It's great that these RFE's are happening, and Trump should have closed things up even earlier. There are plenty of people with skills out there who may not know every feature of Vue.js 2.5.3, or who are 30 years old and thus "not a culture fit". Companies will start having to look for these people instead. Enough is enough. There's not even an argument, it's whether the programmer gets to make a salary in an industry where you're chucked overboard at 40, or whether billionaire heirs get that money added to their pile of riches. It's no contest. As far as Indians, they can work in India, or Europe, or apply for a green card.
USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
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Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#42Instead of a lottery, we should have an H1-B auction. There are a limited number of H1-B slots, and the companies that offer the highest salaries get them.
In addition, whistle-blower protection with automatic Green cards for anyone who reports employer abuse, with prison sentences for the entire company C-suite if a company abuses this process.
Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#43Conservatives may generally view this as "good" regardless of the impact because (according to arguments I've heard) "the less globalization, the better." In my mind, however, it boils down to two pretty simple points: Given that (1) the US is lagging far behind every developed nation in education, and higher education in the US is prohibitively expensive compared to other developed nations, (2) the only way for the…
> the only way for the US to remain on the R&D playing field
Are those the people we're bringing in with H1-Bs?
Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paleoconservatism/populism isn't concerned about the economic benefits of immigration; it's concerned about "protecting" culture so that immigrants don't have the opportunity to reshape it in any capacity. A sizeable portion of Trump's base believes that they are in danger of becoming a minority in "their own" country and will sidestep the economic benefits of immigration to retain a demographic majority. To these vo…
What US Democrats ignore is that practically every damn country in the world does this too, often to a higher degree than the US. So there's a pragmatic question of how to avoid putting yourself at a disadvantage by being comparatively overgenerous that you don't have to be a "paleoconservative" or Trump supporter, or even Republican, to be concerned about.
What disadvantage are you talking about?
Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#45I deeply understand the need for H-1B's for bringing in highly talented individuals. However, I can't stand how the argument seems to completely ignore the Americans who are displaced because of abuse of the H-1B system.
It seems a bit deceitful to paint this story solely through the lens of "immigrants" while lots of Americans are being directly replaced by H-1B workers.
I do not expect to go to another country and displace local workers. I do not expect to be granted a work visa in a place that I do not belong. If I go to another country to work, I expect to be providing a skill or talent that is not present in the local economy. Further more, I expect that I'd be teaching that skill to others. Or at the very least, be in the position to lead the growth and development of a team until a local worker can do my role.
Why should we expect any different from the H-1B's that the US grants?
Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#46Even though Silicon Valley sees the H-1B program as one of its top political priorities, this campaign of reform by red tape has avoided the frantic political fights surrounding other aspects of immigration, like the proposed travel ban or the cancellation of DACA, a program for those who came to the country as undocumented children. This is conflating two different things - DACA and travel ban are issues related to…
>The (skilled) immigration issue which concerns most of SV is green card backlogs. That has not gotten any attention from SV leadership. Of course not. If workers were not held hostage by one company, and were free to go to any company they wanted without worrying about their immigration status, the companies would have to pay higher wages to keep their workers.
Not to mention, many would be able to work for or create startups, small businesses, or heck, just bum around or retire if they had saved enough over the years.
Companies hate employees having this kind of flexibility. Just on some other thread on HN, there was talk of how foreign grad students were not treated well compared to citizens, since the foreigners were tied to a visa.
Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#47Conservatives may generally view this as "good" regardless of the impact because (according to arguments I've heard) "the less globalization, the better." In my mind, however, it boils down to two pretty simple points: Given that (1) the US is lagging far behind every developed nation in education, and higher education in the US is prohibitively expensive compared to other developed nations, (2) the only way for the…
The US as a whole (including non-governmental culture, employer preferences, etc) is still making a massive push for higher education, which is a big part of what's caused the arms race of ever-nicer dorms etc. The thing to remember about US education is that it's highly different between the haves and have-nots. That's a problem in itself, but it's a giant oversimplification to jump to "US educations are generally p…
Well that's just it - using the word "generally," the US does poorly. Gap or no, if a huge swath of your population can't compete, that reflects poorly on your country.
There's a gap in China as well but it's made up for by a massive population. Lord forbid they close their gap, that'll be the end of any other country's ability to compete as China and India just throw five hundred million engineers each at their technology sector.
Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#48Conservatives may generally view this as "good" regardless of the impact because (according to arguments I've heard) "the less globalization, the better." In my mind, however, it boils down to two pretty simple points: Given that (1) the US is lagging far behind every developed nation in education, and higher education in the US is prohibitively expensive compared to other developed nations, (2) the only way for the…
The demand for locally trained highly trained people is stifled by the easy access to highly trained people trained by someone else. Reducing the influx of highly skilled immigrants may have the virtuous effect of increasing the demand for local high quality education, which may, in the long term, reduce the the education gap between US and China / Taiwan / Japan / Germany.
Maybe, but I feel it would make more sense to see the writing on the wall, rather than wait for us to feel the pain.
Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#49> Centro had applied for visas for three young employees
> He’d received a letter from USCIS saying it would reject his application unless Centro proved the position required someone with specialized skills
> The position — which consisted of writing algorithms and required knowledge of multiple programming languages as well as a solid understanding of relational data storage systems — wasn’t a borderline case.
I'm going to disagree here. It sounds to me like a textbook example of a company hiring a young, inexperienced worker because they're cheaper than experienced ones.
To those getting old in the valley, it seems this type of action is good news.
Re: USCIS is challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications
#50The solution is simple: rank the H1B applicants by descending order of wages, and take the top 65K. Period. Done. End of story. No more abuse.