Tech Industry Has Ulterior Motive Regarding H-1B Visas

[peejay 327]

Tech Industry Has Ulterior Motive Regarding H-1B Visas

by Phyllis Schlafly

Posted Dec 18, 2006

The technology industry has dispatched its fat-wallet 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 smoke screen around the real reasons.

Three reasons motivate the tech giants to use their political clout and political action committee contributions to increase H-1Bs:

1. Cost-cutting: H-1B visa holders are paid much less than Americans.

2. The influx of H-1B visa holders depresses the "prevailing wage" for all computer techies and engineers.

3. The hiring of H-1B visa holders prevents potential competition from Americans who might choose to work for other firms or start companies of their own.

H-1B visas are not for entrepreneurs or executives. They 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 import Indian, Pakistani and Chinese engineers to fill U.S. jobs.

H-1B visa holders 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 import 85,000 workers with H-1B visas a year, but industry lobbyists seek to double or triple that number. They would really like the Cornyn-Shadegg SKIL Bill -- known to engineers as the Kill Bill -- which could import 1.5 million underpaid workers with H-1B visas by 2013.

The computer giants have thrown down the gauntlet: If Congress doesn't provide more H-1Bs visas, they will outsource jobs. "Outsourcing is the perfect argument for increasing the numbers" of H-1Bs, said a Compete America representative.

But if it's really better to outsource, there is no need for H-1Bs. Nobel economist Milton Friedman labeled H-1B visas a government "subsidy" to enable employers to get workers at a lower wage.

The United States has more than enough engineers. After the dot-com bust in 2000, California's Silicon Valley lost about 100,000 engineering jobs. Many of those who lost jobs remain unemployed, 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 study 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 four months, and 88 percent didn't offer signing bonuses.

Many companies hire student engineers from India and China with only two or three years of college and then train them in their own facilities. U.S. students with two or three 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 employment future because of insourcing foreigners and outsourcing manufacturing.

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.

Microsoft founder 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 decision-making, 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 pre-eminence and distributing our wealth around the rest of the world must have lost all appreciation for the Yankee ingenuity essential to our prosperity. H-1B visas are a form of servitude that offends the free enterprise that made the United States the economic world leader.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18532

[Heracles 417]

I wonder what Democrats will do with this issue. They are in charge after all. I wonder if the same people who trashed the ###### out of GWB will take notice of issues like this now that the Democrats have control of the Senate..

[mawilson 2,133]

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 smoke screen around the real reasons.

We *are* suffering a labor shortage in those fields, it's not a lie.

The other reasons are valid too though.

[Heracles 417]

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 smoke screen around the real reasons.

We *are* suffering a labor shortage in those fields, it's not a lie.

The other reasons are valid too though.

So the US is suffering a shortage in IT experts and engineers.. I did not realize the solution was to bring in others rather than educate Americans..

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

So the US is suffering a shortage in IT experts and engineers.. I did not realize the solution was to bring in others rather than educate Americans..

It's both, really. Businesses have short-term immediate needs that can not be addressed by promising to train people. Can't be done. My employer needs about a dozen SAP people on board by mid-Jan. No way does that kind of aggressive deadline allow for training. They'll just look overseas and hope they'll find enough there to supplement the ones we have here to generate the necessary man-hours.

[GaryC 7]

The company I work for has problems like that. We do factory maintainence and finding qualified CNC techs is a constant battle. We started our own training program and are graduating 20 people a month. If there are any CNC/machine tool techs/mechanics out there and want to move to Peoria I can get you a really good job!!

[Heracles 417]

The company I work for has problems like that. We do factory maintainence and finding qualified CNC techs is a constant battle. We started our own training program and are graduating 20 people a month. If there are any CNC/machine tool techs/mechanics out there and want to move to Peoria I can get you a really good job!!

I am sure in a country of 300 million there would be. This is one of the reasons there are so many ghettos and so much poverty here, especially amongst black Americans. A lot of people just do not want to move. They expect and demand the government take care of them.

I think the US would have to be one of few countries I have been to where the cities are crammed with so many stubborn unemployed and uneducated people. Yet people who work in the cities have to live 30 miles out to escape the filth.

The jobs are out there. Unfortunately so many people in the US prefer to stay ignorant, claim everyone is racists, commit crimes and trash areas rather than move to locations which have jobs. The industrial revolution in the US has been over for what 50 years now. I mean seriously when I go to cities like DC, Baltimore, Harlem to name a few I see these bums living in filth and I think to myself. What the hell are you idiots doing in cities?

[GaryC 7]

The company I work for has problems like that. We do factory maintainence and finding qualified CNC techs is a constant battle. We started our own training program and are graduating 20 people a month. If there are any CNC/machine tool techs/mechanics out there and want to move to Peoria I can get you a really good job!!

