Tech Worker Shortage Doesn't Really Exist

[BridgeTroll]

Sounds anti immigration to me... 

H-1B visa holders aren't immigrants.

Exactly.  Why let highly skilled, motivated, documented workers immigrate when we can have alllll the unskilled, undocumented workers we can handle?

[finehoe]

Good thing illegal immigration from Mexico is at net zero.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/01/03/mexican-immigration-richard-miles/21056155/

[BridgeTroll]

Good thing illegal immigration from Mexico is at net zero.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/01/03/mexican-immigration-richard-miles/21056155/

I take no issue with the number of immigrants crossing our border... my issue is the "undocumented/illegal" part.  Clearly if we can document and track H1-B temporary skilled workers... we are fully capable of doing the same for the unskilled... thus making it "documented/legal" immigration.  It is simply a matter of will... and of course ideology. 

[JaxNole]

In our little IT world in Jacksonville, I have worked as an analyst and developer for large enterprises (all F500), and the displacement of American citizens by H1-B resources is staggering. Colleagues complain about difficulty in understanding accents, different cultures, and work ethic. Those are the same who have never traveled outside the South and produce "good enough" work product to retain their jobs...until the visa workers demonstrate superior capabilities.

What isn't apparent by these reports is the long list of vacancies that are so highly specialized, that only the likes of Google, Apple, and Amazon have secured prospectives Jacksonville seeks. There are pseudo-data scientists and then there are Data Scientists, for example. You will find the former here and the latter where phenomenal talent attracts the same caliber.

[finehoe]

Clearly if we can document and track H1-B temporary skilled workers... we are fully capable of doing the same for the unskilled... thus making it "documented/legal" immigration.  It is simply a matter of will... and of course ideology.

Yes, because tracking tech employees who are brought over by their employers is just like tracking agricultural workers who slip over the border themselves.

[BridgeTroll]

Clearly if we can document and track H1-B temporary skilled workers... we are fully capable of doing the same for the unskilled... thus making it "documented/legal" immigration.  It is simply a matter of will... and of course ideology.

Yes, because tracking tech employees who are brought over by their employers is just like tracking agricultural workers who slip over the border themselves.

And there is the ideology shining through.  So... monitor and track the law abiding highly skilled temporary worker and ignore and even encourage the unskilled who sneak across the border?  Complain about highly skilled, law abiding, tax paying temporary workers... lol.  I get it they are taking educated millennial jobs.  No worries about the unskilled Americans who are losing jobs to unskilled, undocumented, unregulated, migration... awwwwww.  Funny how it is racist when some people want to regulate immigration across the board but NOT racist when they complain about skilled labor from asia...

[BridgeTroll]

A Huffpo exclusive...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ash-murthy/immigration-reform_b_5052006.html

Ash Murthy, a Silicon Valley based software engineer, is interested in criminal justice.

My Life as a 'Highly Skilled' Immigrant

Posted:  03/28/2014 5:22 pm EDT    Updated:  05/28/2014 5:59 am EDT

One August morning many years ago, I found myself starry eyed and jet lagged at the Los Angeles International airport. In search of the American Dream, I had come halfway around the planet to pursue graduate studies in computer science at the University of Southern California.

My earliest memories of the United States are of newfound friends asking me about the movie Slumdog Millionaire and arousing laughter when I referred to an eraser as a 'rubber.' In about a year, America was no longer a foreign place but the country I call home, the nation I want to contribute to.

Little did I then know that the green pastures are not so green, at least not without a green card. I would soon be on a work visa (H1), joining hands with over a million engineers, scientists and doctors living as second class citizens, thanks to our broken immigration system.

I soon graduated with flying colors and applied for jobs across the country. After a rigorous interview process, I was offered a spot at a search engine company with an acceptance rate of less than 0.5%. Excited about working with the best engineers I accepted the offer, and over the years have built a career as a software developer.

On the surface, I've created a good life and lived the American dream. But in reality, thanks to the immigration limbo and the endless wait for green cards, I live a different kind of life -- the life of an indentured servant. I cannot change employers or quit my job (to start a startup or go back to school). And if I ever get fired, guess what? Leaving family, friends and everything else behind, I would be tossed out of the country, like an empty beer bottle tossed into the trash can, that very day. Spouses of skilled immigrants face an even tougher life -- despite being well qualified, they cannot work or even have a credit card in their names. Denied every opportunity to be productive citizens and virtually confined within the four walls of their house, they lose their self esteem and end up in a state of depression.

Like any other patriotic American, I take great pride in serving my country. A few months after graduating from grad school, I had a chat with a local Army recruiter about volunteering in the Reserves. The recruiter was very excited about my skills -- foreign languages and engineering prowess. When asked about my green card, I said I was on a work-visa and was waiting "in line" for a green card.

I vividly remember the instantaneous change on his face, from excitement to disappointment, as if our conversation took place yesterday. It turned out that as an ALIEN (Yes, that is exactly what I am called as though I am from Mars) I cannot serve my country. Even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn't think of me as one of its own.

In the age of globalization, we need to attract and retain the best and brightest to remain competitive. A Duke university study found that foreign born inventors have been credited to about 75 percent of patent applications filed by the top research universities, and another study by Kauffman foundation found that about 25 percent of engineering and technology firms have a foreign born founder. In the US, almost half of STEM graduate students are foreign born, but dejected at their lives as second class citizens during the decades long wait for green card and the plethora of problems the H1b's face in their day to day life (from renewing a drivers license to buying a house), many of these American trained engineers and scientists return to their native countries and end up competing against the American economy -- a phenomena named as 'reverse brain drain' by Duke University researcher, Vivek Wadhwa.

