Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 404 posts

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#271

Post by pitaj »

Daishiman wrote: post #267
i_phish_cats wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice anecdote. Here's another theory: American kids are being priced out of universities with good CS programs because those universities have burdensome pension programs that can only be paid by importing international students with rich parents.

Which countries with decent state-funded universities generally don't have because you've decided that the free market "works" in providing what is basically an essential service for the growth of society.

US colleges used to be affordable before the federal government started pouring money into them with guaranteed loans. It's not a free market, but one distorted by government intervention.

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#272

Post by geff82 »

shados wrote: post #237
geff82 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Berlin is the worst place if you want to have a good paying job. If you only want to work for startups, then Berlin is the place to go. But if you are open to work in Big Enterprise IT, then there are many places where you can work and earn very good salaries (especially Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg where Enterprise IT usually pays between 80k$-140k$ depending on your role). While taxes and contributions for singles ar…

> 80k$-140k$ Thats the problem. You used the dollar symbol, but even if its euros, the upper range you gave is 160k. That's way, way too low for an upper range if someone's thinking of salaries on one of the US' coasts (especially west, but also east). Insurance is mostly for if you lose your job...as long as you have one, its a pretty tiny part of the paychecks, retirement matching is pretty common, food isn't that…

House worth 700k next to Frankfurt (the house I live in): 450 Euro a year.

If you really count in the high rents on east and westcoast, I doubt there is high net difference of money to live from. If you are working as a freelancer, your tech income will also be rather in the 160-240k$ range (and quite stable nevertheless)

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#273

Post by walshemj »

notyourday wrote: post #256
jimjansen wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's lunacy. How many Americans can you find that want to work in Africa, or India or China? Its going to be a infinitesimally small fraction compared to the number of people from those regions that want to work here.

How much will it pay? Americans work in UAE and KSA where their life looks like it was plocked from a dystopian novel.

But if your doing that as a westerner your on a full ride expat ticket with a considerably higher salary and can save a lot.

For really dodgy areas not soft postings like UAE / KSA you also get a premium. I remember a colleague who was on +80% for Angola (he got robed twice on the trip from airport to town)

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#274

Post by core-questions »

Daishiman wrote: post #267
i_phish_cats wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice anecdote. Here's another theory: American kids are being priced out of universities with good CS programs because those universities have burdensome pension programs that can only be paid by importing international students with rich parents.

Which countries with decent state-funded universities generally don't have because you've decided that the free market "works" in providing what is basically an essential service for the growth of society.

Which countries? Here in Canada our universities are very well funded (relatively speaking) and yet the pensions programs are still screwed from 2008.

Never mind the issues with union staff you can't fire despite their rampant ineffectivity...

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#275

Post by core-questions »

noobermin wrote: post #268
DataWorker wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your opinion is obviously contradicted by the facts. The American education system is a major reason people immigrate here in the first place. Many of the best universities and research centers in the world happen to be in America. You may have some gripe about your kid’s teacher or whatever, but if you feel that a single data point from a parent’s biased perspective is more informative than the facts and statistics,…

Private, elite prep schools and colleges in the US are the best. The average college or high school is dismal compared to the rest of the world. We consistently score below the average of OECD countries.

These stats are thrown off by a number of factors that it would be imprudent to get into here. Control for demographic samples similar to the other countries and you'll see a very different picture.

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#276

Post by commandlinefan »

jimjansen wrote: post #231
ransom1538 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wish it was reciprocated. I would like to work in Spain (no really). If I work in Spain, the US should open a spot for someone from Spain to work in the US. You want to hire someone from Turkey? No problem, find someone in the US to move to Turkey. You could allow companies to even grease the wheels, "Work from Turkey and get a 30k / year extra free bonus stipend!! yay!!"

That's lunacy. How many Americans can you find that want to work in Africa, or India or China? Its going to be a infinitesimally small fraction compared to the number of people from those regions that want to work here.

I'd love to work in China. So there's one.

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#277

Post by apcragg »

pitaj wrote: post #271
Daishiman wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which countries with decent state-funded universities generally don't have because you've decided that the free market "works" in providing what is basically an essential service for the growth of society.

US colleges used to be affordable before the federal government started pouring money into them with guaranteed loans. It's not a free market, but one distorted by government intervention.

Oh yeah, all before all that government intervention those land Grant universities really pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#278

Post by walshemj »

curun1r wrote: post #260
johnvanommen wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could index it with cost of living. So an H1B in a California company would expect to see a higher salary than one in Kansas.

The easier way is to just have ratios. Companies that already employ lots of Americans should be able to easily hire foreigners. Companies that hire predominantly foreigners should have a difficult time getting more. A few rules to prevent gaming the system and you've got a system that works well for everyone involved and doesn't need CoL adjustments. Plus, ensuring that foreigners work closely with Americans helps b…

Banning any body shops from the H1B program all must be direct employees - would help I think.

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#279

Post by geff82 »

JanSt wrote: post #270
geff82 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It totally depends. If you are working and living in one of the big centers like Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin or Hamburg, chances are good that you find work in a company that accepts English-only speakers and usually you can live day-to-day life in English, too. But of course I have to say that you should try to learn the language if you want to stay in Germany longer than just a year or two, as this will open up even…

I'm not yet buying tight talent supply. Does your company offer 90-100% remote work (from Germany/EU/similar timezone)? If it doesn't the market isn't really tight. Software can easily be done from anywhere you want with few meetings necesarry (well, maybe for teambuilding ;-))

That is this HackerNews mindset. Software can be done from anywhere, sure, and big German companies get it coded in India or East Europe. The high paying IT jobs here are not coders who produce software, but architects, business analysts, project managers, scrum masters, product owners, data scientists, IT consultants who work together with the client in person. The coding and system administration is offshored in a lot of cases.

Re: America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

#280

Post by geff82 »

outworlder wrote: post #254
geff82 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It totally depends. If you are working and living in one of the big centers like Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin or Hamburg, chances are good that you find work in a company that accepts English-only speakers and usually you can live day-to-day life in English, too. But of course I have to say that you should try to learn the language if you want to stay in Germany longer than just a year or two, as this will open up even…

> But of course I have to say that you should try to learn the language if you want to stay in Germany longer than just a year or two Of course. But being able to at least perform basic functions while also adapting to a new country is important(and it is overwhelming already without language issues). After a while, you're doing yourself a disservice by not learning the local language. My aunt lived in Japan for clos…

You will absolutely get around Germany using English :) no worries.
Post reply on HN