Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trump changes plenty, in the past it was assumed that the USA would honor visa once they were issued, now it turns out not to be the case. Essentially this is breach of contract.
Yea but who will stop him?
We will.
How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
81–90 of 451 posts
Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
The H1B as it is has many problems, but a big salary floor is not the way to go in my opinion. Remember H1B is not just for tech workers. If you want to hire, say, an interpreter of a specific foreign language to work on a community in rural Alabama temporarily, a $100,000 minimum wage would be absurd. They instead need to go after the companies that learned to game the system. I'm not sure what the solution is here.…
Why would that be absurd? A highly specialized skill in an area that we can infer is generally less desirable to live should command a higher than average wage. Much higher if the situation is so desperate that a foreign worker has to be sought. Also: the majority (by far) of H1-B visas are for technology work. It may not technically be "tech only" but in practice it may as well be.
Have you been through rural Alabama? I suspect the point is less that it's undesirable to live there, than that a high salary for an interpreter simply isn't going to fit in the budget.
Why should Facebook's ad tech needs trump the needs of a poor refugee community? Budget size should not be the only virtue signal.
Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
The H1B as it is has many problems, but a big salary floor is not the way to go in my opinion. Remember H1B is not just for tech workers. If you want to hire, say, an interpreter of a specific foreign language to work on a community in rural Alabama temporarily, a $100,000 minimum wage would be absurd. They instead need to go after the companies that learned to game the system. I'm not sure what the solution is here.…
Why would that be absurd? A highly specialized skill in an area that we can infer is generally less desirable to live should command a higher than average wage. Much higher if the situation is so desperate that a foreign worker has to be sought. Also: the majority (by far) of H1-B visas are for technology work. It may not technically be "tech only" but in practice it may as well be.
I think one of the Dem senators had proposed a plan that had the floor relative to the location and the job, so in this case you'd have to offer 150-200% of what an Ethiopian translator in Alabama would recieve, before you'd be allowed to hire someone via a Visa. That general principal seems reasonable to me, and less Silicon Valley centric than just a flat floor at whatever they think is reasonable for a software dev.
Though obviously a single number is less work.
Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
The H1B as it is has many problems, but a big salary floor is not the way to go in my opinion. Remember H1B is not just for tech workers. If you want to hire, say, an interpreter of a specific foreign language to work on a community in rural Alabama temporarily, a $100,000 minimum wage would be absurd. They instead need to go after the companies that learned to game the system. I'm not sure what the solution is here.…
If the supply of those interpreters is so limited that you have to go outside of the U.S. to find them, then doesn't supply /demand indicate that they should have a high salary?
No. Supply has a geographic component. They may be very rare in the US, but very common overseas. For example, there may not be many people currently in the United States who are fluent in Northern Kurdish, but there are millions of capable applicants available in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Supply will have an impact on the salary, of course. But in the absence of regulation, it will only be what the native Kurdish speaker would typically earn in their home country plus a some amount for the travel requirement.
Edit: This is how H1Bs should operate according to their stated purpose. edge17's link to http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2017-H1B-Visa-Category.asp... shows that it's not being used in this way at all.
Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Considering the number of SV companies founded by immigrants, we would have to look to decades, not years, to see the effects of this policy. If the policy is wrong, it will be far too late to fix it once the results are clear. Foreign founders would simply go back to their home countries (or more reasonable alternatives, like Canada or Germany), and work in startup clusters there. In about 20 years, I predict the Si…
> Considering the number of SV companies founded by immigrants, we would have to look to decades, not years, to see the effects of this policy. So, in other words it will be insignificant? > If the policy is wrong, it will be far too late to fix it once the results are clear. Foreign founders would simply go back to their home countries (or more reasonable alternatives, like Canada or Germany), and work in startup cl…
A historic example: when the Romans' olive groves were burned down by invaders, the Roman Empire was good as gone. Olives were a major source of revenue for the empire and they only produce fruit after several years. That didn't destroy the empire immediately but they never recovered.
We won't lose the next Uber or Snapchat. We will lose the next Apple or Microsoft.
Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#86Immigration has been uncertain for a long time. YCombinator founders have been working on their startups on 3-month visitor visas. Top graduate students can stay in the US for a year, then they need to enter a lottery to be allowed to stay for another few years. Trump changes barely anything. Unpaywalled: http://archive.is/BHfyN
Trump changes plenty, in the past it was assumed that the USA would honor visa once they were issued, now it turns out not to be the case. Essentially this is breach of contract.
> Look at the way the Chinese do it. When they have friends they make sure that they are a friend for a long time and they make sure you know it. And there is no doubt about their intent and their ability to sustain a policy over many General Secretaries. They consider it an advantage they have over you. Each time a new team takes over, there is continuity, if they need to adjust, they adjust, but they do not start from scratch and have a new learning curve each time. If America is not able to play the same game in the same league, then your friends will say, I want to be friends with the US but to what extent can I depend on the US?
http://www.pmo.gov.sg/newsroom/pm-lee-hsien-loongs-interview...
Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
The H1B as it is has many problems, but a big salary floor is not the way to go in my opinion. Remember H1B is not just for tech workers. If you want to hire, say, an interpreter of a specific foreign language to work on a community in rural Alabama temporarily, a $100,000 minimum wage would be absurd. They instead need to go after the companies that learned to game the system. I'm not sure what the solution is here.…
If the supply of those interpreters is so limited that you have to go outside of the U.S. to find them, then doesn't supply /demand indicate that they should have a high salary?
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Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#88Americas "tech dominance" threatens the breadbasket.
The coastal areas, mostly certain cities, have become "international" and any worker from a rural area who wants to earn a living wage doing a technical job (e.g. STEM) now not only has to compete with other Americans, but everyone in the world.
What exactly do the elites expect people in the breadbasket to do? If America is an international country then we're going to see wealth distribution change. The coastal tech cities may accumulate all the money and have an average wage of $100,000, some of the highest wages in the world, but the inverse will happen to the rest of America. If you aren't in a tech city near the coast you're going to be on the lowest rung, not in America, but internationally. Think about the poorest communities in the world, and as the poor of America merge and become the international poor, we'll see incomes fall to well below poverty levels. Some of the lowest wages in the world.
Look at China, they already have a similar situation where all their wealth is accumulated in their big international cities.
Let China become the world international tech center. Their "breadbasket" is already use to being poor.
The thing about these tech centers is that they are international, it doesn't matter where they are.
As long as the rural areas get a vote and as long as the coastal areas continue to concentrate all wealth in smaller and smaller areas, the more we will see people like Trump get elected. Corporate tech-elitists living on the coast are in a huge cultural bubble. All of our news and media come from these areas too btw.
What I think would really help America (and the world by proxy) is if for every immigrant a tech company imports, they must hire two rural American workers from a community that's average income is less than the national median.
Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#89Things that a student coming to US faces from a developing or under-developed country: 1. Undergo TOEFL and GRE and apply to various universities 2. Save up enough money or even mortgage parents property to pay for tuition and even buy flight tickets 3. Adapt to a new culture, study hard while working part time 4. Finding a job (While its definitely easy for a CS graduate its not the same for other majors) but yet, c…
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Re: How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Dominance
#90Wherever there are big risks there are also great opportunities.
As a Canadian, I wonder how/if Canada can benefit from Trump's lack of vision.
We already have the same time zone, language, almost same culture, similar economic regulations, tight economic integration with the US, a very skilled and educated workforce, some good centers of technological excellence and an immigration policy regarded as the best in the world.
If only we could convince more American companies to open branches in southern BC, Ontario and Quebec...