Earlier quoted context omitted.
And from an economic competitiveness aspect, as a world?
Who do we, as a world, compete with?
Death.
US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
191–200 of 207 posts
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There are only a few really good places to live for an educated worker. Japan, Australia, Western and Northern Europe, Canada, and the US. You need to pull your eyes out of your ass. The countries you mention are far from being superior; perhaps "good enough", but frankly nothing too fancy. You need to visit Hong Kong or Singapore to see how highly qualified immigrants live there like kings. Japan has serious envir…
I don't think it's inappropriate language, but I find your statement that the Queen can suspend Canadian parliament any time she wants is totally incorrect. The case you link to is an exceptional one that had no jurisprudence, and was most likely decided by the Queen's representative, not the Queen herself, which is not an insignificant difference. This was the aftermath of an election with a minority government resu…
Of course truth is more important than civility. But the two are compatible—there's no tradeoff.
It would be great if we had a way to correct all false statements on Hacker News, but we don't. That shouldn't prevent us from addressing the corrosion of the discourse by garden-variety incivility. Pulling out those weeds is one of the big things we all can do to make HN more conducive to truth-seeking discussion in the first place.
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Northern Europe. It's arguably superior to the US in many ways, but there are some things which we cannot get here. One thing is size. The US has 300+ million people, whereas my country only has a few million. All communities are smaller here; interesting things get here later or not at all (with bad localizations) because the market is too small. Things are tinier, quieter and get less traction. Another th…
> ...and wondered "why does s/he speak English so well?" it's not because of school. As an American, I've always been surprised when conversing with people from other countries considering their usage of English is not bad and is far better than those that are American natives. However, also as an American, I'm not surprised by the lack of skill in regards to the English language that is present amongst the populatio…
The key distinction here is that native English speakers speak with whatever dialect that they grow up with. On the other hand, most ESL speakers try to learn a so-called "Prestige" dialect, like RP or General American. Thus, most fluent native speakers have a more prestigious accent and way of writing due to this, than those who speak English as a first language.
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#194I"m surprised only 124,000 applications were received. I was expecting the number to cross 200K. It gives more 85,000/124,000 probability which means slightly more than 68% of the people have chances of getting the H1B Visa.
Not quite 68% because there are two categories: 20,000 for advanced degree holders and another 65,000. There is an initial lottery between the advanced degree holders for the 20,000, and then the unsuccessful people go into the regular lottery. Don't know if the figures were released for the number of advanced degree holders who applied, but assuming the cap here was also met, the chances in the main lottery would be…
Ok that makes sense but then it's not 57% either for all of them since some people would end up getting a shot at the lottery twice.
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#195I am in USA on H1B. A lot of American problems seem to be around the thinking that there is some kind "fixed" number of jobs, misery, poverty, disease etc. A lot of welfare systems here seems to assume that there is a fixed number of single mothers, disabled etc. without acknowledging the fact that the more incentives you give to them more people will try to get into that category. For example more dole you give to d…
> Similarly the H1B cap seems to have an assumption that there are some fixed number of STEM jobs out there and if Indians fill it up, somehow the Americans will not get it. I would assume a higher concentration of Engineers in USA would only lead to more innovation, more engineers trying to earn more money by being far more creative and so on. So you are assuming the opposite? There are unlimited STEM jobs here? You…
Opposite of fixed is `not fixed` instead of unlimited. I never said America has unlimited jobs but the number of jobs would depend on too many factors.
Someone has a degree does not mean the person is productive enough to get an actual full time job. Also government's protectionist mechanisms only hurt these people. Assume that for any job there is a productivity level required X. For some value X=N, it is profitable to simply outsource that job to India. For all values X>N it is affordable to hire a person in US, also there is a strong demand for people X>N.
Under these conditions all the American citizens who have a degree but with productivity level If the government comes up with more rationalized H1B limit then many companies would prefer to simply give H1Bs to cheap labor from India. Yes, true thousands of half educated people from India would flock to America, but at the same time this will lead to more x<N jobs in US for which even Americans can compete. A lot of those unemployed graduates would then have a better shot at getting employed.
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#196They really should call them "indentured servant slave visas". The H1-B visa holder has to leave the country if he gets fired (and doesn't find a new employer quickly), and if he switches jobs the green card process has to start over. Because the H1-B visa employee is legally bound to the job, he becomes more attractive than hiring a US citizen, (assuming equal salary and qualification).
Calling H1Bs slave is a big insult to the black community. If H1B was slavery thousands of people would not have willingly applied for it.