The effects of the reverse brain drain are significant. A 2009 study by Technology Policy Institute found that in the absence of reverse brain drain and other barriers against retaining brainpower, the annual GDP will be raised by 13 billion.

Both Democrats and Republicans agree on the need for immigration reform, and its imperativeness to our economic health. Yet, immigration reform has been stalled in the House of Representatives. Why does Speaker Boehner think that maintaining status quo -- millions contributing to an underground economy, while we train the best and brightest to work for our competitors -- is good policy? It is time for our politicians to put aside petty politics and come together to act on immigration reform. Til then, I will serve my country by advocating for immigration reform.

[BridgeTroll]

Sign the petition...

http://www.petition2congress.com/3284/ease-green-card-backlogs-highly-skilled-employment-based-immigran

[BridgeTroll]

Holy smokes... more from Huffpo...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/herbie-ziskend/green-card-recapture_b_6984076.html

Herbie Ziskend

This Single Reform Would Improve the U.S. Immigration System and Grow the Economy

Posted:  04/01/2015 9:06 am EDT    Updated:  06/01/2015 5:59 am EDT

Tucked away in the Senate's bipartisan, immigration reform legislation of 2013 was an obscure provision referred to as "recapture." The measure, which directs the State Department to allocate unused visas that failed to be issued due to bureaucratic shortcomings from 1992-2013, would help clear the green card backlog and result in roughly 200,000 -- 250,000 immigrant workers and spouses receiving permanent residency.

Recapturing would quickly provide economic stimulus as talented immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators receive the flexibility associated with green cards, reunite thousands of families who are separated as a result of backlog, and represent real reform to the legal immigration system. The White House is currently reviewing whether the President has existing authority to execute recapture policy absent congressional action -- and there is a strong case that he does.

But Congress ought to step up and pass this provision on its own.

Unlike other components of comprehensive immigration, such as high-skilled reform, which could not pass as standalone bills given the vexing politics of the issue, recapturing unused green cards would not dim the prospects of a larger immigration overhaul. The concept is heavily favored by the business and startup communities and generally supported by labor and religious constituencies (the politics of green cards are less controversial than H-1Bs). President Clinton in 2000 and President George W Bush in 2005 signed into law legislation that included recapturing employment-based immigrant visa numbers.

Most House Republicans are intransigent when it comes to considering comprehensive immigration reform at least until President Obama leaves office -- and recapture would by no means serve as a replacement for reform that addresses the millions of undocumented workers and their families currently in the country, high-skill visas writ large, border security, among other fixes to a broken system -- but that should not preclude Congress from adopting a provision similar to the one included in the Senate's 2013 legislation. Especially when the result is stronger economic competitiveness and reunited families.

For some background: during the second half of the 20th century, two of the country's signature immigration overhauls -- the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and its modified version, the 1990 Immigration Act -- expressly permitted the recapture of unused visas in a given year. Following implementation of the 1990 Act, bureaucratic processing delays, inaccurate workflow predictions, and lack of staffing at the three federal agencies that play a role adjudicating lead to the failure of allocating hundreds of thousands of immigrant visas. As a result, legal immigrants have had to wait years to obtain green cards and are restricted in their ability to change jobs or launch new businesses while family members are separated from one another for longer periods of time.

When President Obama announced his executive action giving unauthorized immigrants protection from deportation in November of 2014, the White House also announced that it would work with agencies to explore how to improve the visa process for legal immigration, including on the issue of recapture. The Administration, in consultation with State and the Department of Homeland Security, may arrive at the conclusion that the President has authority to enact recapture policy on his own, given congressional intent in previous legislation and precedent for the Executive Branch utilizing similar powers in the past. But Congress can ensure there is no question if they send a bill to the President's desk.

Through the course of history immigrants have contributed substantially to U.S. economic growth and entrepreneurship. Around 40% of Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrations or their children and 25% of high-tech firms created since 1995 were started by immigrants, employing 450,000 people and doing $50 billion in sales. According to the Kauffman Foundation, nearly all net-new job creation in the U.S. is produced by startups -- and from U.S. Steel to Google to Chobani Yogurt, immigrants have founded some of the most noteworthy. In 2011, nearly two-thirds of electrical engineering Ph.D and Masters degrees in the U.S. went to foreign nationals. But without a green card, immigrant workers -- and American-educated immigrant graduates -- do not have the flexibility to move between established firms or launch startups. Meanwhile large enterprises face increasing difficulty hiring talented immigrants due to visa challenges, just as many of their competitors abroad contend with no such legal hurdles.

Today is April 1st, the start date for accepting H-1B visa petitions for the next fiscal year. It's also a date that reminds us why it is so critical to pass immigration reform. Recapturing 200,000-250,000 unused green cards is no substitute for a comprehensive overhaul, but for families, businesses, and entrepreneurs it would represent a meaningful step forward.

[finehoe]

Clearly if we can document and track H1-B temporary skilled workers... we are fully capable of doing the same for the unskilled... thus making it "documented/legal" immigration.  It is simply a matter of will... and of course ideology.

Yes, because tracking tech employees who are brought over by their employers is just like tracking agricultural workers who slip over the border themselves.

And there is the ideology shining through.  So... monitor and track the law abiding highly skilled temporary worker and ignore and even encourage the unskilled who sneak across the border?  Complain about highly skilled, law abiding, tax paying temporary workers... lol.  I get it they are taking educated millennial jobs.  No worries about the unskilled Americans who are losing jobs to unskilled, undocumented, unregulated, migration... awwwwww.  Funny how it is racist when some people want to regulate immigration across the board but NOT racist when they complain about skilled labor from asia...

Jeez, talk about missing the point...