I don't think anyone, red or blue or purple, really wants to stop skilled immigrants from coming to America. The debate is around those who are less skilled.
Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
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Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#22Trump's immigration policies are truly abhorrent. I agree with the article that tech doesn't work like a factory, it's people are not necessarily fungible. However, attracting the very best people is not how the H1B visa system is being (ab)used at the moment - for example the minimum wage was set back in 1989, and should be more like $130,000 in 2017, given inflation. So much as it pains me to agree on anything with…
Now, If we do set the minimum salary at that level SV will be just fine, but what about non-NYC or SV regions, who also have tech companies (believe it or not) and yet much lower income median. We will be embracing newcomers to only come to the coast, which is hardly Trump's point here.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#23For whatever reason, I think people just don't believe in this argument: that this entrepreneurial skill set is hard to find and that any country would be lucky to attract as much of it as it can.
Part of the reason is that it isn't a context free skill. The athlete analogy is effective here. You know that there are generally good athletes but you don't know which one will be LeBron. And general athletic ability doesn't translate to all sports (witness Jordan playing baseball or golf).
I wish there was a way to convince people who disagree but I really think they think this is just a cover for shipping in low paid workers.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#24Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#25I don't think anyone, red or blue or purple, really wants to stop skilled immigrants from coming to America. The debate is around those who are less skilled.
Steve Bannon does.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#26The immigration-related policies I've heard of were: * H1B wage increase: I heard a rumor somewhere that they were thinking about raising the minimum wage for either H1B visas or NAFTA jobs to $130k. That shouldn't affect the Googles and Apples of the world at all; if anything, it benefits them because it frees the slots the cheap H1B outsourcing firms are taking up, or removes competition from low-paying startups. *…
It was abrupt and it came from Trump. Those are the main reasons it's causing such a stir.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#27I don't think anyone, red or blue or purple, really wants to stop skilled immigrants from coming to America. The debate is around those who are less skilled.
If you are a skilled worker then you should probably think twice about it.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#28I'll take a stab at a response: - The argument against H1B isn't an argument against immigration or immigrants, it is an argument against corporate welfare. This pretty much negates all of the points the author makes (We all agree immigrants provide diversity, some are net positives on the economy, sometimes talent doesn't exist in the US, etc) - H1Bs aren't allowed to start companies, so this point is moot - It isn'…
> and those dollars in the economy are concentrated in hands of the very wealthy on the backs of immigrants.
You're very obviously wrong. The employees of Tesla and its suppliers will extract the extreme majority of all financial value from the existence of Tesla. If Tesla survives for 20 years, that tally will be in the multiple hundreds of billions. Elon Musk will end up owning a single digit percentage of that value creation. The same is true about nearly all successful corporations. Of all the financial value created by Google over its existence, Larry & Sergey (and the early Google investors, most of whom liquidated not long after the IPO) will end up having owned a tiny sliver of it.
Uber's drivers will extract the extreme majority of all financial value created by Uber. Over a 20 year span, that number will dwarf what Kalanick and Uber's investors extract. Further, Uber riders will derive a similarly extreme financial value over what Kalanick does, through convenience / time saved etc.
Good luck naming a company that isn't true for.
Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#29Re: Why Silicon Valley Wouldn't Work Without Immigrants
#30The immigration-related policies I've heard of were: * H1B wage increase: I heard a rumor somewhere that they were thinking about raising the minimum wage for either H1B visas or NAFTA jobs to $130k. That shouldn't affect the Googles and Apples of the world at all; if anything, it benefits them because it frees the slots the cheap H1B outsourcing firms are taking up, or removes competition from low-paying startups. *…
Iran is a huge bed for talent. As the article mentioned, 2 of the 3 people who created Google's Ad Services came from Iran, which came under the recent EO.
But in general it is the rise of anti-immigration sentiment, and the instability with respect to immigration.
There's the case of green cards for Indians and the Chinese. Under the current system, Indians and Chinese workers who start the process of getting a green card today must wait at least 13 years to get it. The prospect of working under a temporary visa for the best years of your life, always under the shadow of a change in administration or policy that uproots you and sends you back to your place of birth is likely to deter a lot of people, and might tempt them to move to Europe or Canada instead.
This is a lose-lose situation because these people don't get to work at the cutting edge of tech, and also the companies that desperately need bright minds lose out on them because they sensibly decided not to risk the US's broken immigration system.
This wasn't always the case, by the way. It's a pretty recent development over the last few years. Since green cards are allotted by place of birth and are a fixed number for every country, it is far easier for a person from Afghanistan to become a permanent resident than for an Indian.