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Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

theguardian.com

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Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#21

Post by chillacy »

davidf18 wrote: post #15
davidf18 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The intent of H1-B was to get talented immigrants for jobs for which we had a shortage of American labor." Actually, the intent of H1-B is to fill jobs for which there are no Americans that have the skill set. A "shortage" simply means that they aren't offering high enough wages. Of the major tech firms (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Oracle, ...) only Google has a presence in NYC of any size even tho…

If you're going to downvote by 2 points, please state what is inaccurate. Nothing I have stated is inaccurate and Americans agree with me.

Maybe you could provide some proof for Microsoft being in Seattle because he "didn't want to compete with SV".

But also as someone who works in Seattle (for a SV company), it's sort of insulting to imply that you have to be in SV. I get paid SV rates and don't pay any state income tax and have 4x cheaper housing, and the PNW is environmentally beautiful. But sorry I'm depressing your wage!

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#22

Post by maerF0x0 »

How will the government assess who has the top skills? Considering that the industry has a hard time doing this in fairly intensive interview processes, I can't imagine the government will fare as well or better.

I, cynically, assume they're just going to be like "PHD is better than masters, is better than bachelor's" etc.

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#23

Post by davidf18 »

chillacy wrote: post #21
davidf18 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to downvote by 2 points, please state what is inaccurate. Nothing I have stated is inaccurate and Americans agree with me.

Maybe you could provide some proof for Microsoft being in Seattle because he "didn't want to compete with SV". But also as someone who works in Seattle (for a SV company), it's sort of insulting to imply that you have to be in SV. I get paid SV rates and don't pay any state income tax and have 4x cheaper housing, and the PNW is environmentally beautiful. But sorry I'm depressing your wage!

Seattle has presumably changed a bit since Microsoft was founded there about 40 years ago. No Amazon, etc. No competition for labor from other tech firms. Gates located there because he did not want to compete for labor from other tech firms and it was much harder then for SV or other tech to poach Microsoft employees paying them market wages. Remember Gates is very much the businessman.

Nobody is competing with my work, I am simply pointing out facts. HN readers, who generally deal with facts and data should appreciate that. Imported labor depresses wages.

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#24

Post by 0xcafecafe »

davidf18 wrote: post #2

Of all of the candidates both Republican and Democrat (and including President Obama) only one, President Trump was not in bed with Silicon Valley and Tech companies attempting to depress American Wages and replace Americans with cheaper foreign imports. Even the University of California San Francisco (The UC system trains lots of computer scientists, IT workers) replaced its own IT workers with H1-B Visa imports. Wh…

>>President Obama even allowed spouses of H1-B to work, displacing and lowering wages of yet more American workers.

You need to be more informed. Not any H1-B spouse is allowed to work. That provision was created as a bandaid fix to alleviate the problems of people (mostly Indian and Chinese) who have to endure a decade+ long wait to get a green card (due to the stupid EB country cap limits). While that wait continues, their dependents cannot work. By this provision, only spouses of workers who have a permanent residency petition approved but are not able file for a green card due to unavailability of numbers are able to apply. The estimated number of spouses expected to apply was around 179k out of which only about 37% ended up applying. In contrast, the US issues 860,000 green cards every year (non employment based) which by your argument should be displacing even more local workers.

And not all spouses work in the software field. My wife works in healthcare and this provision was a Godsend for us since it has been 5 years and counting since my green card was applied for by my company.

If this provision goes away or the immigration system does not improve for the better (reducing backlogs), we are seriously contemplating our future here.

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#25

Post by stocktech »

timewarrior wrote: post #16
employee8000 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My very good friend is Indian on H1B. In the last 10 years he has had 4 jobs and is making >200k/yr base. I know white people that are in the same job for 10+ years and can't get another job because their skills degraded. H1Bs have mobility and great wages, if you're good, just like citizens.

I respectfully disagree with that. Maybe your friend wanted to do a startup where he owned the majority voting control in the startup. You can't do it on H1. Maybe he wanted to go meet his family but couldn't because his visa renewal was going on. Maybe he wanted a great opportunity, but the company wasn't setup to do H1 paperwork. H1 was expected to be a temporary state. If you are on H1 and not from India or China…

You're making the point that being H1 is an inconvenience and to be honest, that's fine. It even sounds like your life was improved because you were H1. Would you have had these opportunities if you weren't?

