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Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

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Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#41
post #31

As usual, these rants treat "Silicon Valley" as a single entity. http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2016-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx There are some companies that underpay, while other pay quite well. Conflating the two is like throwing out the baby with the bath water.

The statistical expectation from the dataset that you link to is $86,328.67 [1]. I no nothing about US salaries, but I don't consider this value a competitive salary. Therefore, I believe the premise of the article is statically correct. Citing a few example with large salaries (Apple, Google, ...) is misleading.

1- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f0iZ7VZkA7Th2dCE6rgD...

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're ignoring the fact the US already produces a surplus of skilled and qualified STEM professionals. Freedom of labor movement is a nice–to–have, but not some ideological priority that must be placed above all other considerations. The size of the pool of human capital is irrelevant if there simply aren't enough jobs on offer. The government of a country should be first and foremost advocates for, and protectors o…

They are not theoretical, free-market niceties when you have lived abroad for 6 years. Or when your parents are both from different countries. Or when your grandparent immigrated out of the U.S. to live 2/3rds of his life in the country you were born in and never encountered this level of pushback. There is a lot to be said for making welfare systems work together with immigration. But putting "fellow citizens" above…

The problem there is the propensity for foreigners, well-educated in the back-assward ways of their country of origin, to come to America, ostensibly to partake in our, in some way measurably superior economy and culture, then expect to introduce their back-asswards ways here and expect those ways to be successful, then when they find out we think their entire country is as back-asswards as they are and refuse to put up with it, perhaps through inducing some event they might find traumatic like a firing, arrest, restraining order, and so forth, they want laws made to make everyone here back-asswards, because it's easier for them.

When your immigration laws have a high standard of entry and you tell people, even en masse, "we lowered on this item this one time", then our expectations are stated and that creates the viewpoint that they need to assume their ways might be back-asswards. When immigration laws are as lax as ours, who can blame foreigners for being obstinate about coming here an us not adopting to their expectations? After all, when you give them welfare, you're paying them to do as such.

You need to have a system in place to appropriately assess and adopt new cultural norms. Frankly, racism and bigotry has proven to do this nicely, although if you have suggestions on how we might do it better I'm all ears. Removing racism and bigotry, on the other hand, well that has had some seriously detrimental effects on our society.

Right now, you've got 5% to 15% of the population in the US living here without seeking citizenship, and this is causing a demographic shift. The indigenous population, through feminism and marxist ideology, is being set up for a fall; look at marriage rates and the resulting reproduction rates of whites and blacks. They know it, and they've quite clearly voiced their intent to take the moral high ground and resolve those issues in a peaceful manner through civil means like deportations.

If America really went Nazi Germany, we'd carpet nuke China and India, then tell the rest of the world "we solved the carbon emissions problem!". Then we'd invade Mexico, flatten the country, and promptly announce "THE WAR ON DRUGS IS WON!" and nuke Mecca pronouncing "ISLAMIC TERRORISM SOLVED" and other such nonsense. Really, what we're doing is very civilized. The foreigners even know there's plenty of time to propose a mutually beneficial solution, or simply leave on their own accord, before they're forced to leave.

Obviously, the foreigners that are here are not happy with the situation they and their back-asswards ways have placed them into. Frankly, a lot of people here feel as though foreigners are coming here instead of fixing problems in their own countries. Mexicans voted for Trump because they can clearly see, now 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants, how messed up Mexico is.

Now you continue to fan the flames of cultural warfare, and say things like "we're going to out-breed whitey" or simply repeat the same high-and-mighty drivel the American media monopoly has pushed out for the last several decades. That pushes things towards not being civilized and creates incentives for biblical extermination events. Nobody views that as reasonable right now, but if people act like cock roaches, then there's only one way to reasonably handle that situation. I'd really like to think we're beyond that one as a world, but in 2017, there's still mass graves and still stupidity going on. We need a fresh take on the entire discussion, one that provides dignity for all parties.

And you can talk about "borders are imaginary lines" all you want; everyone in IT has this mightier-than-thou notion, still high off of the 80's "I HAS A MODEM AND CAN TALK TO JAPAN, I'M SO CLASSY, ENTIRE WORLD IS HUMAN, KUMBIYAH" stupidity, they fail to see the point of borders. Fact is, there are irreconcilable differences in culture, language, religion, beliefs and economies and it's an extraordinarily good thing that these borders exist. We get a bunch of little social experiments that sometimes take decades to play out fully. Some experiments are extremely successful like America. Others countries, well, not so much. And there are reasons for that; technology can gloss over a lot of societal problems, e.g. the availability of hard liquor in the late 1800's. Globalism has largely been used to institute wage arbitrage, not the uplift the world as a whole, and you need to live in a bubble with a head full of cognitive pollution not to see that clearly.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#43
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people born inside the imaginary lines of my country more important to help than those born outside of it? Someone from Bangladesh or Mexico is not a fellow citizen of my country, but they are a fellow citizen of my world. Why should the smaller and more arbitrary geographical division come first? You can talk about culture, but I'm sure I have more in common culturally with a phd student or entrepreneur in D…

Because being born inside those imaginary lines means people pay ($ + other) and therefore expect the group they contribute to to put them ahead of an outsider.

