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

Post by DataWorker » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 9:52 PM UTC

CodeMage wrote: post #290

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,…

Maybe it's my fault, but I haven't found "easily accessible data" on the quality of elementary and middle school education, which is something a lot of people seem to be ignoring in this discussion. Sure, people might be motivated to immigrate here by your universities. Even when I was a teenager growing up in an Eastern European country, I had heard of MIT and dreamed of studying there. But there's a long road to go…

Post by jhbadger » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 9:52 PM UTC

jorblumesea wrote: post #246

CodeMage wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Both of these would ensure that we can get smart and talented individuals from outside the US and would drastically improve the ability for the US to compete while continuing to provide broad-based wage increases. As an immigrant, I'm all for better and easier immigration system. As a parent of an 11 year old, I can tell you that what your country really needs is not more smart and talented immigrants, but better e…

It really depends on the region and city, the US educational system has zero consistency across the nation. It also varies considerably by income, where rich school districts have educational standards above European levels, and where poor districts have standards on par with Latin America or even Africa. It's not that we don't produce educated people, it's we don't consistently produce educated people across the boa…

Post by burfog » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 9:57 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #48

firedrakerage wrote: post #11

I do not typically post, but these suggestions seem like genuine improvements to the existing system: "Kerr suggests allocating H-1Bs not by lottery as they are now, but by salary — the more that a company is willing to pay for a foreign worker, the quicker they can get a visa." "A second change would be to allow H-1B workers to apply for permanent residency green cards on their own, without having to be sponsored by…

A nice idea but would make it impossible, for example, for my kid’s foreign-language school to bring in qualified teachers.[+] It’s difficult already as teachers switch jobs over the summer which over the past couple of decades has been when the supply is already used up. [+] English teachers are recruited from the California system. Unfortunately CA schools are so terrible that if the kids go back to their jobs,enco…

Post by notfromhere » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 9:59 PM UTC

i_phish_cats wrote: post #247

CodeMage wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Both of these would ensure that we can get smart and talented individuals from outside the US and would drastically improve the ability for the US to compete while continuing to provide broad-based wage increases. As an immigrant, I'm all for better and easier immigration system. As a parent of an 11 year old, I can tell you that what your country really needs is not more smart and talented immigrants, but better e…

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.

Post by bduerst » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 10:04 PM UTC

int_19h wrote: post #285

bduerst wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of the H1B program is to fulfill skilled labor demand where local labor is unable to fill it. The purpose is not to give visas to the wealthiest bidder in the wealthiest locations and industries. Prevailing wage requirement already solves the problem of wage velocity, so this is just creating more issues without solving any.

"Unable to fill" is itself a function of the salary. If a local business is unable to fill it at what they're willing to pay, how about paying more to attract said labor from other parts of the country? H1B and similar programs should be used to fill in the holes that are on the national level - i.e. where there's no labor force anywhere else in the country that could be enticed to move.