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

Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

cbc.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 339 posts

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#71

Post by pyre »

paul wrote: post #67
x0x0 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are referring to recent proposed visa changes, you appear to be defining dysfunctional as not passing visa programs very beneficial to a tiny group of people: incubators like YC, and owners / large investors in tech dependent startups. As not a member of those groups, that's quite a stretch.

Given that I also mentioned state and local government, it should be clear that I'm referring to more than just immigration issues. I get your point though. I'm an evil capitalist who doesn't want to fund Americans because they are unwilling to give up 7% equity, or something like that. Maybe you think that Sergey Brin and Paul Graham stole their jobs from some hard working, native born Americans. That's the problem…

Well, in some cases it's that the people coming from overseas are willing to get paid less for the same job. The 'evil capitalist' sees this as a way to get cheaper labor.

I think that this can be alleviated without being anti-immigrant though. For example, make it easier for H1Bs to move between jobs and/or start their own businesses so that they don't have to feel so tied to the employer that they don't want to risk 'rocking the boat' too much. Or make it so that switching jobs doesn't 'reset the counter' on building up towards citizenship (or is it just a green card, I forget).

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#72

Post by pekk »

inoop wrote: post #66

Earlier this year I interviewed for a research/engineering position at Apple. I was offered the job, took it, and went into the H1B lottery. It took the USCIS four months to let me know that my application was not selected, even though it was filed under 'premium processing', and the draw had been done using a computer in the first week after submissions closed. Since the job required me to be in Cupertino, the deal…

American citizens are not entitled to work in the EU. If an American wants to plan their long-term life around working in the EU, that is far from a sure thing. Even with a masters and PhD. So why should the US be singled out for this?

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#73

Post by prodigal_erik »

exstudent wrote: post #61
bruceb wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much every country has limits on immigration. It is hardly unique to the US. There are different cultures and traditions in the world. It takes for people to adjust to a new country and the country to adjust to them.

The internet is a good example of a culture than can exist if you do away with artificial barriers between groups of people. Modern immigration policy is not inherently correct and it wasn't devised during an age of hyper connectivity.

If the Internet had to ensure housing, food, and transportation would be available for every participant, we would be a lot more selective about granting access. Open borders made sense in the age of unsettled land, and they make sense when the marginal cost of delivering everything (i.e., only information) is nearly zero.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#74

Post by lingoberry »

inoop wrote: post #66

Earlier this year I interviewed for a research/engineering position at Apple. I was offered the job, took it, and went into the H1B lottery. It took the USCIS four months to let me know that my application was not selected, even though it was filed under 'premium processing', and the draw had been done using a computer in the first week after submissions closed. Since the job required me to be in Cupertino, the deal…

Wow, that really sucks (there's no other word for it). Makes me realise how lucky I was to get an H1B during the recession when no lottery was needed. Since then I've moved back to Europe though, in some small part for the insecurity of the whole situation. I wish you could have had my "spot", seems like you were a lot more deserving.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#75

Post by blutoot »

pekk wrote: post #72
inoop wrote: post #66

Earlier this year I interviewed for a research/engineering position at Apple. I was offered the job, took it, and went into the H1B lottery. It took the USCIS four months to let me know that my application was not selected, even though it was filed under 'premium processing', and the draw had been done using a computer in the first week after submissions closed. Since the job required me to be in Cupertino, the deal…

American citizens are not entitled to work in the EU. If an American wants to plan their long-term life around working in the EU, that is far from a sure thing. Even with a masters and PhD. So why should the US be singled out for this?

You don't need to be a jerk. He complained about a lottery - that hardly makes him sound feeling entitled about the job. A lottery, to him and to me, sounds like a joke in the grand scheme of things. To put all your formative years into the grinding regime of grad school only to see the next step taken away by a lottery sounds unfair and he has a right to complain about it.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#76

Post by vacri »

jbarham wrote: post #18
Dewie wrote: post #2

> "I will not go to Canada," said the 25-year-old from Argentina of his initial reaction. "Twenty degrees below zero, are you crazy?" Perhaps the warmest major Canadian city, with a mild winter due to being coastal ('twenty degree below zero' - probably not).

