Posted on 12/21/2006 5:56:27 AM PST by A. Pole
The technology industry has dispatched its wallet-filled lobbyists to demand that the new Congress vastly increase the number of foreign computer software techies and engineers who can be imported on H-1B visas. This demand is based on the claim that we suffer a labor shortage in those fields, but that's a bare-faced lie to erect a smokescreen around the real reasons.
Three reasons motivate the tech giants to use their political clout and PAC contributions to increase H-1Bs. (a) Cost-cutting: H-1Bers are paid much less than Americans. (b) The influx of H-1Bers depresses the "prevailing wage" for all computer techies and engineers.
(c) The hiring of H-1Bers prevents potential competition from Americans who might resign to work for other firms or start companies of their own. H-1B visas are not for entrepreneurs or executives, but are for employees who are tied to the company that imports them (much like indentured servants) and are supposed to depart from the United States after a few years.
A technology industry coalition called Compete America gathered at Stanford University in November for a TechNet Innovation Summit, but the goal wasn't innovation. This Coalition, backed by Microsoft, Intel and other computer giants, has sent a letter to every Member of Congress calling for more H-1B visas so businesses can bring in Indian, Pakistani and Chinese engineers to take U.S. jobs.
H-1Bers cut industry costs but do nothing to improve innovation. Most innovators are Americans, and the successful immigrant entrepreneurs the industry brags about did not come here as guest-workers on H-1B visas, but entered as children and were educated in U.S. universities.
Current law allows industry to bring in 85,000 H-1B visas a year, but industry lobbyists seek to double or triple the number. They would really like the Cornyn-Shadegg SKIL bill (known to engineers as the KILL bill), which could import 1.5 million underpaid H-1B workers by 2013.
The computer giants have laid down the gauntlet: If Congress doesn't give them more H-1Bs, they will just outsource the jobs. "Outsourcing is the perfect argument for increasing the numbers" of H-1Bs, said a Compete America spokesman.
But if it's really better to outsource, there is no need for H-1Bs. Nobel economist Milton Friedman labeled H-1Bs a government "subsidy" to enable employers to get workers at a lower wage.
America has more than enough U.S. engineers. After the dot com bust in 2000, Silicon Valley lost about 100,000 engineering jobs, and many of those who lost out are unemployed or underemployed or have taken jobs in other industries.
Research by Professor Norman Matloff of the University of California/Davis confirms that there is no shortage of U.S. engineers or computer techies. If there were a shortage, salaries would be going up, but starting salaries for bachelor's degree graduates in computer science and electrical engineering, adjusted for inflation, are flat or falling.
A major study made by the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University also found that there is no shortage of U.S. engineers. Eighty percent of respondents to a Pratt survey say U.S. engineering jobs are filled within 4 months, and 88 percent didn't offer signing bonuses.
Many companies hire student engineers from India and China with only 2 or 3 years of college and then train them in their own facilities. U.S. students with 2 or 3 years of college get no job offers.
Much of the Compete America discussion involved blaming the U.S. educational system and the fact that fewer U.S. students are going into math and computer sciences. Yes, U.S. students have figured out that our engineers have a bleak future of unemployment and lower remuneration because of insourcing foreigners and outsourcing plants.
The Compete America globalists are not interested in preserving America as the greatest nation and economy in the world, or in protecting American industry or jobs or universities or national security. They rejoice in economic redistribution from rich and prosperous nations to other countries around the world.
Bill Gates spoke for the globalists: "The United States has been spoiled by being a global leader for so long that there may be an adjustment. We've got to get used to the fact that our relative share of everything — our ability to exercise unilateral decisionmaking, military power, and economic power — won't be as out of line with our 5 percent share of world population as it is today."
Anyone who rejoices that the United States is losing its preeminence and distributing our wealth around the rest of the world must have lost all appreciation for the Yankee ingenuity essential to our prosperity. H-1Bs are a form of servitude that offends the free enterprise that made us the economic leader of the world.
I wrote my Senator JOHN CORNYN a few weeks agao and told him that I was laid off in 2003 while that company retained the H-1B visa workers and that I was against an increase. Here is what that jackass replied:
Dear Mr. XXX:
Thank you for contacting me about the Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership Act of 2006 (S. 2961). I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this matter.