H1B has lot of restrictions most idiotic being that the spouce has to sit idle. That is idiotic.
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ...and wondered "why does s/he speak English so well?" it's not because of school. As an American, I've always been surprised when conversing with people from other countries considering their usage of English is not bad and is far better than those that are American natives. However, also as an American, I'm not surprised by the lack of skill in regards to the English language that is present amongst the populatio…
The key distinction here is that native English speakers speak with whatever dialect that they grow up with. On the other hand, most ESL speakers try to learn a so-called "Prestige" dialect, like RP or General American. Thus, most fluent native speakers have a more prestigious accent and way of writing due to this, than those who speak English as a first language.
That's a great point that I haven't thought of before! I tend to forget that when others learn a new language it is generally taught in the proper and/or polite manner.
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#198What is that makes the United States such an attractive place to immigrate to for people whose skill sets could take them almost anywhere in the world? (In other words, why is that successive sessions of Congress can basically count on lots of people desiring to live in the United States, thus setting up an environment in which immigration regulation is restrictive rather than open?) (I'm genuinely curious about this…
What is that makes the United States such an attractive place to immigrate to for people whose skill sets could take them almost anywhere in the world?
As a European who spent his last 3 summers in the US, and now participating in H1B lottery, my motivation is pretty simple: money, and also prestige stemming from working for a well-recognized tech company in the core of SV that will follow me when I get back my home country, or immigrate to some country I find more desirable.
Spending few months in Bay Area and in Seattle made me pretty disillusioned about the whole "land of the free" thing, about equality and justice for all. It also made me concerned about my own personal safety, something I never ever felt back home.
But for the salary, I find that Canada is in almost every way superior for immigration purposes, not to mention Germany, Switzerland, Denmark or Sweden.
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Similarly the H1B cap seems to have an assumption that there are some fixed number of STEM jobs out there and if Indians fill it up, somehow the Americans will not get it. I would assume a higher concentration of Engineers in USA would only lead to more innovation, more engineers trying to earn more money by being far more creative and so on. So you are assuming the opposite? There are unlimited STEM jobs here? You…
Opposite of fixed is `not fixed` instead of unlimited. I never said America has unlimited jobs but the number of jobs would depend on too many factors. Someone has a degree does not mean the person is productive enough to get an actual full time job. Also government's protectionist mechanisms only hurt these people. Assume that for any job there is a productivity level required X. For some value X=N, it is profitable…
>Someone has a degree does not mean the person is productive enough to get an actual full time job.
So your assumption is that large portions of people who put in all the effort to achieve a STEM degree cannot be productive enough even to even get/hold a job in that same field? That is a big assumption, and pretty unfounded. It if far more realistic to suggest that American companies cannot afford to hire domestic workers or hold out to maximize their dollar by bringing in immigrants or off-shoring.
I think that the picture of immigrants being in such high demand because the amount allowed in is sucked up quickly creates a false picture. It is not that we don't have the workers here, it is that cheaper and more loyal workers can be had which can do the same job at a usually more productive rate (Visa workers are more productive because they are constantly busting ass trying not to get fired/deported). Think about it, if you were willing to move half way around the world to get a job, don't you think you'd have extra motivation over a locally raised guy who is picking and choosing between potential employers. We cannot perpetually import workers, this would only leave a larger and larger pool of educated, skilled, unemployed (or not employed in a skilled field) locals. How is this good?
>Yes, true thousands of half educated people from India would flock to America, but at the same time this will lead to more x
So your logic is that bringing in more half educated people from India would provide more X<N jobs? We already have an abundance of half educated people both born here and from Mexico (many of which are unemployed). I don't see how adding more to this group is going to improve anything. Educated people don't want and often refuse to take X<N jobs. The corporations took the immigrants over them and now they just leech off of the government. All so that corporations can increase their bottom line.
Re: US burns through all high-skill visas for 2015 in less than a week
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? It takes about 5 years to become registered plumber in NZ/AU. Many plumbers are also qualified in drainlaying, gasfitting and roofing as well. If you work with gas then lives depend on the quality of your work. You also have to be physically fit, willing to get up early and sometimes deal with really unpleasant situations (e.g. wade through shit). "Average" plumbers in AU might only get 60-80k (seriously, check…
Can I do my own plumbing if I do it according to the codes and I am not in a union? Also why do I have to pay for a plumber that is qualified in drainlaying, gasfitting and roofing when all I need is to fix a small leak in my faucet? It's like when you need to reinstall Windows on your PC you cannot do it yourself and have to get a software engineer for $500/hr who can write assembly code and knows the difference bet…
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