Senator Who Calls STEM Shortage a Hoax Appointed To Head Immigration 514
dcblogs (1096431) writes The Senate's two top Republican critics of temporary worker immigration, specifically the H-1B and L-1 visas, now hold the two most important immigration posts in the Senate. They are Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who heads the Senate's Judiciary Committee, and his committee underling, Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who was appointed by Grassley on Thursday to head the immigration subcommittee. Sessions was appointed one week after accusing the tech industry of perpetuating a "hoax" by claiming there is a shortage of qualified U.S. tech workers. "The tech industry's promotion of expanded temporary visas — such as the H-1B — and green cards is driven by its desire for cheap, young and immobile labor," wrote Sessions, in a memo he sent last week to fellow lawmakers. Sessions, late Thursday, issued a statement about his new role as immigration subcommittee chairman, and said the committee "will give voice to those whose voice has been shut out," and that includes "the voice of the American IT workers who are being replaced with guest workers."
No way! (Score:5, Funny)
Sudden breakout of common sense??
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
No, common sense is appointing someone with an unbiased view in either direction, not someone walking into the job with a preconceived position.
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's perfectly reasonable to have a position on a subject and still posses common sense.
It's obvious to pretty much everyone that a fleet of off-shore or H1B programmers bill cheaper to your customer than supplying them with actual citizens who can do the same job.
That's common sense.
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It's obvious to pretty much everyone that a fleet of off-shore or H1B programmers bill cheaper to your customer than supplying them with actual citizens who can do the same job.
Even the workers on H1B know the real reason for the H1B program.
After all, they're not idiots. They realize that the H1B program was designed to prevent them from leaving their original H1B sponsor, than staying in the country working for a different US-based employer, so this guarantees them that they have very little negotiating power when it comes to negotiating salary increases, or negotiating for better working conditions.
This works the same way indentured servitude used to work for immigrants two hun
Re:No way! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
LOL that's precious. Meanwhile, the H-1B employees I know - my personal friends, people I hang out with and trust - describe a legal hellscape that's pretty much exactly indentured servitude. One of them managed to escape a bad situation by hooking up with a major corporation who could expedite the process to have the transfer done within a couple of months. That's two months of walking on eggshells so that they didn't get fired and deported. Another wasn't quite as lucky and had to ship out to the European branch of their new employer so that they can come back to America in a year or so, presuming everything is in order by then.
You're on crack if you think an H-1B isn't a recipe for suckishness. Regardless of what it hypothetically sounds like on paper, the situations I witnessed firsthand were terrible for the workers involved.
Re:No way! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:No way! (Score:4, Interesting)
People should be allowed to come to the US and compete. We are kidding ourselves if we think that bringing a billion, educated, hungry, motivated people into the world labor market is not going to stress us. It has and is happening and that is the way it is. Ultimately it is a good thing. Many many millions are living better lives (at least physically). If it means I have to work harder or be smarter and/or make less, so be it. The H1-B visa program seems to be designed to enslave. It is the leverage H1B provisions give employers that make these workers attractive. I work with lots of Indian IT workers, some are very good, most are ineffective. I dont know what they are paid. But this is no different than I would expect to find among "native american" IT folks. The real issues seems to be complete ignorance in management who makes the decision to hire large groups of credentialed, but low skilled offshore folks. Generally its very damaging to the companies themselves. Most companies I deal with, that are dominated by Indian IT staffs are mind numbingly burdened with process. Let people come to the US and compete without all the procedural nonsense designed to enslave them. Let them come and become americans. Require English everywhere. Require documentation of identity. Block them from access to entitlements until they become citizens.
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But the Free Market says that anyone who doesn't like the job conditions can just go look for a higher/better bidder! (just don't expect to find one.)
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act permits H-1B portability, provided another employer is willing to sponsor the H-1B worker. claims that H-1Bs are indentured servitude are entirely baseless.
Yes, I know this, but how many H-1B employees do you know who have made the successful transition?
I know it happens, but it's an incredibly stressful event for the employee in question and there is actually no guarantee that it will succeed considering the temperamental nature of the INS and the unnecessarily small pool of companies willing to go through the trouble of sponsoring a worker already in the US.
I was personally involved in the sponsorship of one Indian employee who had gotten their doctorate from a top US Ivy school, and yet the INS still delayed the visa unnecessarily by an extra year. Thankfully, that person was living in India at the time and my company could afford to wait for the paperwork to finally settle, but imagine if that person had been already living in the US, or if my company had been less patient.
