Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#2Not sure I understand the point of this article.
Is it that trying to improve reform regarding immigration with work visas in tech is too limited?
It rambles a bit at the beginning and then alludes to hard labor jobs, but doesn't really have any clear organization or discernable purpose.
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#3I find it interesting that Facebook wont hire a kid with a degree from a community college here in the US, but will fight tooth and nail to hire someone with a degree from an Indian college that Mark probably couldn't pronounce the name of.
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#4I find it interesting that Facebook wont hire a kid with a degree from a community college here in the US, but will fight tooth and nail to hire someone with a degree from an Indian college that Mark probably couldn't pronounce the name of.
You have anything to back that up? Don't they have an interview process that purports to determine actual candidate viability? are you saying merely being from the US AND having not a big name uni degree precludes you from even getting that far? Seems oddly weird and short sighted of their HR
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#5Not sure I understand the point of this article. Is it that trying to improve reform regarding immigration with work visas in tech is too limited? It rambles a bit at the beginning and then alludes to hard labor jobs, but doesn't really have any clear organization or discernable purpose.
I think saying that the tech industry is only a small fraction of our total economy (and the world economy in general). It's a huge growth engine, but most of the jobs and companies out there aren't tech related. If we place too much of an emphasis on recruiting engineers, we risk shutting out other skilled (and unskilled) immigrants.
Plenty of immigrants come to America with little more than a strong work ethic and a dream. They may have been too poor or disadvantaged to have afforded college, let alone an engineering degree, in their native countries. Hell, some of their native countries may not even have such opportunities. If we're restricting our search to highly skilled, highly educated workers, we're discriminating against everyone else who wants to participate in the American Dream.
Lest we assume these people are necessarily undesirable, we should be reminded of the fact that many of our most successful and quintessentially "American" companies were founded by originally unskilled immigrant laborers. Andrew Carnegie is perhaps the most famous example. His family emigrated to the US from Scotland, dirt poor and uneducated. His first job was as a messenger boy. He grew, of course, to become one of America's wealthiest and most productive captains of industry. He didn't have the status "captain of industry" before applying to enter the US. He gained that status in the US, via the opportunities afforded by the US to someone of his work ethic and intelligence. (And even the less-than-Carnegian immigrants of the world fill crucial roles in our economy).
Now, I disagree with the author in that he thinks a focus on engineers is necessarily a zero-sum game: that placing an emphasis on skilled workers precludes unskilled workers. It doesn't have to. I don't think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater on Zuckerberg's argument, just because it's limited in scope. There's probably a lot more help than harm done by the sorts of reforms the group is seeking.
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#6Not sure I understand the point of this article. Is it that trying to improve reform regarding immigration with work visas in tech is too limited? It rambles a bit at the beginning and then alludes to hard labor jobs, but doesn't really have any clear organization or discernable purpose.
No, it's that the vast majority of immigrants are not working in tech. The vast majority of Americans are not working in tech. We have something like 11 million undocumented immigrants: their staying in the US should not be contingent on them being a part of the new business scene.
Furthermore, why should the US be encouraging technologists to immigrate here, when fundamentally those immigrants are in the business of putting other people (Americans and immigrants both) out of work? Yes, this is great for Silicon Valley, and probably is good for NYC, but what about for Iowa and Nebraska?
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#7I find it interesting that Facebook wont hire a kid with a degree from a community college here in the US, but will fight tooth and nail to hire someone with a degree from an Indian college that Mark probably couldn't pronounce the name of.
How is it interesting? Credentials matter. They're one of multiple metrics any knowledge-driven company uses to find the best to fill roles. Some community-college educated kid is unlikely to have the right skills to fill roles FB or any other tech company is looking for.
Even if the community college kid did get the interview (and their resume isn't immediately filtered out) good luck on that without advanced education. It wouldn't be impossible but definitely hard. Way hard.
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#8Zuckerberg is not in a bubble...he has been meeting with immigration policy experts for years. He understands his role in the national immigration debate, and he is playing it very well.
Many people have the goal of comprehensive immigration reform. To get it accomplished will take a lot of pushing from a lot of different directions.
Zuckerberg, as the CEO of one of the most famous "new economy" innovative companies, is in the perfect position to talk about high-skilled workers, which is a component of comprehensive reform that will help Republicans accept the bill. He has a ton of personal credibility on this aspect of immigration. FWD.us aggregates other people with similar credibility.
He does not have a ton of credibility on issues like re-training former textile workers, or low-skill jobs, or illegal immigrants. If he tried to lobby on those issues he would be dismissed as a typical grandstanding California liberal. There are plenty of other people and organizations--with more credibility--pushing on those aspects of immigration reform.
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#9Not sure I understand the point of this article. Is it that trying to improve reform regarding immigration with work visas in tech is too limited? It rambles a bit at the beginning and then alludes to hard labor jobs, but doesn't really have any clear organization or discernable purpose.
The article isn't condemning the cause of immigration reform, but rather shining a light on the fact that the most powerful voices are too narrowly focused. Technology visionaries seem to be overwhelmingly focused on self-serving initiatives in the name of economic growth.
The reality is immigration reform needs to be felt throughout the economy, not simply towards engineers and knowledge workers. It's important for business leaders to stand up for immigration reform, but it would be better if they recognized the issue in a more holistic way. The economy is much larger than what is perceived within the Valley.
Om Malik is one of the few journalists I trust within the bubble of Silicon Valley. Part of the reason this article has a lot of resonances is because he's a dissenting immigrant who understands the values of technology and startups.
Re: Why I have issues with Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us
#10Thank you for so eloquently pointing out the elephant in the room that I've been too scared to speak about myself.