Certainly Vancouver's winters are milder than anywhere east of the Rockies, but the flipside is that you have to put up with rain, rain and more rain. After living in Vancouver for five years I moved to southern California where the weather was fantastic. I'm now in Melbourne, Australia, which is considered by Aussies to have cold winters but as a Canadian I just laugh whenever I hear that. Apart from the weather I'd…

I've had both Scots and Canadians complain about how cold Melbourne gets. The problem isn't so much that the temperature drop doesn't get below freezing very often, it's that we don't build for the cold. Another friend says that he knows a German who, when she visits someone's house, shakes an inner wall with her fingertips and says "you guys can't build houses for shit". The ironic thing is that we have some of the most expensive housing in the world, in terms of cost vs average annual income.

This all being said, the current winter we're in has been particularly weak - lots of warm, sunny days. It's not the usual dreary, rainy Melbourne winter.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#77

Post by enraged_camel »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #65
enraged_camel wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny you bring up Seattle. Temperature is only one factor. Another big one is humidity. Seattle is the 7th most humid city in the US, which can make 45 degrees feel like 30 and 80 degrees feel like 95. This is why Seattle weather is miserable year around except for a fe weeks in late spring and early summer. Not to mention the constant rain, of course. Drizzle , they call it.

Wow, so uninformed... Having lived in Mississippi and Seattle for 4+ years each (Seattle it was more like 8), windchill is much worse in Mississippi than it is in Seattle. In Seattle, you can pretty much leave your window open year round and have a nice sleep. 70 is considered hot in the summer; 40 is considered cold in the winter. Now Mississippi: hot humid summers, cold humid winters. Life pretty much sucks outside…

>>Wow, so uninformed...

I lived in Seattle for six years. So I'm not quite "uninformed" as you seem to believe.

>>Now Mississippi: hot humid summers, cold humid winters. Life pretty much sucks outside of Fall/Spring.

At least you have Fall/Spring in Mississippi. In Seattle, it's overcast nine months of the year, so you don't really have seasons.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#78

Post by blutoot »

_delirium wrote: post #60
ambrood wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it is actually quite sad that things like "fairness for highly skilled immigrants" is held hostage to CIR.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad strategy. The coalition to pass immigration reform is a mixture of immigration-rights activists on the left-ish side of the spectrum, and business advocates on the right-ish side of the spectrum. If you produce some cutouts narrowly addressing the staffing needs of some of the more influential businesses, they drop out of the coalition (because their own needs are satisfied) witho…

H1B is the only reasonable way a middle-class citizen of another nation can move to the US. Unless you can come up with a reasonable overnight replacement of that program, a lot of people will, rightfully, push for its expansion and not the other way around.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#79

Post by exstudent »

prodigal_erik wrote: post #73
exstudent wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet is a good example of a culture than can exist if you do away with artificial barriers between groups of people. Modern immigration policy is not inherently correct and it wasn't devised during an age of hyper connectivity.

If the Internet had to ensure housing, food, and transportation would be available for every participant, we would be a lot more selective about granting access. Open borders made sense in the age of unsettled land, and they make sense when the marginal cost of delivering everything (i.e., only information) is nearly zero.

I live in the US and I'm not ensured any of those things. Allowing more people into the country could only improve our economy.

We would be more "selective"? How would we select?

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#80

Post by fennecfoxen »

pekk wrote: post #72
inoop wrote: post #66

Earlier this year I interviewed for a research/engineering position at Apple. I was offered the job, took it, and went into the H1B lottery. It took the USCIS four months to let me know that my application was not selected, even though it was filed under 'premium processing', and the draw had been done using a computer in the first week after submissions closed. Since the job required me to be in Cupertino, the deal…

American citizens are not entitled to work in the EU. If an American wants to plan their long-term life around working in the EU, that is far from a sure thing. Even with a masters and PhD. So why should the US be singled out for this?

In the UK they at least aim to give you a decision on your visa in ~3 weeks at least 90% of the time, and there isn't just one window during which you're allowed to apply. https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/overview

Germany hopes for 1-3 months: http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/05__Legal/02__Dire...

(Coincidentally, I'm trying to relocate to the UK -- or an English-language friendly part of the EU, like the Netherlands or maybe Berlin -- so that I can be with a lovely girl. Haven't even gotten to visas yet, but I am really really glad that I'm not trying to go the other way...)

Post reply on HN