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Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

alcorn.law

101–110 of 120 posts

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#101
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What matter does it make if it was originally meant at Europeans rather than Indians? People also used to consider Catholics (Irish, Italians, Polish) as not white. The US is still very sparsly populated, especially for a country with so much arable land & relatively mild climate. Ever been to the Netherlands or Belgium? They are quite lovely. Both also have a population density well in excess of 10x the US's. Lots m…

I hear this about the US all the time - open the gates, plenty of land left. But the areas that have seen job growth in the last 20 years are highly concentrated in areas that are about as packed as most of Western Europe: LA, SF, Boston through DC, and about a dozen other massive metro areas. The vast majority of available land (from the Mississippi to the Pacific and Alaska) is uninhabitable or agricultural and wit…

So by the same measure do you also support legislation to disallow rural Americans from moving to the cities? How about those from sparser cities into denser ones?

    So by what metric does increasing population 
    help those of us who live here
Not everything is about helping you. Why do people in HN complain about zoning/density restrictions in SFBA? Keeping real estate restricted/expensive is beneficial to people who already own a house there!

   areas that are about as packed as most of 
   Western Europe: LA, SF, Boston through DC,
   and about a dozen other massive metro areas.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002808-world-urban-areas... - only 2 of the top 20 metros are in the US and they have the lowest density (table 1). Also from that page: "the least dense urban areas with more than 2.5 million population are all in the United States."

The US is sparse in any meaningful metric.

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#102
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? There are far too many STEM graduates already. Brilliant people with PhDs from great schools often can't find living-wage work in their fields. Becoming highly educated in STEM isn't just low-value-add, it destroys value: a smart person wastes years of his life and productive capacity training for a research position he'll never get, then (optimistically) gets a programming or finance job…

Either companies i know don't know how to find the surplus of domestic stem students and thus hire from abroad (and actively complain about the changes), or maybe we just don't pay enough to syphon people away from the high paying liberal arts professions. Who knows, maybe the administration is right, we have a glut and need to restrict outside pressure in those fields.

Companies for the most part don't hire scientists and mathematicians. Quant finance may use advanced science and math degrees as a signal to find exceptionally smart and capable people, but the physics majors at hedge funds aren't doing physics. What little work there is for math & science is in government-funded academic research.

Engineers (real ones, not programmers) have a reliable path to middle-class life, I suppose, but this is mostly due to their scarcity. There's enough demand for new bridges, cars, and airplanes to sustain the profession, but not a ravenous expansion.

That leaves technology. Where is technology education? There are some trade schools that will teach you to administer and support Microsoft and Cisco business-oriented products for a decent lower-midde-class life, though they are slowly being eaten by The Cloud. And then there's Computer Science, which is a precursor to working as a programmer only because we lack more direct pedagogical methods.

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#103

This article is short on facts. As a high skilled temp immigrant in US (from India), I follow these stories very closely and it is sad to see such scare mongering articles based on pure imagination! 1) Diversity lottery needs to go. IMO it's purpose was to find low skilled immigrants who'd often become taxi drivers or food cart owners. Most of these industries that relied on DV immigrant labor have been disrupted and…

I must call BS on your first point: it's not just false, but also quite naive to think that an immigration program would purposely target low-skilled individuals. First, DV is supposed to use random selection (lottery) - so the resulting distribution should reflect the statistical makeup of the applicant pool. Second, one of the DV requirements is a high school diploma - so the pool is biased towards higher education…

My apologies if my point came across as condescending. That wasn't my intention.

High school diploma is not exactly high skilled. But I agree with the rest of what you say, that there are a good number of immigrants on DV who are high skilled, including you.

But the problem of basic skilled immigrants getting DV lottery over highly skilled immigrants from certain countries getting shafted still remains as is. Most taxi drivers I have spoken to in north east either come through DV or family based legal immigration path.

With a merit based immigration system, you and I can immigrate to US with way fewer hassles and uncertainties while less skilled people will need to skill up to be eligible.

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#104
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I suppose they can pay this person a pittance in comparison. Totally false understanding of the H1B visa program. H1B employees are not cheap labor, in fact full-time H1B employees are paid on-par or more than American citizens. Employers are required, by law, to file the prevailing wages during labor certification before filing H1B visa. Employers hire full-time H1B visa holders for only one reason: they simply can…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-h-1b_us_5890d86ce4...

true to certain extent..Indians and Chinese national are discriminated in the allotment of green cards due to country quota limits. The result is green card queues are backlogged for years tied to sponsoring employer.

