Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#921

Post by tathougies » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:08 PM UTC

3pt14159 wrote: post #206

There is a lot of political science research that speaks to growing xenophobia when immigration is unleashed. I understand the sentiment—I'm very pro-immigration—but with respect to domestic policy my primary goal is stability and faith in government. Personally, I like how my country, Canada, does it. Points based system that rewards multiple factors, including skills, employability, and fluency in English and Frenc…

Asking Americans to implement the Canadian system of immigration will quickly earn you accusations of xenophobia and nazism.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#922

Post by tathougies » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:11 PM UTC

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #475

People who oppose H1B fundamentally believe that foreign workers should not be allowed to enter the American labor pool thereby depressing the wages here. Fair enough. While on the margin, it is true that if a company can't hire a foreign worker, it _might_ be forced to hire a local worker in the short run. But in the long run, restricting labor this way only increases the chance of that job moving entirely abroad, e…

It's a better option because the strengthening of India and the transformation of India into a developed country is a more important long term national security and prosperity interest than american hegemony in any particular industry

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#923

Post by tmaly » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:21 PM UTC

With the trend being remote right now, the first thing that pops in my mind is that this policy change will lead to the offshoring of more jobs.

It could also lead to more jobs moving to the Midwest away from higher cost of living areas.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#924

Post by dailypeeker » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:23 PM UTC

sisama wrote: post #664

I estimated the new prevailing wages for NYC/SF/SEA using z-scores and the new %-iles. For NYC: (I II III IV) = (116,003 137,323 160,321 203,405) For SF: (I II III IV) = (138,283 162,157 187,910 236,155) For SEA: (I II III IV) = (128,082 148,708 170,957 212,639) The level for an applicant is determined by their education + experience. Level I is supposed to correspond to an entry-level role requiring specialized skil…

Can you define formula in a spreadsheet so that by entering old wages for any new state, predictions are populated?

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#925

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:23 PM UTC

mikeyouse wrote: post #98

notJim wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The H1B program has been abused for a long time What's the abuse?

"Body shops" like Infosys and Tata Consulting that import thousands of H1Bs under borderline fraudulent applications, and then underpay these employees. Just a random link, but the contours of the problem: https://www.epi.org/blog/new-data-infosys-tata-abuse-h-1b-pr...

[deleted]

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#926

Post by petilon » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:23 PM UTC

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #839

petilon wrote: post #787

Larry Ellison, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs would be denied visas according to the new policy since they don’t have CS degrees.

H1-B holders cant start companies anyway. It’s a temporary migrant worker visa.

If they can start a company and hire a few thousand people then why stop them?

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#927

Post by dartdartdart » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

sudosteph wrote: post #433

dartdartdart wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, American is built on the hard work of immigrants. We need to allow more immigrants, especially highly skilled workers

Maybe this comes off as too negative: but that "America is built on the hard work of immigrants" meme is an absolutely tone-deaf talking point. Many people hear hear that phrase, and immediately assume you are not arguing in good faith. Yes, immigrants built America. But so did enslaved people. So did natives. So did rebellious colonists of the British empire. Most of those people did not consider themselves immigran…

Are Colonists treated as bad as immigrants in this country at the moment? The post is about immigrants so that's why I'm talking about immigrants. People who are immigrants are still in the transition phase and this is a clear sign that they are less welcome.

Not many people are capable of traveling from distance places away, learning a new language, and then starting from scratch, with no family or friends. I'd give them a bit of credit, especially since their contributions are still being uncovered after being purposely devalued.

To your point, there are of course other hard working demographics in the US, but limiting the number of H1Bs that can come over is slamming the door on people who rightly deserve to be in the US.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#928

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#929

Post by kamaal » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:37 PM UTC

908B64B197 wrote: post #25

This is a great move. The current H1B program made no sense at all. If I wanted to hire: A smart graduate from EPFL, Polytechnique or ETH Zurich who interned at CERN and has contributed to the Linux kernel for a software engineering job at a unicorn startup or A grad from a second tier "technical college" in India with a visa refusal rate of ~90% for a job doing manual UI testing and QA for a body shop my only path f…

You are answering your own question.

If you had a job that could be done by both types of people you describe, why would you pay 4x extra for the former?

Why should the guy who can write operating systems spend their time doing work that's below their skill and training experience? And if this person is ready to do this, why is the latter person held responsible for this?

>>They'll both be listed as "computer related occupations" and apply for the same visa in the same quota. Does that makes any sense to anyone?

Yes, because they are being hired to do the same job. Hiring Captain America as a guard at ToysRUs doesn't change the job description of a security guard. It just means Captain America make a bad decision to work the wrong job.

Re: Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

#930

Post by pseudalopex » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 4:42 PM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #760

pseudalopex wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory.[1] [1] https://www.epi.org/publication/h-1b-visas-and-prevailing-wa...

EPI is a Washington think tank funded by American labor unions. I wouldn't take anything they publish about foreign labor seriously, especially how they cherry pick stats on that report.

What is misleading about the report? Who would you take seriously?