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

Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

computerworld.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 94 posts

Re: Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

#31

Post by Loughla »

lesuorac wrote: post #17
tw04 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's disingenuous to blame Trump when this is what U.S. voters chose. It’s really not. Exit polls show a tiny fraction of voters picked Trump for anything other than his empty promises of “instantly fixing the economy”. That’s ignoring all the people who didn’t vote at all. Saying not voting is the same as voting for the bad thing is an empty accusation that lacks critical thinking.

Not voting is probably worse. Candidates won't exist that reflect your preferences if you don't actually demonstrate them. I do wish we'd have a bunch of electoral reforms but those candidates don't do well during primaries.

I'm convinced it's the primary that is breaking the elections here. You have to pander to the kind of people that vote in primaries - more extreme or more available being the key demographics there. So either people with political beliefs way off the party average, or old people.

Re: Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

#32

Post by quietsegfault »

hollerith wrote: post #25
Herring wrote: post #23

It doesn't matter to conservatives. Look at the US South. They have been poor for generations because they dislike diversity more than they want a strong economy and common prosperity. As far as I can tell the best fix is higher education (exposure to diverse viewpoints & critical thinking predicts partisan shifting). But I'm sure there are other options.

Huh? The US South is wealthier than any country on earth that is not a tax haven excepting only the US as a whole and perhaps Norway with its oil wealth. (The US South was considerably poorer than the rest of the US, but the advent of air conditioning about 75 years ago eventually ended that.) I'm going to guess that it also has more college graduates per capita than any country except the US as a whole. Also, US sta…

You don’t compare a US region to sovereign countries that don’t share federal transfers, monetary policy, or capital markets. The correct comparison might be the South vs other US regions. In that comparison the South has persistently lower incomes, higher poverty, worse health outcomes, and weaker mobility. And while immigration is federal, states clearly influence who stays through jobs, education, civil rights enforcement, and political climate.

Re: Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

#33

Post by metricusern »

dyauspitr wrote: post #24
franktankbank wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 40% of all current US unicorns This should be easy to cite. Thanks in advance.

https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/foreign-born-entrepreneu...

It appears that close to 20% of all unicorns were founded by Indian entrepreneurs, which is still remarkably eye-opening.

Re: Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

#35

Post by hollerith »

quietsegfault wrote: post #32
hollerith wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? The US South is wealthier than any country on earth that is not a tax haven excepting only the US as a whole and perhaps Norway with its oil wealth. (The US South was considerably poorer than the rest of the US, but the advent of air conditioning about 75 years ago eventually ended that.) I'm going to guess that it also has more college graduates per capita than any country except the US as a whole. Also, US sta…

You don’t compare a US region to sovereign countries that don’t share federal transfers, monetary policy, or capital markets. The correct comparison might be the South vs other US regions. In that comparison the South has persistently lower incomes, higher poverty, worse health outcomes, and weaker mobility. And while immigration is federal, states clearly influence who stays through jobs, education, civil rights enf…

The Federal government has famously been involved in how well states enforce civil rights starting in the 1950s.

Also, the Southern US can't be doing that badly at guarding civil rights if a non-white immigrant can write,

>As a brown guy I'd prefer my odds in the reddest county in Mississippi than anywhere in Asia (other than my own ethnostate).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31227980

Re: Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

#36

Post by lowkey_ »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21
garbawarb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only constant is that things are always changing, and getting more hostile for foreigners. It's disingenuous to blame Trump when this is what U.S. voters chose.

> disingenuous to blame Trump when this is what U.S. voters chose Trump legitimately campaigned on being cruel to illegal migrants and refugees. He also campaigned on reducing immigration in general. To that extent, you are correct inasmuch as Trump's H1-B policies were promised. (MAGA wasn't subtle [1].) Where I think we can legitimately say this is MAGA versus Republicans is in the reverse brain drain. America in t…

> Where I think we can legitimately say this is MAGA versus Republicans is in the reverse brain drain. America in the 1950s was a destination for top minds. Ameirca in the 2020s is not.

I do think it's counter-productive for America to make it harder for legal and talented immigrants, and we should fix that - but what's your evidence that America isn't still the world capital for the ambitious?

Statistically: The close competitors (e.g. Western Europe, Canada) are looking pretty dire economically compared to the US.

Anecdotally: I have friends from Estonia, Canada, the UK, and France that are all clamoring to be in America for the opportunity.

Historically: Post-WWII in the 1950s, 6.9% of the population was foreign-born. It's now 15.8%. So are we really more closed-off than we were then? Or is this just the response to the ever-increasing interest in immigrating because of the US being as compelling as it is?

Re: Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

#37

Post by iso1631 »

tw04 wrote: post #11
garbawarb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only constant is that things are always changing, and getting more hostile for foreigners. It's disingenuous to blame Trump when this is what U.S. voters chose.

> It's disingenuous to blame Trump when this is what U.S. voters chose. It’s really not. Exit polls show a tiny fraction of voters picked Trump for anything other than his empty promises of “instantly fixing the economy”. That’s ignoring all the people who didn’t vote at all. Saying not voting is the same as voting for the bad thing is an empty accusation that lacks critical thinking.

If 100 million people vote for someone who promises an instant fix to anything, then they deserve what they get.

Re: Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

#38

Post by trgn »

Herring wrote: post #23

It doesn't matter to conservatives. Look at the US South. They have been poor for generations because they dislike diversity more than they want a strong economy and common prosperity. As far as I can tell the best fix is higher education (exposure to diverse viewpoints & critical thinking predicts partisan shifting). But I'm sure there are other options.

> They have been poor for generations

that will be news to a lot of people in the south.

Re: Foreign tech workers are avoiding travel to the US

#40

Post by dyauspitr »

trgn wrote: post #38
Herring wrote: post #23

It doesn't matter to conservatives. Look at the US South. They have been poor for generations because they dislike diversity more than they want a strong economy and common prosperity. As far as I can tell the best fix is higher education (exposure to diverse viewpoints & critical thinking predicts partisan shifting). But I'm sure there are other options.

> They have been poor for generations that will be news to a lot of people in the south.

Stats > anecdotes
Post reply on HN