza (I Just Wasn't Made for These Times)
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To: adorno
But because he has no green card, he'll have to return to India to start his company.

Oh, boo hoo! I suspect most Americans are willing to forego his "genius."

15 posted on 03/31/2006 6:35:22 AM PST by IronJack
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To: adorno
In California's Silicon Valley, the superstars of the high-tech industry are all immigrants

Really? There are no American high-tech superstars? What about Steve Jobs? Bill Gates? Are they the only two? I find that hard to believe.

16 posted on 03/31/2006 6:35:27 AM PST by Chanticleer (Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready. T. Roosevelt)
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To: Red Badger

The Indian guys are usually very law-abiding. If they are no longer allowed to stay, then they leave.

Maybe that's why we should let more in. We already have enough law-breakers, how about a few law-obeyers?


17 posted on 03/31/2006 6:37:01 AM PST by proxy_user
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To: antiRepublicrat

I don't see why Bush is pushing the Guest Worker program so hard. We already have one - it's called the H1B program. The problem is that it keeps getting expanded and I've never seen any of these people ever go home. They stay permanently!


18 posted on 03/31/2006 6:37:21 AM PST by The Sons of Liberty (Former SAC Trained Killer)
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To: adorno
i am glad you posted this article.

i have been wanting to start a discussion about revamping the immigration policy from the current lottery system to one which gives preference to English speaking people from anywhere who have credentials in the higher sciences and mathematics.

I would go so far as to encourage companies to put together wish lists for people with particular skill sets in medicine and sciences and try to match them up with candidates(ala recruitment) overseas with promises of an accelerated naturalization system to those qualifying.

this is the basic idea with the reason being that the US should be dominant in all areas of scientific and medical advancement. to do this, we should bring the best the rest of the countries have here and let the capitalist system do what it does best.

19 posted on 03/31/2006 6:37:54 AM PST by APRPEH (You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.)
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To: proxy_user

He could always open a 7-11 store.......


20 posted on 03/31/2006 6:38:33 AM PST by Red Badger (I must not fear.Fear is the mind-killer.Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.....)
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To: antiRepublicrat
H1-B visas are supposed to be temporary. I don't see the problem.

Thst's exactly what they're lamenting, that the Visas only allow them to stay in the U.S. on a temporary basis. Most of them won't have any great ideas and will just be another member of a staff, but some of them are lamenting the fact that they'll have to return home to start the "next geeat killer app"? If they do have the next great business, why can't they take their talent back home and do it there? The people in their respective countries, I'm sure, would be appreciative of a new business that creates jobs.
21 posted on 03/31/2006 6:39:42 AM PST by adorno
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To: adorno

The story is nothing but pro-immigration propaganda. For every immigrant who is successful there are dozens of Americans that are just as or more successful. This story comes from MSNBC a liberal MSM organ that constantly attempts to brainwash the American public to believe in the left wing liberal agenda.The news bureau of NBC the parent company is loaded with journalists who are 80% liberal. Need I say more.


22 posted on 03/31/2006 6:41:53 AM PST by Courdeleon02
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To: APRPEH

No problem - just as long as American companies who employ them pay them the same salary as Americans, and that those companies then don't get to lay off equivalent workers over age 40.

I've seen a lot of that.


23 posted on 03/31/2006 6:42:11 AM PST by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: Red Badger


"Ahhhh...do you want a slurpee?"

is as infamous as

"Tu tienes fries con su hamburgeuse?"


24 posted on 03/31/2006 6:42:47 AM PST by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis. American gals are worth fighting for!")
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To: TommyDale
The legal immmigrants working in Silicon Valley in the technical sector are quite different from those streaming in from Mexico. How many high-tech jobs are held by illegial immigrants from Mexico? Yeah, that's what I thought. None.

True. But...

If 65,000 H1B Visas are issued annually, don't you think that a lot of American IT professionals would be displaced by many of those foreign IT workers?
25 posted on 03/31/2006 6:44:24 AM PST by adorno
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To: adorno
My question is: If these people are so talented, why do they need to be in the U.S. to start their dream business? Wouldn't their respective countries be better off having those people start businesses in their native countries? India, as an example, has a huge IT sector and I'm sure would be willing to welcome those 'entrepreneurs".

Because the US is on the cutting edge of technology and offers the best enviroment for entrepreneurs. Certainly, their home countries would be better off if they stayed home, but that would hurt the US.

The US has been the world's biggest beneticiary of the "brain drain." Our graduate schools in the hard sciences are dominated by foreigners. We need skilled, edcuated people, which is why we are constantly increasing the H1B visa levels. Our primary and secondary education systems are not giving us the people we need to run our ecomony.

I would much rather see us have a controlled immigration program that gives us the kinds of people we need to compete in the global economy. The current flood of ill-educated, unskilled Mexicans streaming across our borders in unprecedented numbers is exactly what we don't need.

