Live data from Hacker News

A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

latimes.com

1–10 of 65 posts

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#2
And here we go again with H1Bs. Let me spare the discussion and give a numbered list of options to stick with - I propose everyone just writes his number in his comment.

1) H1Bs are both good and evil. We need reform.

2) US Government sucks. I'm skilled and cannot enter this country. Increase the quota.

3) Immigrants hurt local labor so much I can't stand it. Just throw them out.

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#3
As an Indian, I really really hope they ban Tata and Infosys (or any other Indian outsourcing company) from getting H1-B visas. The people they bring over are the bottom of the barrel in India and have no interest in Computer Science whatsoever. They suck at their jobs. They can't write a single paragraph in English without grammatical errors. Furthermore, incidents like these will perpetuate xenophobia against the general Indian populace (I already regularly encounter abuse where I live).

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#4
I agree that it's a loophole, although if it was closed, exactly the same number of jobs would be "lost", because there is a cap. The only difference is that different people would get the H-1B's, which would be good for other reasons.

There is an even bigger loophole in immigration law, which is that the government turns a blind eye to illegal immigration from Mexico. However saying so is considered "racist" since anti-racism is constructed to forbid comments about certain groups, and allow them about others.

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#5

As an Indian, I really really hope they ban Tata and Infosys (or any other Indian outsourcing company) from getting H1-B visas. The people they bring over are the bottom of the barrel in India and have no interest in Computer Science whatsoever. They suck at their jobs. They can't write a single paragraph in English without grammatical errors. Furthermore, incidents like these will perpetuate xenophobia against the g…

Nonsense. There are several Americans who are less skilled at the place I work. Xenophobia can't be stopped by Indians being better workers than locals. The article is about a loophole in law which any corporation would exploit, not just Tata and Infosys. My company (which is American) does it too, in way that isn't obvious. It makes zero sense to ban "any Indian outsourcing company"

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#6

As an Indian, I really really hope they ban Tata and Infosys (or any other Indian outsourcing company) from getting H1-B visas. The people they bring over are the bottom of the barrel in India and have no interest in Computer Science whatsoever. They suck at their jobs. They can't write a single paragraph in English without grammatical errors. Furthermore, incidents like these will perpetuate xenophobia against the g…

I had to clean up after the mess Infosys made of a client's code a few years ago. It was horrible. There were few comments, most of them made little sense, and the code was a spaghetti mess. A complete rewrite would have been cheaper in the long run. That said, I've seen code written by Americans that was just as bad. The bottom of the barrel anywhere isn't a good choice.

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#7
post #4

I agree that it's a loophole, although if it was closed, exactly the same number of jobs would be "lost", because there is a cap. The only difference is that different people would get the H-1B's, which would be good for other reasons. There is an even bigger loophole in immigration law, which is that the government turns a blind eye to illegal immigration from Mexico. However saying so is considered "racist" since a…

[deleted]

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#8
The problem with H1-B is that it is temporary in nature and the person gets booted from the country if fired. That depresses wages and is also fundamentally unfair to the immigrant.

H1-Bs should be converted into greencards after 3 years.

Also, anyone graduating from an America college should get a greencard.

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#9
post #4

I agree that it's a loophole, although if it was closed, exactly the same number of jobs would be "lost", because there is a cap. The only difference is that different people would get the H-1B's, which would be good for other reasons. There is an even bigger loophole in immigration law, which is that the government turns a blind eye to illegal immigration from Mexico. However saying so is considered "racist" since a…

It surprises me that liberals generally come down on the side unlimited illegal immigration when the people harmed most are marginalized poor workers who are overwhelmingly disadvantaged minorities themselves (lawful black and Hispanic residents).

Ironically, driving down the cost of labor is great for rich people who are generally conservative and oppose illegal immigration.

Re: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

#10
I believe having a large technically competent domestic work force is of strategic importance to any modern country. If jobs are outsourced to temporary residents, (especially as wage deflation and reverse discrimination starts occurring), less natives choose to enter the fields or otherwise obtain these skills.

They still give the sugar cane industry in Florida large subsidies (even though most sugar is from beets now) because sugar is apparently of such strategic importance to the US. Is one specific kind of sugar of more or less importance than a mass of domestic technical ability?

I'm waiting for the day in which societies realize that the importation of low cost labor produces short term benefits... and then much larger problems which last for a very long time.

(Edit) The problem (mostly) goes away if immigrants come to be permanent residents and have a stake in the system. I'm very much in favor of immigration/citizenship to the US of talented individuals. Nor are my points on strategic importance a long winded way of saying "they took er jurbs!".

Post reply on HN