I guess one could try to say the same thing about employment in general. There is actually no guarantee of a job for anyone, even for US workers, but my point is that the constraints are completely different when you're under an existing H1B visa.
And my comparison with indentured servitude is still just as valid. After all, indentured servants in Colonial America were still free to find new employers, assuming those new employers bought out their original contract [wikipedia.org].
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Thankfully, that person was living in India at the time and my company could afford to wait for the paperwork to finally settle, but imagine if that person had been already living in the US, or if my company had been less patient.
What if the company was less patient? By applying for H1B status for this employee, the company is saying that they cannot find this talent AT ALL in the US, so than they better be patient, because this is a damn special person.
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The enlightened self interest angle is that I don't want corporations treating H-1Bs like crap, because it enables the companies to get them for cheap, which depresses salaries in my career path. I want companies to have to treat H-1B visa holders well because 1) it's the right thing to do, and 2) so that I'm not competing against guys who'll work for 2/3 my salary for fear of being deported.
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Re:No way! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
Common sense is wrong more than it's right. It's only good for making guesses about things you don't understand, and is worthless for evaluating things you understand.
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> and is worthless for evaluating things you understand.
I disagree - generally the things you understand get incorporated into your common sense as well - you develop a more accurate "intuition" about how things work after seeing multiple examples, letting you "guesstimate" outcomes far better than you could otherwise. Generally not as good as reasoned analysis, but much, much faster, which is often important. That intuition will help you avoid dead-ends in reasoned analysis, and in situations where th
Re:No way! (Score:4, Insightful)
your common sense
You'll have to define "common sense" for me. My understanding of it is incompatible with your description of it. Common sense is a groupthink. It's a moron-level competent man standard. Everyone knows how to [whatever] it's common sense. It's not something You or I have, it's a form of the "reasonable man" standard used in court. Should you have known that running over your foot with a lawn mower was harmful? Yes? Then that's "common sense". Do "you" know that running over your foot with a lawnmower was harmful? That's personal knowledge, and unrelated to "common sense".
But for the expert, you don't just reboot before asking for help (the "common sense" answer), because you want to see the error messages and research them later if the reboot doesn't permanently fix the problem. So common sense is wrong, and actually harmful.
That *I* know to look at errors and investigate before rebooting doesn't mean that's part of my "common sense" part of being "common" is being shared by many people. When my sense doesn't agree with everyone else's, it's no longer "common".
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You'll have to define "common sense" for me. My understanding of it is incompatible with your description of it. Common sense is a groupthink. It's a moron-level competent man standard.
But how far does it extend?
Everyone in the developed world thinks it's common sense to provide healthcare to all of one's citizens. Not the USA - That's commie talk.
Everyone in the developed world thinks it's common sense to restrict access to firearms. Not the USA - That's Theft of Freedom.
So sure, it's common s
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> Common sense is wrong more than it's right.
This is inaccurate.
> It's only good for making guesses about things you don't understand, and is worthless for evaluating things you understand.
You are intentionally perverting the meaning. Conscious understanding is less used than common sense. You survive because of common sense, not despite it.
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All those Old Testament things were "common sense" coded into law. They were guesses and suggestions that weren't understoo
Re:No way! (Score:4, Insightful)
> Common sense is fearing something without understanding.
Continuing to try to redefine the concept to fit your beliefs, is disingenuous.
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the specious logic corporations use to justify the exorbitant salaries of their CEOs despite numerous studies showing the person at the top has little to no impact on the performance of the company.
Then again, when corporations say they can't their workers more they are by default stating they don't want the best workers because they're not willing to pay the folks on the front line what they're worth.
Some reference material:
Re:No way! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No way! (Score:4, Informative)
Which they can't. Have you ever SEEN some of the pureed shit that masquerades as code from (some) overseas developers? More often than not domestic coders have to be called in to un-fuck their shit, resulting in additional expenses that wipe out any savings realized from outsourcing the initial development.
"You get what you pay for" doesn't really work when the ignorant suits who make the decisions don't understand what they're getting. All they know is that they gave the developers a vague set of specs and instead of domestic workers demanding more complete descriptions, the overseas workers keep their mouths shut and do whatever they think is what the customer wants. When the overseas devs send back their crap, all the suits know is that it cost less RIGHT NOW to get that work done. Never mind that they've doubled (or more) their future maintenance costs, it's all about quarterly results.