Some employees don't want to go through this whole process switching a job, leading to few employers taking "unfair advantage" of these employees. They are not offered fair wage hikes or promotions as the employer knows they are stuck in the green card queue for years.

But the thing is nothing is stopping these employees from making a move to a high paying job. They are just lethargic and don't want to take a risk. Employees should not sacrifice their career goals for immigration issues. How I do know? Been there, seen that, did that. I am still waiting for my green card for the last 6 years and I expect to wait for at least another 6-8 years.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/392 can change this. This bill has bi-partisan support and I hope it will be put for a vote.

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#105
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I suppose they can pay this person a pittance in comparison. While I respect your opinions on H1B program because you are entitled to have one, you have evidently no idea how much an H1B is paid if you think its a "pittance" (or have a different definition of "pittance"). E.g. See http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Facebook+Inc&job=&city=SEAT... BTW, the salaries mentioned are just base (i.e. cash component). You…

Compare to http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Tata+Consultancy+Services+L...

full-time h1b employees != h1b consultants

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#106
post #48
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was before all the land was settled. And most likely meant for Europeans.

What matter does it make if it was originally meant at Europeans rather than Indians? People also used to consider Catholics (Irish, Italians, Polish) as not white. The US is still very sparsly populated, especially for a country with so much arable land & relatively mild climate. Ever been to the Netherlands or Belgium? They are quite lovely. Both also have a population density well in excess of 10x the US's. Lots m…

Shouldn't we help the ones already here first?

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#107
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What matter does it make if it was originally meant at Europeans rather than Indians? People also used to consider Catholics (Irish, Italians, Polish) as not white. The US is still very sparsly populated, especially for a country with so much arable land & relatively mild climate. Ever been to the Netherlands or Belgium? They are quite lovely. Both also have a population density well in excess of 10x the US's. Lots m…

Shouldn't we help the ones already here first?

Should we solve all problems on earth before attempting a mission to mars? And this is ignoring the fact that allowing immigration is not some purely benevolent sacrifice for helping others, countries generally benefit from immigration as a whole.

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#108

This article is short on facts. As a high skilled temp immigrant in US (from India), I follow these stories very closely and it is sad to see such scare mongering articles based on pure imagination! 1) Diversity lottery needs to go. IMO it's purpose was to find low skilled immigrants who'd often become taxi drivers or food cart owners. Most of these industries that relied on DV immigrant labor have been disrupted and…

I must call BS on your first point: it's not just false, but also quite naive to think that an immigration program would purposely target low-skilled individuals. First, DV is supposed to use random selection (lottery) - so the resulting distribution should reflect the statistical makeup of the applicant pool. Second, one of the DV requirements is a high school diploma - so the pool is biased towards higher education…

[deleted]

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must call BS on your first point: it's not just false, but also quite naive to think that an immigration program would purposely target low-skilled individuals. First, DV is supposed to use random selection (lottery) - so the resulting distribution should reflect the statistical makeup of the applicant pool. Second, one of the DV requirements is a high school diploma - so the pool is biased towards higher education…

My apologies if my point came across as condescending. That wasn't my intention. High school diploma is not exactly high skilled. But I agree with the rest of what you say, that there are a good number of immigrants on DV who are high skilled, including you. But the problem of basic skilled immigrants getting DV lottery over highly skilled immigrants from certain countries getting shafted still remains as is. Most ta…

DV, as its name suggests, is an immigration program, not an employment program. I happen to believe it tends to filter applicants educated above the local population average, but that is not its primary purpose.

And that's a good thing - prioritizing immigration based on the hot job du jour seems quite dangerous and guaranteed to produce the opposite of "diverse".

Re: Trump Administration to Slash Green Cards by 50%, Affecting H1-B/EB

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must call BS on your first point: it's not just false, but also quite naive to think that an immigration program would purposely target low-skilled individuals. First, DV is supposed to use random selection (lottery) - so the resulting distribution should reflect the statistical makeup of the applicant pool. Second, one of the DV requirements is a high school diploma - so the pool is biased towards higher education…

The account @dazilcher created just for this reply. They also hijacked the top comment for visibility. Treat with skepticism.

Questions for you:

1) can you reply without an account?

2) how did you skip your first post?

3) what makes a reply "hijacking"?

4) where is this "visibility" thing and how do I cash in?

5) do you always judge posts based on the author instead of content?

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