I am sure in a country of 300 million there would be. This is one of the reasons there are so many ghettos and so much poverty here, especially amongst black Americans. A lot of people just do not want to move. They expect and demand the government take care of them.

I think the US would have to be one of few countries I have been to where the cities are crammed with so many stubborn unemployed and uneducated people. Yet people who work in the cities have to live 30 miles out to escape the filth.

The jobs are out there. Unfortunately so many people in the US prefer to stay ignorant, claim everyone is racists, commit crimes and trash areas rather than move to locations which have jobs. The industrial revolution in the US has been over for what 50 years now. I mean seriously when I go to cities like DC, Baltimore, Harlem to name a few I see these bums living in filth and I think to myself. What the hell are you idiots doing in cities?

I was stuck in a no-where job that I didn't like before. When my current company offered me a $6/hour raise, a moving allowance, better perks and a huge step up in job satisfaction I didn't hesitate to quit a job of 10 years to move. Best thing I ever did!

And Peoria is a really nice city. Large enough to have all the things to do and small enough not to be a pain to live in. I like it here!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

What the hell are you idiots doing in cities?

I've been looking for jobs recently myself. I'm not unemployed but my benefits have been deteriorating recently (bonuses are gone, for example) so I figure it's time to make a move. So far I've always worked in the suburbs. Frankly, I'd prefer to do so. Less of a commute seeing how I live in the burbs. Anyway, here's what's interesting: this time around, almost every 'bite' my resume is getting is from companies in the city. Every interview I've been on so far has been in Manhattan. So I'm unclear on why you think cities are bad places to work. They're thriving. Ever been downtown?

Here's an illustration. If I list all jobs on dice.com (a technology job portal) listed in the last seven days in New York City, I get 6326 listings.

The same search parameters applied to all jobs within 50 miles of Peoria Illinois... 138.

And that's why people live in cities.

[GaryC 7]

What the hell are you idiots doing in cities?

I've been looking for jobs recently myself. I'm not unemployed but my benefits have been deteriorating recently (bonuses are gone, for example) so I figure it's time to make a move. So far I've always worked in the suburbs. Frankly, I'd prefer to do so. Less of a commute seeing how I live in the burbs. Anyway, here's what's interesting: this time around, almost every 'bite' my resume is getting is from companies in the city. Every interview I've been on so far has been in Manhattan. So I'm unclear on why you think cities are bad places to work. They're thriving. Ever been downtown?

Here's an illustration. If I list all jobs on dice.com (a technology job portal) listed in the last seven days in New York City, I get 6326 listings.

The same search parameters applied to all jobs within 50 miles of Peoria Illinois... 138.

And that's why people live in cities.

Well there is a bit of a difference in the size of Peoria and NYC. Personally I wouldn't want to live or work in a big city but thats just me. There is a large industrial base here and I bet if I looked for jobs in my field the number of listings would narrow a lot between NYC and Peoria.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

There is a large industrial base here and I bet if I looked for jobs in my field the number of listings would narrow a lot between NYC and Peoria.

Oh, I am sure that is the case. What you do has a lot to do with it. The nature of my work pretty much limits me to large corporations with lots of IT capital spending. I'm not going to find too many of those in the sticks. And that's ironic, because I kinda like the sticks.

[mawilson 2,133]

So the US is suffering a shortage in IT experts and engineers.. I did not realize the solution was to bring in others rather than educate Americans..

The solution is to bring in others who will eventually become Americans

[mawilson 2,133]

Personally I wouldn't want to live or work in a big city but thats just me.

And I wouldn't move to Peoria, Illinois even if they paid me a million dollars. To each their own.

[Heracles 417]

What the hell are you idiots doing in cities?

I've been looking for jobs recently myself. I'm not unemployed but my benefits have been deteriorating recently (bonuses are gone, for example) so I figure it's time to make a move. So far I've always worked in the suburbs. Frankly, I'd prefer to do so. Less of a commute seeing how I live in the burbs. Anyway, here's what's interesting: this time around, almost every 'bite' my resume is getting is from companies in the city. Every interview I've been on so far has been in Manhattan. So I'm unclear on why you think cities are bad places to work. They're thriving. Ever been downtown?

Here's an illustration. If I list all jobs on dice.com (a technology job portal) listed in the last seven days in New York City, I get 6326 listings.

The same search parameters applied to all jobs within 50 miles of Peoria Illinois... 138.

And that's why people live in cities.

You have just proven my point. That so many black americans are obsessed with living in a city when they have with little or no chance of getting a job there. Yet these same people refuse to move to areas where they can gain well paying jobs.

Edited December 21, 2006 by Infidel

[Reynaldo 0]

So the US is suffering a shortage in IT experts and engineers.. I did not realize the solution was to bring in others rather than educate Americans..

The solution is to bring in others who will eventually become Americans

So let me introduce myself....

Thank god I work with IT!!!!!!