Re: No way! (Score:3)
Simple. An employee who has fewer practical choices once employed at a given co. is easier to take advantage of.
Re: No way! (Score:3)
There is a right and wrong answer to the question. It is completely fair for a senator to actually have an answer to the question we he assumes his position, rather than being a blank slate.
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
That is the reality of the situation. The tech industry does want "cheap, young and immobile labor." Saying that does not make you biased.
Whether or not there is a shortage depends on your point of view. It's a supply and demand situation. We have the supply, but there will never be enough supply for the people who want to hire programmers at $2 an hour. If there are fewer programmers, salaries will rise until companies who can't afford them drop out, and the demand matches the supply.
There can never be an absolute shortage of programmers, there can only be a shortage of programmers willing to work for a certain salary.
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The only way to find someone who has no 'preconceived position' is to find someone who knows nothing about the topic.
Not really true. Plenty of people know nothing about biology and yet have plenty of preconceived notions about evolutionary theory. The only people without preconceived notions would be newborns.
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The only way to find someone who has no 'preconceived position' is to find someone who knows nothing about the topic.
Not really true. Plenty of people know nothing about biology and yet have plenty of preconceived notions about evolutionary theory. The only people without preconceived notions would be newborns.
No, it is definitely true. The person you replied to did NOT say that someone who knows nothing about the topic would not have a preconceived position, merely that ONLY a person who knows nothing about the topic MIGHT have no preconceived position.
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
One criterion for a shortage would be the point where actual technical progress is impeded. We are nowhere near that.
Another would be the point where reasonably structured companies start to drop out. We're nowhere near that either.
Without the H1-Bs, profits might be squeezed a bit, but in one of the most profitable industries we have, that's just a correction.
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One criterion for a shortage would be the point where actual technical progress is impeded. We are nowhere near that.
Oh, we actually are. Cheaper resources almost always open more options. If you could get programmers for $2 an hour, it would mean that all your QA resources could be programmers too. You could build each project twice, then take the better of the two.
And there are plenty of boring automation tasks that businesses do that they can't afford to have automated. Microsoft CRM is incredibly customizable in order to meet this market. Another example is SAP. It sucks in so many ways, companies would be better of
Re:No way! (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's be honest, companies go with SAP and their expensive consultants because the upper management falls for the sales pitch. They would still fall for the sales pitch if programmers cost $2 an hour. SAP rarely costs less (once once installation and customization is included) than a custom solution created by a good team of programmers.
They don't skimp on automation because of the cost of programmers. They skimp because that cost (however small) is up front and visible while the higher cost of not automating is hidden away and takes a million nearly invisible bites at the budget.
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You're missing the point. These companies don't want to import H1-B's so that they can fire a $120,000 a year US born programmer and replace him with a $100,000 foreign worker. That is chump change. The true intention, what saves them TONS of money, is using this system to suppress wages across ALL of their US programmers. This is a big part of why wages have been stagnant for 15 years now in STEM.
Must choose someone clueless? Let me guess ... (Score:5, Funny)
Common sense requires choosing someone who doesn't have any ideas about how the job should be done?
Let me guess ...
You voted Obama, didn't you.
Re:Must choose someone clueless? Let me guess ... (Score:5, Insightful)
That actually narrows down the voting options very little.
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Where do these mythical people exist that have no biases?
Re:No way! (Score:4, Funny)
They're busy herding spherical cows... And applying for the "perfectly spherical astronaut" jobs.
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In the neonatal ward, but I don't recommend electing them just yet.
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Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
FTFY (Score:3)
"My position on the subject has evolved."
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I'd be happy if they got rid of the H-1B process altogether, just due to the abuse. There are many, many other types of visas people can get to work in the US, and someone who wants to work here can still freely enter and do that on their own merit, and not just they are just cheap labor.
Immigration is needed -- the golden door still needs to be there... but there should be some fairness of who gets to enter, and someone who is there just because they will displace a US worker shouldn't get to be first in
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Converting all those spots to immigration-path visas would be *better* for the country, other than letting in brown people.
Amnesty is a red herring anyway. In one generation they'll all be citizens anyway. So long as Jus Soli exists (it's in the Constitution), you'll always have the problem of people coming to give birth, then forever having
Re:No way! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:You see that too? (Score:5, Interesting)
Neither party is for the big guy or the little guy. They are each allied to certain interests and industries, and have certain positions on things that make sense to people with different ideologies.