That doesn't follow. My friends who are not US citizens and are here on H-1B visas (and have similar jobs as I do) pay significantly more in taxes than I do. And many of the programs those taxes pay into (like Social Security) are closed to them because they're non-citizens.

Given that many US citizens don't start paying much if anything in the way of taxes until post-education (18-22), a non-citizen coming to the US right after college will be paying roughly the same.

But ok, let's say that's not persuasive. I was born in New Jersey, and grew up in Maryland. I moved to California when I was 23 to start working. My family had of course never paid CA state taxes. Should CA have placed artificial "preferences" on workers who were born in CA, preferences that would have put me at the bottom of the hiring pile? Should I have been excluded from a job because other Californians were unemployed at the time? If that sounds ridiculous, then applying the same reasoning to a non-citizen sounds just about as ridiculous.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're ignoring the fact the US already produces a surplus of skilled and qualified STEM professionals. Freedom of labor movement is a nice–to–have, but not some ideological priority that must be placed above all other considerations. The size of the pool of human capital is irrelevant if there simply aren't enough jobs on offer. The government of a country should be first and foremost advocates for, and protectors o…

Why are people born inside the imaginary lines of my country more important to help than those born outside of it? Someone from Bangladesh or Mexico is not a fellow citizen of my country, but they are a fellow citizen of my world. Why should the smaller and more arbitrary geographical division come first? You can talk about culture, but I'm sure I have more in common culturally with a phd student or entrepreneur in D…

I find it interesting that the "American first" crowd tends to donate more to the overseas needy than the "citizens of the world" crowd.

excluding a few billionaires who really do believe in helping others.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#45

The problem with suggesting that the salary bar be set at the median of the lifetime salary, is that it does mean closing the door to current international students in the U.S., and to recent graduates recruited from universities abroad. The minimum bar for an immigrant should not be that they are better than half the people already employed here in their field, regardless of their stage in life. And, of course, most…

You're ignoring the fact the US already produces a surplus of skilled and qualified STEM professionals. Freedom of labor movement is a nice–to–have, but not some ideological priority that must be placed above all other considerations. The size of the pool of human capital is irrelevant if there simply aren't enough jobs on offer. The government of a country should be first and foremost advocates for, and protectors o…

> You're ignoring the fact the US already produces a surplus of skilled and qualified STEM professionals.

That may be true, but we're hardly a homogeneous group. There certainly isn't a surplus of skilled and qualified professionals from my subgroup of STEM. And I suspect that's the one where most H-1B visa holders end up in.

Not saying the system isn't abused: oh sweet jesus, it most certainly is. But throwing it out or reducing the caps isn't the answer. Removing all the perverse incentives and the ability of employers to use their employees' visa status as a pair of handcuffs... now that'll help.

> The government of a country should be first and foremost advocates for, and protectors of, the welfare of its own citizens. If a large number of those citizens are being encouraged to accumulate massive debts gaining an education that them leaves them unable to find a job, then that is a social problem that needs a solution.

Why are they unable to find a job?

Are they less skilled and capable than a foreign worker? If so, then the foreign worker should get the job. I care about our country's competitiveness in the science and technology landscape. If we can entice people smarter than us to come here and help make us smarter, that's the right move.

Are foreign workers willing to work for less? Well then perhaps these citizens should suck it up and be willing to work for less as well. Or maybe they shouldn't get into a field with questionable job prospects in the first place. Four years isn't a very long time; the landscape doesn't change that much, and even if it does, changing majors/fields/etc. midway through isn't that hard (and even if it is, we're talking about your job prospects for the rest of your life; that sort of thing is good motivation to take on something hard).

I want the best people here. Period. I don't care where they are from. Protectionism will just make us less competitive globally, and will move cutting-edge research and development to countries with more permissive immigration policies. We're already losing our status as the global superpower, and kicking out qualified immigrants will only hasten that decline.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not theoretical, free-market niceties when you have lived abroad for 6 years. Or when your parents are both from different countries. Or when your grandparent immigrated out of the U.S. to live 2/3rds of his life in the country you were born in and never encountered this level of pushback. There is a lot to be said for making welfare systems work together with immigration. But putting "fellow citizens" above…

The problem there is the propensity for foreigners, well-educated in the back-assward ways of their country of origin, to come to America, ostensibly to partake in our, in some way measurably superior economy and culture, then expect to introduce their back-asswards ways here and expect those ways to be successful, then when they find out we think their entire country is as back-asswards as they are and refuse to put…

