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Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

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Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#91

Post by hocuspocus »

AnonNo15 wrote: post #30
binarymax wrote: post #9

"Starting Monday, Canada's government says it will streamline the visa process so that international tech workers can get a work permit in just two weeks — compared to a complicated process in the U.S. that can take months." I'm increasingly troubled by the notion that the only way one can move from one place to another, is by some contrived rule of value-add that person may offer. Aside from this new rule, Canada ot…

Canada is one of the easiest First World countries to immigrate to. Apply for college -> graduate and find a job -> get residence.

College education and job offer work in many other countries as well.

For a skilled and experienced software engineer, immigration to Canada is far from being trivial compared to EU, UK, Australia, ... even Japan!

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#92

Post by uw_rob »

acchow wrote: post #17
personjerry wrote: post #7

I just can't believe tech companies in Canada don't realize/aren't willing to just pay the price for top engineers. Like, how can they be such cheapskates? One day I'll start a company in Waterloo and address this problem.

Which Canadian tech company makes money hand-over-fist like Google, Facebook and Apple? The motivation to pay more for talent is to make more money... but Canadian tech companies 1) Do not make all that much money (with exception of Shopify) and 2) Don't believe that they will eventually make all that much money after hiring more.

Even the big companies pay less in Canada. I love my home but I am making 3x the money as an intern than I would as a full time dev in Toronto. Unfortunately I cannot stay.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#93

Post by legolas2412 »

ohhhwell wrote: post #59
BrainInAJar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian tech worker in SF... Nope. I tripled my salary coming down here even in just nominal terms (ie, before you factor in the exchange rate that eats 25% of your salary.) I hate SF/SiValley. I would love nothing more than to go home, but I'm not about to take a paycut that's measured in multiples of the median Canadian salary.

Unrelated tangent: It always baffle me how people view exchange rate as something that can "eat away your salary" and when you see people making statements like "it's so expensive in the UK, a pound is like 130% of a dollar". Makes me wonder if people who are only used to currencies that are roughly on the same scale view currencies in a different way than people who are used to 10x / 100x differences in currencies.…

As someone from India, I'm surprised people do this.

With 1 USD = 65 INR, we're used to converting with cost of living and Purchasing power in mind.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#94

Post by smnrchrds »

jankotek wrote: post #74
Pxtl wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Quick googling says income tax has doubled in 2017. reply This is not true, and was likely posted by a conservative hardliners. Canada uses an after-price sales tax like the USA, but in higher quantities - it will vary between 5% and 13% depending on province. Also, all provinces are currently implementing a carbon pricing system, so some provinces will have an additional sales tax on carbon intensive goods like ga…

Here is source for doubled tax, looks like google parser is wrong https://pasteboard.co/hMazP1hHs.png

That seems to be a case of bad web scraping. If you see the article the numbers were supposedly taken from, you will see compeltely different results:

http://taxtips.ca/taxrates/canada.htm

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#95

Post by linkregister »

ryandrake wrote: post #63
Pxtl wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because software isn't a zero sum game. Having "too many developers" in a community doesn't mean a glut of developers fighting for scraps, it means Silicon Valley. It means you get bigger companies doing bigger things with bigger success which means bigger quantities of cash whirling around up for grabs. Being the only plumber in town means you can charge whatever you want. Being the only developer in town means you'…

> Having "too many developers" in a community doesn't mean a glut of developers fighting for scraps, it means Silicon Valley. I think we might be talking about two different Silicon Valleys. The one here in the real world has a glut of developers fighting for scraps. Companies that have the luxury of being extremely picky and only hiring the best. Lots of interviewing and so-called "open positions" but not a lot of h…

I disagree; the nationwide median salary was $100,080; the bottom 10% earned less than $58,300. [1]

The unemployment rate for Computer and Mathematical Occupations was about 2.0%. [2]

Anecdotally, since a large part of someone's world view is by bad things that have happened to them, none of my friends from college are working outside of software. Some earn at the 10% spot in low cost-of-living areas, but they all are employed with enough money to get by.

1. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

2. https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea30.htm

Edit: this only holds true for the U.S.; unemployment for coders is probably far different in other countries.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#96

Post by UweSchmidt »

binarymax wrote: post #78
UweSchmidt wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With immigration you will definitively focus on highly educated people, people who have skills needed in the respective industries and who are likely to fit in well culturally. How would you regulate immigration?

I'd open up all the borders without restriction. It would be a madhouse for the first decade but then the world would be much better off in the long run. It would be the first step in a united planet rather than the pettiness we suffer now with individual competing states.

I agree on the 'madhouse' part.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#97

Post by vetinari »

throwaway29292 wrote: post #76
vetinari wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have an inherent right to enter a random country. People living there have to decide, who they allow to enter and who not. Usually, they set up a set of rules to decide, and it is up to them how these rules reflect their values.

Makes me wonder if this comment will age well, after around 50-100 years.

Don't worry about that.

Neither of us will see that, and it would take something very drastic to change how the humans behaved for millennia.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#98

Post by uw_rob »

linkregister wrote: post #73
kareemm wrote: post #8

Think Canadian salaries don't compete with US companies? Guess what happens when supply increases? Most other professionals (doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc) throttle supply through things like certification, but for some reason developers can't / don't want to get their act together to do the same. Even worse, they (we) welcome more supply! The mind boggles. And I say this as a Canadian employer who would certain…

I don't think that the market would care about professionally-certified coders. Accountants need to adhere to local and federal laws for GAAP accounting. Lawyers need to be familiar with local laws where they practice, and courts are gatekeepers to the practice of law. Doctors' specialization is protected by law for safety and liability purposes. Paralegals and specialized software is a market response to the bottlen…

>I don't think that the market would care about professionally-certified coders

They would care because laws would be put into place making such certificates required for doing work. Just like accountants need to follow GAAP etc.

> I think that the majority of stakeholders in software would be opposed to licensing legislation for coding.

For sure they would. But that doesn't necessary mean it could be stopped from happening.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#99

Post by jimmyk »

throwaway29292 wrote: post #76
vetinari wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have an inherent right to enter a random country. People living there have to decide, who they allow to enter and who not. Usually, they set up a set of rules to decide, and it is up to them how these rules reflect their values.

Makes me wonder if this comment will age well, after around 50-100 years.

It will age very well. Successful countries that behave otherwise don't stay successful for that long. If a country doesn't put its interests first, who will?

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#100

Post by cylinder »

shados wrote: post #87
schwap wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it... paying more so people don't have to choose between their country and financial security? I don't think many software developers in Canada are facing that choice. Is there the opportunity to be 'more' secure in the States? Sure. But being a developer in Canada is hardly a bleak proposition.

After living expenses, health insurance, taxes, etc, just moving south my net income tripled. 5 years later, I'm pushing something like 8x what disposable income would have been by now if I compare with my old colleagues. And that's even after I take out the extra expenses of my mortgage being 11x what my rent used to be (by choice, it was "only" 4x higher originally, since I lived in a rent controlled area for almos…

Doesn't this just show something isn't right in the US? Why aren't firms hiring more in their international offices if the cost of employing developers is 3x in the US vs even advanced nations with solid talent?
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