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#26

Post by [deleted] »

employee8000 wrote: post #11

The abuse and exploitation of the h1b by Indian bodyshop and lack of action by Bush and Obama have ruined it for everyone. I hope the body shops go out of business and we get a more sane immigration visas. But we need immigration. Thinking removing immigration will make more uS jobs is stupid. It will hasten global employers to build r&d centers outside of the US and then we are all screwed.

[deleted]

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#27

Post by chillacy »

davidf18 wrote: post #23
chillacy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could provide some proof for Microsoft being in Seattle because he "didn't want to compete with SV". But also as someone who works in Seattle (for a SV company), it's sort of insulting to imply that you have to be in SV. I get paid SV rates and don't pay any state income tax and have 4x cheaper housing, and the PNW is environmentally beautiful. But sorry I'm depressing your wage!

Seattle has presumably changed a bit since Microsoft was founded there about 40 years ago. No Amazon, etc. No competition for labor from other tech firms. Gates located there because he did not want to compete for labor from other tech firms and it was much harder then for SV or other tech to poach Microsoft employees paying them market wages. Remember Gates is very much the businessman. Nobody is competing with my w…

You're right, I do appreciate facts. But you still haven't provided a source for your claim. Unless you do so, it seems like you're producing a mixture of facts, opinions, and speculation, and calling them all facts.

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#28

Post by mywittyname »

davidf18 wrote: post #23
chillacy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could provide some proof for Microsoft being in Seattle because he "didn't want to compete with SV". But also as someone who works in Seattle (for a SV company), it's sort of insulting to imply that you have to be in SV. I get paid SV rates and don't pay any state income tax and have 4x cheaper housing, and the PNW is environmentally beautiful. But sorry I'm depressing your wage!

Seattle has presumably changed a bit since Microsoft was founded there about 40 years ago. No Amazon, etc. No competition for labor from other tech firms. Gates located there because he did not want to compete for labor from other tech firms and it was much harder then for SV or other tech to poach Microsoft employees paying them market wages. Remember Gates is very much the businessman. Nobody is competing with my w…

Why not stay in Albuquerque then?

He and his cofounder both grew up in greater Seattle and the area is home to University of Washington, which has a top-ranked Computer Science program (right behind Berkley, CM, & MIT), making talent easy to find.

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#29

Post by davidf18 »

mywittyname wrote: post #28
davidf18 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle has presumably changed a bit since Microsoft was founded there about 40 years ago. No Amazon, etc. No competition for labor from other tech firms. Gates located there because he did not want to compete for labor from other tech firms and it was much harder then for SV or other tech to poach Microsoft employees paying them market wages. Remember Gates is very much the businessman. Nobody is competing with my w…

Why not stay in Albuquerque then? He and his cofounder both grew up in greater Seattle and the area is home to University of Washington, which has a top-ranked Computer Science program (right behind Berkley, CM, & MIT), making talent easy to find.

> "Why not stay in Albuquerque then?"

Couldn't find the tech talent there.

> "which has a top-ranked Computer Science program"

You do realize this was 40 years ago and as I had already pointed out, things change?

Those that have watched the Arthur C. Clark & Stanley Kubrick movie, "2001 A Space Odyssey" know that HAL was created in Urbana, Illinois, home of the Univ of Illinois which is one of the top engineering and computer science schools.

If you examine the chart near the end of this article, you can see that U. Illinois receives $170 million per year in CS NSF funds. #2 Cornell is https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-06/want-a-jo...

As for the business decision of Gates/Allen to locate Microsoft in Seattle so as not to be in the competitive market for talent of SV, I saw it from a reliable source (perhaps something Gates himself said).

Disclosure: I grew up in Urbana (my h.s. is across the street from the U of I CS building) and I programmed for faculty on their supercomputers beginning when I was 15.

Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program

#30

Post by davidf18 »

chillacy wrote: post #27
davidf18 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle has presumably changed a bit since Microsoft was founded there about 40 years ago. No Amazon, etc. No competition for labor from other tech firms. Gates located there because he did not want to compete for labor from other tech firms and it was much harder then for SV or other tech to poach Microsoft employees paying them market wages. Remember Gates is very much the businessman. Nobody is competing with my w…

You're right, I do appreciate facts. But you still haven't provided a source for your claim. Unless you do so, it seems like you're producing a mixture of facts, opinions, and speculation, and calling them all facts.

See my comment above. I recall Gates or other reliable source stating this information and it made sense, because for me, Seattle is boring, boring.
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