Admittedly, I don't think there is anything I could reply that will change such a radicalized worldview. But I am going to state three facts: a) my grandfather immigrated from the U.S. to Mexico, brought the best of his ways with him and adopted the best of ours and was quite successful with that (as are many that make the opposite trip), he ran to Mexico after spending 4 years of so in the U.S. navy at war with people who think much as you do now, b) if you think that the reason Mexico is fucked up is 'backward culture' and not centuries of white colonialism and post-colonial exploitation, I should recommend you read a history book, c) if you carpet nuke China or India, they will nuke right back at you, the U.S. can't conquer the world any more than Nazi Germany could.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're ignoring the fact the US already produces a surplus of skilled and qualified STEM professionals. Freedom of labor movement is a nice–to–have, but not some ideological priority that must be placed above all other considerations. The size of the pool of human capital is irrelevant if there simply aren't enough jobs on offer. The government of a country should be first and foremost advocates for, and protectors o…

They are not theoretical, free-market niceties when you have lived abroad for 6 years. Or when your parents are both from different countries. Or when your grandparent immigrated out of the U.S. to live 2/3rds of his life in the country you were born in and never encountered this level of pushback. There is a lot to be said for making welfare systems work together with immigration. But putting "fellow citizens" above…

But they are theoretical free-market niceties when you are a minority that has a low chance of getting a job in tech because companies would rather import cheap foreigners rather than work on building up a domestic workforce. The same goes for if you are a poor white person in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, the same people driving these conditions would also use the results of this to drive the two groups against each other for ideological reasons that are seen as good.

The US is a nation of immigrants. Nobody should deny that. But when workers inside a nation are negatively affected because companies would rather source cheap labor, there's a problem. A country's job first and foremost is to protect the rights of its citizens.

They exist because S.V. software is used across global markets, so if protectionism for labor is ok as long as it helps your citizens, then I assume the same is true for trade protectionism or Internet 'great firewalls'?

No, they exist because software is used across the world. Presumably if we weren't artificially manipulating labor, it'd help the domestic industries of many countries. To your second comment, IP, labor and capital have always been separated. You are directly conflating physical and virtual goods and that would not hold up in an other discussion in this industry.

You can make this into some kind of indignant us vs them thing but I assure you there are a lot of people who care about the rights of workers everywhere and the current situation clearly has detrimental aspects.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#48
post #22

if companies was only after cheap labor, why not move software production overseas? it's not like officespace is cheaper in the valley than in ex. India.....don't think this article makes a whole lot of sense tbh

Because being in the Valley is magical for your company, or something.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#49
I'm glad that here the comments section is not full of Trump trolls like it is in huffingtonpost. First it's true that HB1 visa holder are not free agent and can't contest for the best wages. But I trully don't understand how can ANYBODY say that, tech in general is NOT in shortage of ingineers. Median wage in SF for dev is around 110 000. But even outside SF buble it's around 70 000$. With no downward pressure, How can you complain that foreign worker is taking your job?

Re: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas to Pay Low Wages to Immigrants

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem there is the propensity for foreigners, well-educated in the back-assward ways of their country of origin, to come to America, ostensibly to partake in our, in some way measurably superior economy and culture, then expect to introduce their back-asswards ways here and expect those ways to be successful, then when they find out we think their entire country is as back-asswards as they are and refuse to put…

Admittedly, I don't think there is anything I could reply that will change such a radicalized worldview. But I am going to state three facts: a) my grandfather immigrated from the U.S. to Mexico, brought the best of his ways with him and adopted the best of ours and was quite successful with that (as are many that make the opposite trip), he ran to Mexico after spending 4 years of so in the U.S. navy at war with peop…

America was once a white colony; your argument is factually flawed because you are stuck in the "might makes right" mentality of natural selection. Whenever resources get scarce, nature basically determines anything goes and the strongest survive. In that mentality you believe whatever you want to believe, or whatever is the most convenient to believe, as an instinctual response; effectively because of the context of the situation any action can be rationalized as moral or justified even though it is horribly sub-optimal. If you'd like I could continue this discussion with you, and we can exchange a rich dialogue involving centuries of accumulated racial slurs and stereotypes, and much like masturbation, exhaust ourselves with little actual reward. That would obviously, not be a novel approach.

There was a really awesome article on HN awhile ago describing the disconnect we're having. I suggest you read it and approach the immigration discussion as an engineering problem:

http://thefutureprimaeval.net/the-overton-bubble/

View this as an engineering problem; You are blinding yourself to finding a more optimal (we'll use the metric of dignified solution for all involved) by not fully understanding the entire problem at hand. Seek to understand the other parties viewpoint. Assume any solution to the engineering problem that results in a loss of life as sub-optimal and any solution that is not executed on a timely basis results in loss of life. Assume you and your current viewpoints are irrelevant, and any ancillary metrics such as "I want a big house and a big family" might also be impossible with a fully optimal solution.

It's only when everyone recognized the severity of the problem that any good will can be generated, and that good will is necessary for discovering the problems might not be so unsolvable after-all. But if you're stuck believing whatever you want to believe, well.

This post is going to be a great test of HN's scoring system I'll tell you that, the bias should go all over the place.

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