The Republicans are traditionally allied to (dirty) energy industries: coal, oil, gas, as well as Big Ag, and military/defense contractors.
The Democrats are traditionally allied to finance (Wall Street), big media (RIAA/MPAA)/the "copyright cartel", unions (not so much these days), and these days, the tech industry (the CEOs, not the STEM workers).
They also push certain ideologies: the GOP is anti-abortion, anti-immigration (or at least anti-relaxing of immigration policy), anti-gun control, pro-religion, and get their votes from people who value these issues. The Democrats are pro-choice, pro-open borders, pro-gun control, pro-separation of church and state, and pro-environmentalism, and get their votes from people who value these issues. Once in office, they only do so much on these issues, while spending most of their energy working for the moneyed interests who got them there. Sometimes this results in some actual progress, usually to keep their "base" happy, sometimes perhaps because they actually want to do something good, other times probably because their interests (and the moneyed interests behind them) actually align with those of many of us peons.
Recently, Eric Holder **finally** did something about the ridiculous civil forfeiture rules at the federal level, something both parties have done nothing about for ages. This guy sounds like he's finally going to work for American STEM workers, something the Dems seem to oppose for some reason. Honestly, I can't think offhand which moneyed interest this guy's position would benefit, since the big tech companies and assholes like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs just want to exploit us for greater profit, and there's no STEM worker unions. It could just be like Obama: tough talk to appease the base, with zero actual results forthcoming. Or he's genuinely concerned about us STEM workers. Or the GOP wants to get STEM workers to switch sides (we're generally very strongly Democrat voters).
Personally, I agree with him, which is odd because I find most actions and positions of the GOP abhorrent. But like with Obama, who didn't really do much while in office despite all his grand rhetoric, we'll see how much progress this guy really makes. Maybe they'll blame it all on "Democrat obstructionism".
I do wonder, however, why Democrats seem to prioritize the interests of foreigners over those of American Citizens, even though what they're in effect doing is turning the job market into a libertarian hellhole, and doing the exact opposite of what Democrats of yore did in being big supporters of unions and workers' rights. Unionization is, at its very core, all about restricting the supply of labor to industry, so that a company can't just fire disgruntled workers and hire all-new staff so they can save some money; it's an attempt to give more power to the lower classes this way. Opening the borders to foreign workers is the exact opposite of this: it gives an endless supply of cheap labor to employers so they can exploit it and treat workers as disposable commodities. When exactly the Democrats became better friends of management rather than labor, I'm not sure.
Re:You see that too? (Score:5, Interesting)
I do wonder, however, why Democrats seem to prioritize the interests of foreigners over those of American Citizens,
Democrats traditionally favor large government and using government assistance programs to buy votes of immigrants who in effect become their clients. Their problem is that they perpetually need to replenish the underclass as it becomes depleted by people pulling themselves up into the middle or upper class.
Re:You see that too? (Score:5, Funny)
their problem is that they perpetually need to replenish the underclass as it becomes depleted by people pulling themselves up into the middle or upper class.
Wall Street has eliminated *that* problem.
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their problem is that they perpetually need to replenish the underclass as it becomes depleted by people pulling themselves up into the middle or upper class.
Wall Street has eliminated *that* problem.
LOL I read that and laugh like a madman. Google "The Great Depression" then you will see an example of bad fiscal policy and an out of control market really screwing up people's lives yet somehow people actually managed to improve their lot during that mess. The biggest problem the current generation has, is they have accepted the idea they can't when all the ones that have come before knew they could.
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Cisco is still here in California. This outsourcing scare is just like the terrorism boogeyman, an excuse for them to bring in more Democrat voters (or so they think). Companies are not going to relocate everything to India; does anyone really think the corporate executives are going to pack their bags, sell their mansions, and cruise in their megayachts over to Mumbai and set up new lives over there? You can't run a company with the executives in one country and all the operations somewhere else.
Re:You see that too? (Score:5, Informative)
Everything Warren spouts has been contrary to everything the Dems have been doing since the mid-2000s. She is no more representative of Democrats than Ron Paul was representative of Republicans.
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LOL Fix H1B and scrap Obama Care ? The program who's architect said "It went through because the American people are stupid"
Sounds like win win to me.
Hell while we are at it we might get some regulations and liability laws scrapped so you can manufacture in this country again.
