Posted on 02/02/2009 3:53:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
For the two out-of-work engineers, it's a race against time. They've lost their Silicon Valley jobs and need to quickly find others at a time when companies everywhere are tightening their belts.
Both are Indians whose advanced degrees were earned at American universities. And both are facing the inflexible rules of their H-1B work visas.
Technically, as soon as they lost their jobs, they were required to leave the country. In reality, they can probably wing it for a week or two, but not much longer.
This stark dilemma is being repeated with increasing frequency across SiliconValley, according to immigration specialists, as companies downsize to weather a punishing downturn. It's a small number compared with the layoffs of H-1B visa holders during the dot-com crash. But the downturn has sent a wave of concern through the community of immigrant workers who hold the visa, which companies use to hire skilled noncitizens.
Though there is no official tally of visa holders who have been laid off, "It's happening every day," said SanJose immigration lawyer Indu Liladhar-Hathi.
"If they don't have work, they're in trouble," said Gabriel Jack, also a San Jose immigration lawyer. "They've got to get out" of the country, he said. "That's the toughest part about being an H-1B."
The H-1B program was forged in 1990 in a tug-of-war between labor, which has tried to limit its use in favor of American workers, and business, which would
like to see it expanded beyond the 65,000 visas currently allowed each year. For American companies it plays at least two roles — as a pool of workers furnished by contracting firms, and as a means of hiring the smaller number of foreign students with advanced degrees from American universities. In technology, H-1B visa holders must have at least a college degree.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
The San Jose Mercury News can kiss my @$$. This year again, 65,000 H1Bs will take jobs away from Americans. That just sucks.
“The San Jose Mercury News can kiss my @$$. This year again, 65,000 H1Bs will take jobs away from Americans. That just sucks.”
Not counting the other visas. Go here and read the motto at the top of the page: http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/. Thats the attitude of our government.
“Technically, as soon as they lost their jobs, they were required to leave the country. In reality, they can probably wing it for a week or two, but not much longer.”
That’s as far as I could read.
A week or two? There are over 4 MILLION visa overstays wandering the United states that they can’t/won’t find.
The odds that more than 5% will return to India, Pakistan or whatever Turd World they came from is ZERO... And, the silly leftist “Murky News” KNOWS this.
They will join the 10s of millions of illegal aliens in America - and join the lines at our Kalifornicate welfare offices where our State Employees are forbidden to ascertain their legal residency status....
We have become a nation dedicated to insanity and suicide...
Our bankrupt state will most likely respond to the financial problem by cutting back ONLY on those services the taxpayer MUST HAVE -— Police, Fire, etc.....
In private industry — LAYOFFS, SALARY CUTS, BENEFIT CUTS and across the board BUDGET REDUCTIONS equal to the short fall would be implemented by the better managed firms.
But- this is unacceptable for our anointed unionized “civil servants”...
It could resolve the problem in two weeks as “Military Governor” under Martial Law... Which is probably where the coming riots will lead us.
Boo-Hoo, ya breakin my heart Mr. Habib, Mr. Sanjay and Mr. Fritz. Quite frankly, once the layoffs start, it should be the H-1B visa workers who go first.
MicroSoft and kiss my butt as well. At my former company in Omaha, an IT person (straight out of college or with some experience) could get 30k-40k easy, but the H-1B’s have driven that down to the mid-20’s. In some places, it’s as bad ad $11-$12 per hour!!! After a few years, the “old-timers” (making 50k to 60k) found themselves “downsized” and replaced by cheap foreign workers making 25k.
The H1B is meant to be for a temporary assignment.
I’ve worked jobs overseas and I’ve never had the expectation that the job would last forever, that I’d be allowed to stay afterward, or that someone would think to write a news article about my leaving. The end of a project led to the natural conclusion that it was time to return to my home country (USA) and not a reason to ‘panic.’ I get the impression that the article was written by a journalist who has never left his hometown.
I had to say goodbye to friends I met. I had to pack my suitcases. I had to spend a few layovers in airports and go through customs. Somehow I survived.
Even after a year of working in silicon valley I’d expect to have accumulated enough savings to last me several years in a lower cost country like India as I figured out my next career move.
Oh Boo-hoo.............NOT.
I’m so sick and tired of all these pity parties for these foreign workers. Where is the media outcry about the loss of American workers who lost their jobs to these foreigners to begin with?
Lou Dobbs did a series on H1B visas that was an eye opener. An immigration specialist law firm posted a seminar they had conducted on youtube. The seminar was how to get around the regulations for bringing in H1B visa workers. Talk about meaning of the word is...
Letsee, probably...railroad, insurance, phone company, or bank.
Did I get close?
Part of that stimulus bill should be to suspend all H1B visas.
Deport them. They are taking jobs away from Americans.
If I had to pick, I'd make the H1B program shrink, but not go away.
Oh fricking well!
>>Oh Boo-hoo.............NOT.<<
Indeed! "...inflexible rules of their H-1B..." !@#%@&^%
This is a lose-lose.
Get rid of these H1-B’s, and companies have irresistible interest to set up shop by shifing entire development lines to countries like India and China, ultimately causing Americans to either relocate to these new countries, or lose more jobs than the numerical strength of the H1-B’s because companies can fulfil their hiring requirements in the new country.
Keep the H1-B’s and it suppresses American wages, besides taking away American jobs simultaneously.
It’s complicated to balance.
I'm sorry, the H1B program is simply a tool for US businesses to hire cheap labor. Outsourcing has limited success due to language barriers, distance barriers and simple differences in education - or lack thereof.
The H1B program is simply a way to import outsourcing.
My husband is an American engineer who will lose his job on 4-1-09. Send the H1B visa holders home now. American jobs for Americans.
Of course, it was largely their own fault for not pursuing citizenship and just assuming the gravy train would go on forever.
The bottom line is that business exploits people, and as an employee you have to protect yourself. There comes a time when you need to fire your boss first.
If they lay off a $40k engineer, they aren’t going to turn around a hire a $60k engineer.
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