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Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

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

#101

Post by refurb »

disbelief wrote: post #96
pekk wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Countries in the EU (and elsewhere) have more sane immigration systems. As a Canadian having immigrated to both Germany and the US, I can say that the US system is at least two orders of magnitude more difficult, costly, needlessly complicated, and in the end a lot of it comes down to luck (most of it bad). Germany has no lottery system, and renewal is very straightforward. I applied for my visa while in Germany as a…

One reason why non-American countries have "easier" immigration systems is often demand related. Your example "H1-B lottery" is precisely demand related.

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

#102

Post by scotth »

afafsd wrote: post #86
exstudent wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Whom should you select to let into your country? The same people you select as employees, only more so. We use "skilled migration" as a proxy for what we really want, which is people with good genes . If you have skills and good genes then you'll enrich the country not only in this generation but in all future generations to come. So an ideal immigration policy would involve some combination of testing for intelligen…

Pfffft

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

#103

Post by enraged_camel »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #91
enraged_camel wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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.

I'm really not sure if you trying to scare people off or are really serious. Po's law is confusing me now. Spring and fall are really nice in Seattle, Summer is to. It is just the start of November until around March where the rain rolls in...why don't you just look at the statistics, the numbers don't lie: http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/U... and more about humidity: http://www.komonews.co…

Of course I'm serious. The weather in Seattle is so bad that Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) is a very common phenomenon. That's right: people get depressed because of the dark, wet and dreary weather there. I think that fact alone speaks for itself.

As icing on the cake, your "the more people who don't want to live in Seattle, the better" attitude is yet another reason not to live there. Basically a form of "just leave me alone!" syndrome. They call it Seattle Freeze. You can look it up if you haven't heard of it before (although that's unlikely).

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

#104

Post by disbelief »

refurb wrote: post #101
disbelief wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Countries in the EU (and elsewhere) have more sane immigration systems. As a Canadian having immigrated to both Germany and the US, I can say that the US system is at least two orders of magnitude more difficult, costly, needlessly complicated, and in the end a lot of it comes down to luck (most of it bad). Germany has no lottery system, and renewal is very straightforward. I applied for my visa while in Germany as a…

One reason why non-American countries have "easier" immigration systems is often demand related. Your example "H1-B lottery" is precisely demand related.

Trust me, EU countries have their own immigration demand problems. Especially a place like Germany which has one of the few functioning economies in the block lately. People flock there looking for work. Other countries with huge immigration demand include England and Spain. There are simply better ways of dealing with high immigration demand than "dump everyone into a pot regardless of education/experience/viability/urgency and randomly select a few".

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

#105

Post by girvo »

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?

Because the USA's system is incredibly byzantine and Kafkaesque compared to the EU's. I mean, a lottery for christ's sake... In my experience, getting visas for most other comparable countries are fairly straightforward.

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

#106

Post by moogoo »

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…

Sorry no empathy. I have no degree and could have the same job and do just as well or better. Better luck next time.

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

#107

Post by moogoo »

paul wrote: post #15

I think if we ever start a second YC location, this will be the reason -- to help founders who are unable to get past the US immigration system. It's unfortunate that our government is becoming increasingly dysfunctional at every level -- federal, state, and local governments are all failing to do their jobs. I'm glad that Canada is introducing some competitive pressure.

Unfortunately Paul you are just as engaged in wage suppression as the rest of the valley. There's no specific talent you need outside of the US. Its what your willing to pay you have a problem with.

And for that reason you are a cancer.

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

#108

Post by patmcguire »

"B.C. boasts more than 600 digital media companies, employing about 16,000 people and generating $2.3 billion in annual sales, according to the commission"

While $2 billion is obviously a lot of money in real terms, think about what that is when you compare is to the collective revenues of Bay Area tech companies.

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

#109

Post by seanmcdirmid »

enraged_camel wrote: post #103
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really not sure if you trying to scare people off or are really serious. Po's law is confusing me now. Spring and fall are really nice in Seattle, Summer is to. It is just the start of November until around March where the rain rolls in...why don't you just look at the statistics, the numbers don't lie: http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/U... and more about humidity: http://www.komonews.co…

Of course I'm serious. The weather in Seattle is so bad that Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) is a very common phenomenon. That's right: people get depressed because of the dark, wet and dreary weather there. I think that fact alone speaks for itself. As icing on the cake, your "the more people who don't want to live in Seattle, the better" attitude is yet another reason not to live there. Basically a form of "just l…

You are exaggerating, if you just look at the charts, rain falls off from January and is quite reasonable by late March/April. It doesn't really pick up until November. So you are talking about around 3.5 months, and anyone from Fairbanks would tell you "that is nothing."

There is a big problem with sun drenched Californians coming in with bay area equity, driving up real estate in Seattle, and road raging around with their "got to get somewhere quickly" attitudes. Locals don't appreciate it, and it has been that way since the 90s at least.

Its not "just leave me alone" but its more like "losing you is no big loss to us." I've lived in the Bay Area and found it quite inferior: bad traffic, bad air, lack of weather diversity (kind of sunny all the time, at least south of the city). But whatever, we all have our preferences.

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

#110

Post by _delirium »

blutoot wrote: post #78
_delirium wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think "overnight replacements" are a good way to improve immigration; a series of quick hacks is largely what got us into the current mess.

As for a specific replacement, I'd support a Canada-style non-sponsorship-based points system. Although I think there is something to be said for just randomness as well, such as expanding the Green Card lottery. Many of the immigrants who made large contributions to U.S. society/economy did not come in already highly educated/skilled, so I'm not sure it's a long-term advantage to restrict immigration to primarily people with strong pre-immigration skills/credentials. Short-term yes, since it fills shortages in areas of the economy, and I think a points system is a good way of handling that without the unsavory employer-tied aspect. But longer-term the "American dream" idea is that people should be able to gain those skills after immigrating; you can come in without already being the kind of person who can command six-figure job offers, and work your way up. Historically that's where a lot of the benefits of immigration have come from.

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