Yeah! (Score:5, Interesting)
Score one for the Republicans! I'm a pretty solid democrat, don't live in Arizona but I'm starting to like Jeff Sessions.
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Score one for the Republicans! I'm a pretty solid democrat, don't live in Arizona but I'm starting to like Jeff Sessions.
I admire your intellectual honesty. I'm conservative-leaning libertarian, currently registered Republican, but I don't let this prevent me from really liking Ron Wyden.
Re:Yeah! (Score:5, Insightful)
The carrot works best when the donkey doesn't eat it, just as it held in front of it's muzzle and this in conjunction with the fear of the stick keeps the donkey ie the masses in check. Don't fall for the promises only congratulate actions. The reality is for decades the general public has only been getting promises whilst the corporations got all the action and that is regardless of which party was in charge and working in collusion with the other party whilst pretending not to.
Doesn't work like that either. (Score:3)
The carrot works best when the donkey doesn't eat it, just as it held in front of it's muzzle and this in conjunction with the fear of the stick keeps the donkey ie the masses in check.
If you don't let the donkey have some real carrot now and then it will just sit there and tell you to go to hell, no matter how much you dangle.
Re:Yeah! (Score:4, Insightful)
I admire your intellectual honesty.
Many of us are - we take in new information and change our opinions. I used to be a Libertarian
(note the capital 'L' as in Harry Browne Libertarian) but as I learned more and more about economics, history(especially economic history), the complete randomness of life and economy, travels around the World and my own financial ups and downs, I have changed my views.
I see how much chance has contributed to my successes and failures. I have worked my ass off many times and failed and other times, have sat on my ass and did quite well and of course, the other way around. To say that everything I have is 100% the result of my own effort is extremely naive and shortsighted.
I see how many opportunities that I had and have were handed to me by the sheer accident of birth has given me a leg up as well as some special people in my past who have aided me. For that I am grateful.
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I'll have to go with "not perfect but better than the alternatives", then. I've worked hard all my life and there have been ups and downs. (I was financially wiped out by dot.com.bust, for instance, and had to really scramble to avoid losing the house.) I still think your character is measured by how you react to the misfortunes.
My sister (two years younger than I) quit her bank job in the 1990's because she saw a way to "work the system", went the disability route, is currently considered mentally (or e
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Agoraphobia and anxiety disorders in general can absolutely be disabling and I wouldn't wish them on anyone. Also, where in the world is any disability benefit high enough for someone to buy even one car and enough gas to drive around leisurely? (Unless I misunderstood and your sister only bought the 4-wheelers and the RV after earning the money for them in a truly American way: winning lawsuits :-))
Re:Yeah! (Score:5, Insightful)
Definitely agree on this one topic. We need to quit outsourcing our jobs overseas and importing temporary labor. Especially when there are people graduating in these degrees locally. I've noticed a serious trend over the last 10 years at my corporation where they use either contractors overseas, or just hire local contractors. And of course all the local contractors are super cheap foreign labor with H1-B visas. They have NO desire to make quality products because they don't plan on working for their contract long (because they know they are essentially working for experience as opposed to salary). All they want is a few years of experience and then bolt for better pay.
However, the corporation i work for will just sub them out and hire more contractors at bargain base prices and moving forward. Overall, American workers are getting screwed. our customers are getting a shitty product, corporations are loving the super cheap labor, and foreigners are getting experience that they can take back to their homeland, which long term does not help America way ahead of other countries in these fields.
Re:Yeah! (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry. They'll find a way to disappoint you.
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And yet, I heard a different Republican senator being interviewed this morning, who stated that we need to tighten restrictions on immigration to low and no skill jobs, and allow more immigration of doctors and those with technical skills.
Long ago, I decided that when you hear an opinion from a US politician, all it really tells you is who is financing their campaign. Sometimes the opinion they give is just meant to warn somebody that they haven't contributed enough.
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Not sure what Arizona has to do with Jeff Sessions, although if they'll take him, some of us in Alabama would appreciate it (although he was reelected in an unopposed election, so I guess not too many of us).
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I'm starting to like Jeff Sessions.
Get to the doctor now.
IEEE: The STEM Crisis Is a Myth (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine all the people (Score:2, Flamebait)
from around the world looking for work being treated equally,
and assessed based on their qualifications.