Mething that some of their complaints are retitless and more than likely are just looking for excuses for staying in the U.S.

These are the kinds of people we should find excuses to keep them staying here.

26 posted on 03/31/2006 6:44:35 AM PST by kabar
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To: antiRepublicrat

"H1-B visas are supposed to be temporary. I don't see the problem."

That's weird. I know H1b's that have been here for years. They were brought in to replace older American techs that were laid off in a "right-sizing".


27 posted on 03/31/2006 6:45:34 AM PST by dljordan
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To: in hoc signo vinces

I know Paks open up motels and Indians open up 7-11's. So is that why motels never have 7-11's next door?........


28 posted on 03/31/2006 6:46:13 AM PST by Red Badger (I must not fear.Fear is the mind-killer.Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.....)
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To: adorno; Michael Goldsberry; aberaussie
Hi-Tech Americans ping

In California's Silicon Valley, the superstars of the high-tech industry are all immigrants

Do you think this statement is true?

29 posted on 03/31/2006 6:48:22 AM PST by Chanticleer (Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready. T. Roosevelt)
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To: adorno

why don't they just run across the Mexican border?


30 posted on 03/31/2006 6:49:13 AM PST by bella1
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To: Clemenza
Maybe because we have a free market in this country and a higher standard of living?

No doubt!

But, when they originally applied for the visa, they knew that it would be for a temporaty stay, and with a company that also understood that, that foreign worker was temporary.
31 posted on 03/31/2006 6:49:21 AM PST by adorno
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To: adorno

A sizable chunk of the science and engineering doctorates went to non-U.S. citizens, according to the NSF. Of 23,152 doctorates awarded to students whose citizenship was known, 8,839 went to non-U.S. citizens. In engineering alone, foreign-born persons receiving doctoral degrees last year represented more than 60 percent of the total, according to the NSF. Between 1993 and 2002, foreign citizens earned just more than 57 percent of all engineering doctorates, the NSF said.


32 posted on 03/31/2006 6:49:29 AM PST by kabar
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To: 2banana

While I realize your comment is meant to be sarcasm, these great ideas and new companies were started by LEGAL immigrants.


33 posted on 03/31/2006 6:51:01 AM PST by WashingtonSource (Freedom is not free.)
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To: Red Badger
I know Paks open up motels and Indians open up 7-11's. So is that why motels never have 7-11's next door?........

The ongoing Indian Pakistan conflict has it's roots in New York believe it or not - it all started when a cabbie smashed his cab into a 7-11.

34 posted on 03/31/2006 6:53:06 AM PST by ExpatCanuck
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To: TommyDale

Give the Mexicans another generation or two here and things will improve. Same thing happened with the Cubans in So. Fla. They made Miami what it is today.


35 posted on 03/31/2006 6:53:22 AM PST by mlc9852
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To: adorno

Because America has the investors to fund these companies, the talent to make these companies, and the businesses to sell these companies services to. You've got a better chance of your startup company making you rich in America than in India.


36 posted on 03/31/2006 6:56:32 AM PST by discostu (raise your glass of beer on high, and seal your fate forever)
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To: cinives
No problem - just as long as American companies who employ them pay them the same salary as Americans, and that those companies then don't get to lay off equivalent workers over age 40.

Ditto!

I'v'e seen a lot of that myself.

Indian and Chinese H1B visa holders who were recruited at a lower wage, and, soon thereafter, some of my fellow workers got layoffs while the Indians and Chinese remained to do their work (after having been trained by the same people who got laid off).
37 posted on 03/31/2006 6:57:38 AM PST by adorno
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To: dljordan

Why do we even have an H1B visa program when kids getting out of college today with computer science degrees can't find jobs. Yet Bush says we need more graduates with science and tech degrees. Is he out of touch. A little, you think. I also know many of my friends in the computer and tech fields who lost their jobs and could not find similar work and then had to leave the field.Its ridiculous!


38 posted on 03/31/2006 6:57:55 AM PST by Courdeleon02
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To: kabar

If it's true that our graduate schools in the hard sciences are dominated by foreigners, then that's at best a shame, at worst a danger. Where will their loyalties lie? How many leaders in history were educated in one country, only to return to their homeland and become adversaries of the country which gave them their education? Maybe we should concentrate on educating our children and encouraging them to aim for excellence in science and technology and stop relying on foreigners to fill in the gaps.


39 posted on 03/31/2006 6:58:21 AM PST by Chanticleer (Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready. T. Roosevelt)
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To: adorno
"Mething = methinks"

Okay. Got that. But what is "retitless?"
The only derivation I can think of is impossible.
Even with surgery.

