The problem is NOT the educated, legal foreign workers, the real problem is the hordes of uneducated, diseased, illegals coming across the border, whom our tax dollars are supporting.
This is just more diversionary tactics, riling up people against the relatively small number of H1B visa recipients, who have to jump through hoops, work, pay taxes, go through background checks, etc — to divert our attention from the indiscriminate mob coming across our borders.
We should keep our eyes on the ball.
“The problem is NOT the educated, legal foreign workers, the real problem is the hordes of uneducated, diseased, illegals coming across the border, whom our tax dollars are supporting.”
I guess that depends on what you do for a living; the H1-Bs are taking the jobs Americans used to raise families with, while the Bronze Horde is taking lower-paying jobs or going directly to welfare. I don’t draw much distinction between the two; they just weaken different sectors of the workforce (and both involve skirting the law to do so).
Also:
“The current law limits to 65,000 the number of foreign nationals who may be issued a visa or otherwise provided H-1B status each fiscal year (FY). Laws exempt up to 20,000 foreign nationals holding a master’s or higher degree from U.S. universities from the cap on H-1B visas.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H1B_visa
while:
“estimated growth rate of 700,000–850,000 net unauthorized immigrants per year”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrant_population_of_the_United_States
Both from Wikipedia.
As someone who is constantly praised for my chip design skills and background, but who has spent most of the H1-B era looking for work...
...and on behalf of my fellow American engineering friends, who in the Silicon Valley 80% are looking for work...
...let me tell you that your post is 100% horse manure.
The job I was finally able to land (and a job with zero benefits, by the way) is to act as a field support engineer for design software used by chip designers.
That means I go into the Silicon Valley's larger chip design houses every week. They are huge, and yet have 80% Indian, 19% Chinese, and a minor smattering of Europeans... all right off the boat.
It makes it incredibly clear that, as an American, you will NOT be treated equally in the job application process!
Says you until you lose your job (and salary grade) to low cost third world "degreed labor".
We were told (A) that the illegals are here to do the jobs that no American wants to and (B) that the visa workers are here to fill openings for which no American has the necessary skills (tech sector). NEITHER is true (we are told how important it is for the illegal children of adult aliens to be able to get a college degree to better themselves and compete for degreed professionals' jobs).
Are the H1Bs being paid at the American engineer’s rate or at a lower wage?
“The problem is NOT the educated, legal foreign workers...”
Actually, that IS a problem. Not the Biggest problem, but it is a problem. Back in the 90s, when the .com boom started, US companies realized there would be a MAJOR shift in their workforce into Programming/IT jobs.
US companies were quick to recognize the utility of the “paperless workforce”. If all you do is programming stuff, why pay for anyone to be here? They started companies that outsourced their work and produced it CHEAPLY because they used foreign labor.
As time moved along, they realized they could import that cheap labor and the H1-B boom took off.
The H1-B fiasco is a salary reducer from the get-go. There are MILLIONS of people in this country who can do the job. But they won’t work for half of what some poor schlep from India will. That guy think he is now Bill Gates that he is making $25,000 per year.
The H1-B is all about cheap labor. There is no labor shortage in this country.
True, but I was specifically referring to the H1B problem. H1B’s are taking away a significant number of middle class jobs. The people I used to hire for $80,000 plus now can’t be placed in jobs I am still paying just as much for.
These outsourcers will not hire Americans period. They hire locally and bring them here so they can promote them through to management. Where an American company will provide the same service with American employees, they are shut out because they can’t provide the cheap offshore labor that backs them up.
The other trick the outsourcers pull is they will provide a cheaper domestic resource with their full contract provided you use them exclusively. That resource will only be someone sent here on an H1B and never a domestic hire.
Regardless of what is happening on the bottom end of labor, the H1B problem has virtually eliminated middle class IT jobs.
“The problem is NOT the educated, legal foreign workers, the real problem is the hordes of uneducated, diseased, illegals coming across the border, whom our tax dollars are supporting.”
I agree that the hordes you describe are a serious threat and a deliberate attack on America and her citizens. I would suggest that not all the educated, legal foreign workers are a welcome boost to America. It is quite true that some are great additions to the nation (members of my family include some recent immigrants who are or were H1B’s), however, there are employers in the US who are hiring them only to save a buck and diminish job opportunities for US citizens who are good and better performers. One of my closest friends is an H1B who now leads the science and medicine field in which she is outstanding and there is no one on this planet who can readily challenge her performance. She is also a conservative who makes the US a stronger nation. However, there are other H1B’s who are not good performers, who are tribal, and who care not one whit for the US Constitution or culture. It is, as in all matters, a mix of complexity.
Thanks for your considered and interesting contribution.