[sadly necessary sarcasm delimeter] But wait! That wouldn't let me prefer my buddies, who look just like me! [/sadly necessary sarcasm delimeter]
it IS a hoax (Score:5, Informative)
To the outside world, my manager says there is a shortage of qualified labor. In managerial meetings, he states openly that his intention is to replace all new openings with H-1B workers for budgetary reasons. Entirely coincidentally, during that time it has become less and less pleasant to work here, and also coincidentally, all of the attrition last year was amongst regular (non-H-1B) employees.
What I take away from this is that "qualified" in this context means "willing to work for third world wages and no benefits".
Re:it IS a hoax (Score:5, Insightful)
Be a real shame if a recording of that were to leak.
Speechless (Score:2)
I have no idea what to say. It's been so long since Congress has done anything not moronic and/or treasonous in my judgment. I've forgotten how to respond.
OTOH, there are probably so many ways these two senators can get hamstrung, that we'll never see any benefit from this. The side-lining of them will be quiet and effective.
Reasons we hire works with H1B visa (Score:2)
1. need some rare expertise that our competitors have vacuumed up. (although working campus to hire grad students tends to work well)
2. want some work done, but don't want to pay full price.
3. want the person we hired for reason #2 to not quit and go to our competitor for more money.
4. want someone who isn't going to leave in the evening to pick up their kids from soccer practice or whatever nonsense people with families get involved in.
5. need people aren't likely to raise sexual harassment complaints agai
I agree (Score:5, Interesting)
Both Canada and the US have no shortage of tech workers. What they have is a shortage of companies willing to pay the prevailing wage, benefits, etc.
I've lost three jobs over the years to "lowest price" bidders -- every single one of which was an Indian-run sweatshop bringing in their workers from overseas and working them to death without paying overtime.
I worked in the US on temporary visas for up to three years at a time (annual renewals), spending over 12 years in the US in total. Was I ever sponsored for residency? Of course not -- then I'd have had some rights and freedoms. The money was good, and I don't regret the time I spent there, but I'm firmly on the side of the anti-H1-B crowd -- it's all a scam to benefit the bottom line of big business, not a legitimate shortage of skilled workers.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
What they have is a shortage of companies willing to pay the prevailing wage, benefits, etc.
Not really.
What you have is a handful of companies (Facebook, Google) paying absofuckinglutely outrageous salaries and benefits. Then you have no shortage of companies paying obscenely good salaries and benefits. Then you have the massive sprawl of the country, where no, you're not going to be buying a Tesla because you're a developer in Ass End Of, Kansas.
Somehow, that final item gets translated into, "DEY TOOK ER JERBS."
Re:I agree (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit.
Those jobs I lost paid $80K/yr. and were undercut by Indian sweat shops paying their people $20/hr. without overtime.
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What you have is a handful of companies (Facebook, Google) paying absofuckinglutely outrageous salaries and benefits. Then you have no shortage of companies paying obscenely good salaries and benefits.
Oh yeah, that is a problem. Those companies paying lesser salaries should pay more, like Google and Facebook.
We're all just 'disposable employees' (Score:4, Insightful)
(And without the advantages of being part of the Borg Collective.)
http://venturebeat.com/2015/01... [venturebeat.com]
Pay particular attention to the chart showing -layoffs- across the IT sector!
And the world flips on its ass (Score:2)
and the republicans start supporting labor issues.
in other news, the brimstone in hell is now cold enough to be superconductive and satan has been hit by a snowball, full of ice ix
He needs to told: Management can be outsourced (Score:4, Interesting)
Hire enough H1-B's and it becomes more likely you'll just outsource the entire project to some contracting company overseas. And those companies also have their own management structure possibly eliminating your own boss' position.
Shortage vs. Access (Score:2)
The corps have been stupid to present this as a skills shortage issue. They are in competition for skilled staff and so the shortage they feel is just a property of the system, not a property of how many skilled people there are.
What it is is about gaining access to skilled staff from abroad. By making it easy for people with the right skills to come to the US, they provide those companies with easier access to the world's population of skilled staff, rather than just the US population.
This should be prese
This is gonna be fun ... (Score:2)
... The "do nothing" Congress is flipping from a tie (House vs Senate) to mostly one side.
These appointments are meaningless if nothing gets done.
Politics is the only reality show that's better than Survivor®.
The upside of nothing..Re:This is gonna be fun ... (Score:2)
The upside of doing nothing is that it doesn't make things worse
... The "do nothing" Congress is flipping from a tie (House vs Senate) to mostly one side.
These appointments are meaningless if nothing gets done.
