Posted on 03/31/2006 6:25:17 AM PST by adorno
"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."
Exactly. We have a winner here folks.
"it shoul've been "meritless"
Thank you. LOL.
"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."
Yes.
Actually, the H1-B is a dual intent visa. It is both an immigrant/non-immigrant visa. If you are on an H1-B, you can be sponsored for employment based permanent residency. And the visa can be extended past 6 years while your green card application is pending. In some ways, it acts like a filter. It gives the employer the oportunity to decide if they want to keep the H1-B employee permanently. If the employee on H1B has an advanced degree (i.e. PhD), there are immediate visa numbers available. It sounds like this guy could not get green card sponsorship. If he have over $1 million to invest in a business here that creates 10 jobs, he can immigrate just to open his business here.
Define "those jobs". Currently, it is relatively low level jobs being farmed out overseas. I see your point, though, but it is all about competition. Americans have to compete.
Would you really want vast vistas of textile mills here is the US or in China? The pollution that textile mills emit is unbelievable.
I'm not against legal immigration, and I do think it's a good idea to favor immigrants who bring with them special education, skills or abilities that would benefit our nation. But to say that the brightest and best in science and high-tech are immigrants, that without them, the U.S. couldn't compete -- I believe that is wrong.
No. the best and brightest are educated, quite often in American schools (see posts above, this has been stated) and return to their own countries as "brain capital". these kind of people do not take others jobs, they CREATE jobs. the economy is not a fixed entity where there are only a few jobs and lots of people. that may be a European vision but it is not an American one. As Pres. Reagan would say, {WE CAN DO BETTER AND DESERVE BETTER}. Shall we all agree to a goal of economic growth through free market capitalism making certain that our government doesnt get in the way with an archaic immigration policy? bring on all who can contribute. lets do what America does best.
As I've said on many other threads, H1B abuse seems to be empoyment-sector dependent. I agree that the IT sector seems to be the worst. In my own experience, in materials R&D, the H1B's are paid well above prevailing wage because of the uniqueness of their skills and the demand for those skills. We have looked to the U.S. for specific PhD research positions and had many responses, most of which were BSc or MSc's. There really is a need for more advanced degree scientists in the U.S., but again, it's also dependent on the specific area of research. Here, I'm talking about PhD experts in their fields. The best solution would be to further subdivide the H1B visa into employment specific sectors so one sector does not dominate the pool.
There are some 80 million Mexicans in Mexico, there are probably some 6-8 Million Mexican Illegal aliens. About 10% of Mexicans are in the USA illegally.
The next wave will be from Asia and there are Billions of those people.
I agree that it is good that these folks come to this country legally on H1B visas. A lot of the ones I've worked with are very bright, however their chief qualification is that they are willing to work at a much lower rate than most American workers. Big business contends that these people fill a void in skills that are not available from American workers. This program was somewhat useful in "the roaring nineties" when IT jobs went begging, but now it is just another subsidy for big, greedy corporations.
Not really. There are a lot of IT jobs that just don't pay enough for Americans to find acceptable.
That was my thought as well. Any argument that equates legal immigrants to illegal immigrants is lost.
Really ? Which jobs are those ?
I know one kid (21yo) who is still looking for an entry level computer technician job at any price. Let me know where these jobs are and I'll point him that way.
I hate the "won't do" argument. If people can't find workers, maybe it's because what you're offering is BS.
Of course "brain power" is not as much the issue as the population swifts older at the same time companies expand in a world wide market and needs more workers. It going to take a combintion of improving education, legal immagtion, and so called "outsourcing" to get the needed workers to meet the demands. If we do not expand legal immagtion, then the tilt towards outsourcing will be higher.
I don't agree that one necessarily follows the other, but we do need to increase legal immigration as long as it is done in a way to get the people we need to run our economy. We now take in one million people a year legally, which dwarfs the numbers of any other country in the world.
Legal immigration does have a multiplier effect. Once someone becomes legal, he/she can start bringing in their families. We also take people in for political asylum. We need to controlling the numbers and the kinds of immigrants so they can be assimilated. That is currently not the case.
There are jobs in IT all over the place. You have to go where they are, like geographical pockets in the banking industry
(North Carolina, for example) or other large enterprise networks such as manufacturers.
We're fighting a global battle for commerce, not a national one. That means employees AND employers in the US are competing with everyone. Keeping these people out is not going to help us win.
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