Is it a dirty joke?
40 posted on 03/31/2006 6:59:29 AM PST by righttackle44 (The most dangerous weapon in the world is a Marine with his rifle and the American people behind him)
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To: adorno

Where you can e-mail comments to the whicomments@whitehouse.gov


41 posted on 03/31/2006 7:00:17 AM PST by jetson (throne)
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To: Chanticleer

My point exactly. There are plenty of bright American kids who are interested in science. And yes, I know this from first hand experience in education.
Why are we recruiting people from overseas, and not giving American kids with good GPAs who have an interest in s&t a low cost education and the chance at a good job?
I call bs on this.


42 posted on 03/31/2006 7:04:54 AM PST by bordergal
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To: righttackle44
Okay. Got that. But what is "retitless?" The only derivation I can think of is impossible. Even with surgery.

Is it a dirty joke?


Not a dirty joke, but maybe I'll turn it into part of the language. Just have to think of a meaning for the word and use it in a sentence.



But, I'm sorry I missed that in my original post:

it shoul've been "meritless"
43 posted on 03/31/2006 7:10:14 AM PST by adorno
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To: adorno

We'll start seeing these pro-illegal articles a lot over the next couple of weeks


44 posted on 03/31/2006 7:11:53 AM PST by zeugma (Anybody who says XP is more secure than OS X or Linux has been licking toads.)
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To: Courdeleon02
Why do we even have an H1B visa program when kids getting out of college today with computer science degrees can't find jobs. Yet Bush says we need more graduates with science and tech degrees. Is he out of touch. A little, you think. I also know many of my friends in the computer and tech fields who lost their jobs and could not find similar work and then had to leave the field.Its ridiculous!

Exactly right!

My son was attending college with a computer engineering major. After veviewing the prospects for computer science graduates, he decided to change his major. Too bad because, even if it's my opinion, he would've done great in the field.
45 posted on 03/31/2006 7:16:10 AM PST by adorno
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To: bordergal

I think there is a myth in our society that the brightest and best students don't need to worry about the costs of their education because of scholarships... but this simply isn't the case. If you don't play football or some other profitable sport and/or aren't a minority, most schools won't give full scholarships. I heard that tuition at Duke University is now over $40K per year.... Even at half-tuition, that will prevent many American kids from attending. That doesn't mean that our kids won't be able to compete. Most state institutions are affordable and many are excellent. But it does limit their options.


46 posted on 03/31/2006 7:19:40 AM PST by Chanticleer (Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready. T. Roosevelt)
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To: Courdeleon02
Why do we even have an H1B visa program when kids getting out of college today with computer science degrees can't find jobs.

Maybe because kids "getting out of college today" are more skilled at raving, chuggalugging and spring-breaking than computer science.

47 posted on 03/31/2006 7:20:00 AM PST by Lekker 1 ("Computers in the future may have only 1000 vacuum tubes..." - Popular Mechanics, March 1949)
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To: Lekker 1

I don't think the tech/science geeks are the raving types -- at least they weren't in my day. Our idea of a wild party weekend was a science fiction convention or a weekend of Dungeons and Dragons!


48 posted on 03/31/2006 7:22:16 AM PST by Chanticleer (Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready. T. Roosevelt)
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To: The Sons of Liberty

"I don't see why Bush is pushing the Guest Worker program so hard. We already have one - it's called the H1B program. The problem is that it keeps getting expanded and I've never seen any of these people ever go home. They stay permanently!"

Good! Jeesh, you hear so many people on this forum whine about jobs getting exported to India. Stop and think. We've got the best and brightest from some of these countries coming here and helping our economy. We need to expand this program and keep these people here. This is unlike the illegal criminals coming over the border.


49 posted on 03/31/2006 7:23:03 AM PST by cowtowney
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To: mlc9852
the Cubans in So. Fla. They made Miami what it is today.

Generally, the Cubans who came into the US had a higher education level and more skills. They had the ability and means to flee Cuba and leave the peasants behind. Most of the Mexcians who are coming here don't have the education or skills.

The Mexicans are coming in far greater numbers. It is unprecedented making it difficult for us to assimilate them. Based on census figures, California has 8.8 million foreign born citizens (in a population of approx 34 million in 2000). This represented an increase of 2.4 million since 1990. The number of Mexican-born in 2000 was 3.9 million compared to 2.4 million in 1990. Given the census methodolgy, I think these figures are grossly understated.

In a state like North Carolina, the number of Mexican born residents has risen from 8,751 in 1990 to 179,236 in 2000. In Arizona it has gone to 435,001 from 150,606 in 1990. 30 of the 50 states now have Mexican-born residents as the biggest portion of their foreign born population compared to 18 in 1990. What we are witnessing is an invasion, which is gathering in size and breadth.

And this doesn't include the numbers coming from the Carribean and Central America. El Salvador (Virginia, Maryland, and DC) and the DR (New York) have the largest representation in three states and DC. The DR popultion of NY has almost doubled in 10 years to 415,000.

50 posted on 03/31/2006 7:23:59 AM PST by kabar
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