So actually, event nothing sounds like pretty good news to me.
How would things work out if Senator Orrin "The STEM sky is falling!" Hatch was heading that up?
Timothy... (Score:2)
I predict... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dynamic cap (Score:2)
1) Every H-1B worker automatically gets a green card at the end of a year of employment. Additionally they get entry to a fast track citizenship application system. Fi
I've been trying to hire a Senior EE for a YEAR (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been trying to hire a Senior-level EE for over a year. I have interviewed 2 candidates every week during that time, so basically 100 people.
These are people with 8-12 years experience as design engineers.
These are also people who can't tell me what the current in an inductor does when you put a DC voltage across it. It's one of my standard lead-in interview questions - some basic principles of EE that everyone working as an EE should know. I am shocked at how many people don't know it.
Usually, my inter
Re: (Score:3)
Journeymen as unsupervised managers; another reason mig's are allowed to wonder around and foolishly get into trouble.
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When you have interviewed that many people without success I would really encourage you to look in the mirror, something isn't right about your story. At the very least you need to do more phone screening (unless that is what you are calling an interview?).
My only thought is that it sounds like you are doing power electronics of some flavor, which at the moment is in a big upswing thanks to solar, EV's, and so on. Lots of converters and inverters are getting designed into things at the moment. As such, d
Kill THe Wrong Bird (Score:4, Informative)
It is funny reading all the comments... (Score:5, Interesting)
... from people that are just mad it was a republican.
We need to get beyond this tribal shit, chaps. There are a lot of people on both sides of the line that are complete fucking assholes. And there are a lot on both sides that are honestly trying to do good things.
Fuck the line. And saying "if you disagree on even one thing I believe in then I hate you" or other intolerant shit. People are going to have some differences of opinion.
Focus on what is important. Ignore the stuff that isn't... nearly all the things people bitch about are not important. Abortion for example doesn't matter because republicans aren't going to repeal it. Same thing for gun control... democrats aren't going to take your guns away. Neither side can do that. Focus on something that might actually happen and focus on the issues that actually matter.
We need to come together and solve common problems with solutions that most of us can accept. Anyone that says otherwise is literally the problem. Those guys thrive on the conflict and don't care if anything ever works. They just want to fight and start fires.
The real reason (Score:4, Interesting)
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It's a tough problem to fix. If we come down too hard on companies for hiring guest workers, they'll often open off shore offices. If I had a choice between competing with a guest worker and competing with someone working in a country that has a cost of living that is a fraction of mine, I guess I'd rather have the guest worker. At least he's paid marginally more an will pay US taxes. Either way I'm out of a job though.
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Er... maybe it's the companies (and now the state) you work for.
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I'll bet there's a lot more pretty women in Finance/Accounting jobs too. Switching out of that was a terrible move.
Re:Bay Area (Score:4, Informative)
The company I work for has fairly good diversity. The company is a chip company with a number of software teams for things like compilers, SDKs, drivers, the Linux kernel, bootloaders, etc. While it isn't 50:50 there are a lot of women developers and while the majority are indian there are a fair number of caucasian and other minorities as well. We hire what we can get. We have positions that have been open for months and the majority of those that we interview are of indian descent. We have a hard time finding good engineers, the key word being good. I have interviewed a lot of engineers of all nationalities who I do not consider competent. The competent ones usually have multiple offers.
The problem with the H1Bs are that they are abused by companies like Infosys and for less skilled engineers and IT people. Some companies also seem to have an inordinate number of H1Bs like Cisco. I'm of the firm belief that we need more good engineers and that we need a lot more people graduating from college with degrees in science and engineering.
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>... who thought that a Republican would be against bringing cheap labor in from other countries.
Um, me, and everyone else who's been paying attention?
In case you haven't noticed, the Democrats are the ones who are pushing for open borders with their "comprehensive immigration reform". It all sounds great if you're a big fan of Ayn Rand and extreme libertarianism, but for everyone else it sounds like a terrible idea because there's always someone, somewhere in the world, willing to do your job cheaper t
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While there is no shortage, it's just business wanting cheaper labor, that isn't why they're taking this position, it's because they just want to halt ANY immigration. So much so that they'll do it even when it's against something they care as much about as business.
Or maybe they realize that H1B workers don't vote, but the out-of-work STEM workers they displaced do. And has been complaining to all and sundry that they lost their last job and can't get another one because of H1B workers.