Innovation is crucial to our growing economy. By investing in science and technology, we encourage innovation, thus energizing our economy. Groundbreaking ideas generated by innovation pay great dividends and improve the lives of Americans.
As the Senate continues its immigration debate, it is important to recognize that any comprehensive approach to reform will address the need for America to remain competitive in a global economy. The United States currently does not produce enough engineers to encourage healthy levels of innovation. China graduates four times as many engineers as the U.S., and within a few years approximately 90 percent of all scientists and engineers in the world will be living and working in Asia. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that between 2002 and 2012 there will be 2 million job openings in the U.S. in the fields of computer science, mathematics, engineering and the physical sciences. For the time being, foreign students are filling the United States' unmet need in these critical areas. But our current immigration policy – not our economy – forces them to return home because the U.S. does not offer enough high-tech work visas for them to continue to work in the United States and to encourage the innovation vital to economic growth.
Sound policy starts with retaining the foreign students who are educated here in the United States. S. 2961 would retain U.S.-educated students and use a market-based approach to promote competitiveness. This bill exempts from the annual H-1B cap any professional who has earned an advanced degree from an accredited U.S. university. It also exempts from the annual green card cap any U.S.-educated worker with an advanced degree. The bill raises the H-1B (specialty occupation) cap and creates a flexible system that adjusts with the market, preserving unused visas for the following year and treating immigrant visas (i.e. green card) the same way.
I introduced S. 2961 on May 2, 2006, and it was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee—of which I am a member—for further consideration. I appreciate having the opportunity to represent the interests of Texans in the United States, and you may be certain that I will keep your views in mind as I discuss S. 2961 and other relevant legislation with my Senate colleagues. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.
Sincerely,
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator
517 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-2934
Fax: (202) 228-2856
http://www.cornyn.senate.gov
This statement lept out at me. Am I supposed to be surprised that it's harder to find a job if one does not have a four-year degree?
Labor arbitrage bump
I hope the free trade nazis are happy.
What does that make someone who uses such a term, a "protectionist bolshevik?"
It was harder, but it's only been the past couple of years that it's been impossible.
Back in the days of wide-open immigration, it was illegal for companies to hire workers before they arrived in the US, to prevent people from being tricked into exploitative arrangements (given that the typical would-be immigrant would be unfamiliar with the economic realities in America). Immigrants were asked on arrival if they already had a job lined up and had to say "no."
**Yes, U.S. students have figured out that our engineers have a bleak future of unemployment and lower remuneration because of insourcing foreigners and outsourcing plants**
As someone put it the other day, "The high tech industry is eating their seed corn".
This is exactly what is happening.
Don't bother.
Cornyn is bought and paid for.
And yet the highest salaries for a four-year degree in the U.S. are paid to engineers (of most types). I'm growing tired of pointing it out.
This statement lept out at me. Am I supposed to be surprised that it's harder to find a job if one does not have a four-year degree?
You left out the context. Here is the whole paragraph
Many companies hire student engineers from India and China with only 2 or 3 years of college and then train them in their own facilities. U.S. students with 2 or 3 years of college get no job offers.
It is not about 4 year degrees. It is about the origin of the employee. Foreigners with 2 or 3 years of college good, US students bad.
Once upon a time, before employers could send to India for engineers, students were recruited before graduating. Many left school to work and completed school later, sometimes at their employers expense.
Private industry also teamed up with high schools and colleges to create programs to train students to provide themselves with a workforce with required skills.
And before that, we threw a bunch of tea into Boston Harbor. Why was that, again?
I'm not against trade, but any policy that results in the wholesale exporting of our best talent and our industrial base constitutes national suicide. A nation without industry or talent is incapable of defending itself.
Because the tea had been picked by non-union workers?
troll alert
**And yet the highest salaries for a four-year degree in the U.S. are paid to engineers (of most types).**
That USED to be the case. I do not believe that is true anymore, although I suspect that in some cases it still is.
I personally think we ought to bring in a lot of C7-Z visas from China and India. We have a severe shortage of well educated commodity traders. It's a crisis that threatens the fabric of our society!!!!!
That is a point that many here refuse to address, and a very valid one.
I guess our next generation of weapons systems will be designed here by Chinese and Indian engineers, and built in factories in China for 50 cents/hour.
But it's OK. After all, the most important thing is PROFITS.
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